Individual plan/Business plan?
i’m 19 and have some brief stints with other platforms (mostly custom e-commerce websites) but recently i’ve jumped into selling on Amazon.
I have sent in 2 units of a Microscope made by geographic and sold them both. For a marvellous £0.50 profit. I know it isn’t much but it was a start rather than dragging the first step out any longer.
But back to the title, the best plan? Here is a quote from another seller around 1 year ago, “In my opinion, the Professional selling plan is the best because it has the best features, possibility to list in all the categories, set your own shipping cost, eligibility for the Buy Box… With the Individual selling plan you do not pay the £25 monthly subscription fee but a £0.75 per-item fee when an item sells. And you can not set your own shipping cost.” Now what I struggle to understand is the structure, I have a standard account as an individual. As I previously stated i’ve just sold 2 units, and for these 2 units I held the ‘buy box’ against 10+ other sellers. Thats why it is confusing me a big thing about the, professional individual plan, or, business plan, is that you become eligible for the ‘buy box’. But I managed to secure it anyway? Also I read that without a business account you can’t list new products and only used? Well my units were also ‘New’?
Super confusing and not set out well by Amazon, at all, hope you can help. Thanks.
0 replies
Seller_DROodOAYHftnc
OK, to explain.
There are two Seller ACCOUNT types (the legal entity):
Business - where you MUST be registered with HMRC as self-employed (sole trade, limited company, partnership), provide Amazon with your UTR, and this is the account if you plan to buy items to sell on for profit - you are a business and trading.
Individual - which is what it sounds as though you have, is ONLY for selling off your own personal second-hand, used items and not new items.
Then there are two selling PLANS: which you have described above:
Professional - pay £30 a month fee, plus other features.
Individual - (sadly, yes same name as an account type !). as above pay an extra fee per sale rather than monthly fee.
To not be out of pocket by paying the monthly fee, you need to sell a minimum of 34 items a month, but for some the fee might be worth the financial loss to have the other features of the Pro. plan.
If you only have an Individual Account and want to buy new items to sell, then you will need to register with HMRC (can be done online) and change the legal entity of your account on Amazon once you have received your UTR.
Your new items probably just slipped through the net - eventually Amazon would catch up with you, as others have found out.
Seller_NoMNQDGnEW5Bx
It’s in a few days/weeks/months when amazon catches up with you that you’ll find you can’t do it
Seller_PUgTge8LPB8FY
This is correct. Without a business account, you’re limited to selling off your own unwanted, pre-owned goods, e.g. a DVD collection.
The reason behind this is simple. If you buy and sell for profit (which is what you’re doing) you are a business by definition and must therefore register as a business with both HMRC and Amazon. If you don’t do this, Amazon will eventually realise what’s going on and will suspend your account until you comply with the rules.
For retail purposes, items are only considered “new” if they’ve never been retailed before. If you buy something from (say) W H Smith and sell it on Amazon, you become the second retailer in the supply chain, whereas there should only ever be one retailer.
@JillyB1 has already explained how to look at the difference between the two selling plans.
Don’t let any of this put you off. There’s plenty of room in the world for entrepreneurial 19-year-olds, but selling on Amazon is much more complicated than selling anywhere else. You’ll be expected to follow their rules.
