Ten things you need to know to sell online with Amazon

Amazon Selling Partners break down into two categories: vendors and sellers. A few quick definitions are in order:

Independent companies or individuals who sell their products in Amazon’s store. This relationship is considered “third-party,” since Amazon is not the seller of record—the seller is.

Amazon operates 16 online stores worldwide, allowing sellers to grow their business internationally independent of where their business is physically established. Sellers are able to quickly grow their business in other countries, introducing their brand and products to millions of customers in Amazon's marketplaces.

With a specialized suite of tools to enable B2B e-commerce, Amazon Business helps small businesses to large enterprises find new ways to engage incremental business customers through a trusted Amazon experience.

The Handmade store is available for artisans to sell their handcrafted products to millions of Amazon customers all over the world. Amazon uses an application process to add new artisans to the Handmade category to ensure customers are able to buy with confidence.

Some categories are open to all sellers, some require a Professional seller account, some require approval to sell, and some include products that cannot be sold by third-party sellers. You can take a look at product categories and details unique to each on the Sell page.

Amazon has more than 300 million active customer accounts around the world, and Amazon’s obsessive focus on those customers is written into the leadership principles that define the company’s culture:

Amazon Prime members receive benefits including FREE fast shipping for eligible purchases, streaming of movies, TV shows and music, exclusive shopping deals and selection, unlimited reading, and more. And many Amazon customers look for products with the Prime badge because it represents fast, free shipping. Third-party sellers can make their offers more attractive to more than 150 million Amazon Prime members worldwide using Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA). With FBA, sellers send inventory to an Amazon fulfillment center, and Amazon picks, packs, ships, and handles customer service/returns. Using FBA to ship your products is the easiest way to get the Prime badge for most offers.

A product detail page is where customers view a product sold on Amazon. If you’ve shopped on Amazon, you’ll probably recognize the product detail page. It’s where customers can find all the relevant information about a particular item.

When multiple sellers offer the same product, Amazon combines data from all the offers into one product detail page so we can present customers with the best experience. Sellers can propose product information on a product detail page, along with other sellers and manufacturers, and request detail page reviews if they think the information is not correct.

A+ Content enables brands to describe their product features in new ways by including a unique brand story, enhanced images, and text placements which may result in higher conversion rates, increased traffic, and increased sales when used effectively.

Stores is a free, self-service, branded destination on Amazon for brands to curate content that inspires, educates, and helps customers discover their product selection. The feature allows third-party sellers to showcase their brand and products in a multi-page, immersive shopping experience on Amazon.

The Marketplace Appstore is a one-stop shop that helps sellers find software solutions to help with their unique business needs, from automated pricing and listing tools to product research. Many of the applications focus on automating previously time-consuming and tedious daily tasks like product research, filling out tax forms, or building customized reports.

Amazon offers sellers ad solutions to help find, attract, and engage Amazon customers at every stage of their journey.

Sponsored Products are ads for individual product listings on Amazon. They appear within shopping results pages and on product detail pages.

Sponsored Brands showcase a brand and product portfolio. They feature a seller’s brand logo, a custom headline, and a custom selection of products, appearing in shopping results pages and helping drive both sales and product visibility.

Sponsored Display is a new self-service advertising solution that helps advertisers reach relevant audiences across the shopper journey, with ad placements that appear on and off Amazon.

Using advertising, promotions, deals, and coupons, sellers can help increase sales, launch new products, generate reviews, clear inventory, boost product visibility, and plenty more.

Sellers can offer free shipping, percentage discounts, or buy-one-get-one promos on their products.

Sellers can run flash sales to encourage people to take advantage of lowered prices.

When an Amazon customer buys a product, either Amazon can ship the order for the seller with Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), or the seller can fulfill their own order. Many Amazon sellers use a mix of the two depending on the product.

Many Amazon customers look for products with the Prime badge because it represents fast, free shipping. Using FBA to ship products is the easiest way for sellers to get the Prime badge for most offers.

When sellers sign up to sell in Amazon stores, they’re automatically enrolled in FBA. If they decide to participate, they send inventory to Amazon fulfillment centers, and Amazon handles shipping, customer service, refunds, and returns for those products.

Many sellers have products that aren’t ideal for FBA—for instance, hazardous goods that don’t meet fulfillment center requirements or seasonal products that would incur excessive storage fees. Others may already have a logistics network in place, or other business reasons to fulfill their own orders.