How an unregistered business can sell on Amazon 

Amazon is one of the largest online marketplaces in the world to sell and buy products. Amazon India was launched in 2013 and has been committed to continuously sell quality products and promote reliable sellers through its platform. Amazon has helped businesses of all types to reach a larger audience, improve their sales performance and open new business avenues. 

Why should unregistered businesses sell on Amazon?

Amazon is an easily accessible and well-established e-commerce platform where all types of businesses can establish a pan-India reach. Amazon offers a wide range of product categories that can be both sold and purchased. There are numerous advantages of selling products on Amazon compared to having an online e-commerce platform of your own. Where you not only have to worry about your online infrastructure, but order fulfillment and driving traffic to your platform.

All types of businesses, even unregistered businesses can avail themselves of Amazon’s e-commerce service facilities. Amazon takes care of the warehousing, development, payment processing and logistics when you make a sale. It also lends pre-sales services such as cataloging support, product shoot, packing materials, and maintenance of the marketplace on behalf of sellers. With the ongoing pandemic of COVID-19, social distancing is going to stay longer than we expected. People have shifted their purchasing of even the most basic products from offline stores to online ones. You can be a homepreneur, sell your products from the comfort of your home with easy pick-up and delivery services available at Amazon. This will help you widen your reach to a customer base of one billion and start receiving orders from every part of the country. Additionally, it gives your payment dues within seven days of sales. The seller protection scheme for digital content sellers safeguard sellers or unregistered businesses from losses and ensures that you get paid on time. 

How to become a seller on Amazon? 

Becoming a seller on Amazon takes just a few clicks on your computer or mobile phone screens. 

Below are the steps to follow to become a seller on Amazon.Sign-up to make your account. 

1. Sign-up to make your account 

Visit the Amazon seller sign up page and click on the ‘Register Now’ button to begin with your registration process. To register yourself as a seller on Amazon you will be asked to provide business information as mentioned below. 

2. Business entity name

If you want to register your business as an Amazon Seller Partner, it is recommended to register yourself as a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) a One Person Company (OPC) or Private Limited Company because these entities provide limited liability protection and are easy and simple to register. It is important for you as a seller to register under such entities because while selling the products through online e-commerce platforms like Amazon, there are high chances that the business promoter will face litigation or liability from vendors/customers. Hence it is important to have limited liability protection.

3. Address and phone number

Seller (You) must provide the entity’s registered office address or your place of business in the given column. Your mobile phone number is required for voice call or SMS verification which will help you proceed with registration. 

4. GST registration information

Sometimes certain products put up by sellers for purchase are not covered under GST, for such products GST registration is not required. All the other products which are applicable for Goods and Service Tax must produce a GSTN number to start selling their products through Amazon India. With the new GST regime registering for GST is a straightforward process for all types of businesses.

5. Bank account information

Potential sellers are required to produce their bank account details to Amazon India to start their business through Amazon India and to complete the seller registration process with Amazon India. Following information are required to share by them with Amazon India:

• Bank Account Holder’s Name
• Bank Account Number
• Bank IFSC Code
• Account Type

After sharing the required business information with Amazon and completing a compulsory Amazon partner quiz, you are set to start selling your products on Amazon India. Information related to the listing of products and management of listing is available on the Amazon India Seller dashboard. 

Now that you've registered, whats next?

Customer places order

Once all the procedures mentioned above are followed and completed, customers can now order your products from Amazon India. It is not only the regular customers who are going to buy from you, but the businesses can also place bulk orders. Using the available tools provided by Amazon India you can also make your products visible to larger audiences. Paid advertisements increase your visibility up to 70%. The price competitivity tool allows you to adjust your pricing based on your competitors. Customer coupons for special offers increases their chances of purchasing in the future and customer feedback helps you to gain insights and incentivize your future plans. 

Deliver your products

The process of storing, packaging, and delivering is known as fulfillment. There are two ways to manage your deliveries through Amazon, Fulfillment by Amazon and Easy Ship. When you join Fulfillment by Amazon India (FBA), you send your package to FBA and Amazon India takes care of the rest. This not only takes care of your storing, packaging, and delivery but also increases your visibility by giving a prime badge to each of your products. Prime products sales go up by a minimum of 3X. Easy Ship is an end-to-end service provided to Amazon sellers, the packaged product is picked up by the Amazon logistics delivery associate from the seller's location and delivered to the customer's place. Being a seller on Amazon India you can also choose to use a third party to get your products delivered. 

Get paid

Unlike offline sales, we do not have to wait for 40-45 days for payment, at Amazon India the seller gets paid within 7 days after the sale. Amazon India has multiple tools to track you sales one of which even helps you calculate the profit earned per product that you sell on Amazon India. 

In a world that is going through the COVID-19 pandemic, e-commerce today caters to the needs of every consumer. E-commerce has played a key role in partnering with public authorities and fulfilled all the requirements under the lockdown to fight with COVID-19. The growth of e-commerce in India has boomed after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, where people are willing to pay for safe services through maintaining social distancing. Not only the large cities are contributing to the growth of e-commerce, but small towns are also a part of it now. This is perhaps the best time for unregistered sellers to take their businesses online and create a new business model.