November 08th, 2019

Questions about updating business type to sell on Amazon

​Hi Jason, I have a business entity (UEN) as a sole proprietor in the past and it is still live in Singapore. I am a graphic designer so the nature of the business is to provide website and graphic design services.

My question is Amazon platform is an online business so can I use this existing UEN to upgrade as a professional seller in the near future? I have called ACRA today that I can add on a secondary business activity on this existing UEN. 

At this moment, I am thinking to register as an AMZ Individual seller. If this Amazon online business has kick off successfully in 6-8months to next year. Then I can add on a secondary business activity and maybe will change it to LLC or PTE LTD. please let me know what’s your thought?

My Reply:

I think you can choose to use your sole prop to register for an Amazon Individual or Professional account. Since your business is registered in Singapore, you can easily edit and add on a secondary business type through ACRA's bizfile online. Anyway, I don't think Amazon cares what your business was originally intended for. They mainly verify the entity name and address. 

Amazon Individual and Professional accounts are just bad names that confuse people. It doesn't mean the Individual seller account is for individuals, just that Individual seller accounts can't do several thing a Pro account can do, such as:

1. Only professional selling accounts can apply for approval to sell in restricted categories and run Amazon sponsored advertising.
2. Individual accounts will be much more difficult for Amazon account managers to help if there is any problem with the registration as they can only search for Pro accounts in their database.
3. USD 39.99 monthly subscription fee for pro vs no monthly subscription fee for individual account. But the individual account has an extra $0.99 fee per order, so once you have 40 or more orders a month, it is more cost-effective to have the pro account.

Amazon management recommends registering for a pro account from the start, then immediately downgrade to individual account if you want to save money and don't have enough sales yet. This way, if there is any account verification issue, at least you can escalate and they can look into it.

Refer to this page for more info about seller account registration suspensions due to Seller Identity Verification or Seller Performance Review and how to escalate to the Amazon Global Selling Team.

Finally, yes, you can change your business info in Amazon Seller Central by going to Settings>Account Info>Business Information.