Gone are the days when a businessman was confined to a small region to sell his products or else a huge amount of bad credit loans lenders only or money was required for supplying the items in other regions and that to with so many limitations.Now one need not be a big businessman to seek his customers in other states of country or even abroad like USA. This can easily be done now from one’s own establishment using the technology. A web site of your own is required to start an online business and to be developed for illustration of your products or else you may use a third party e- commerce portal for selling your products. Here we will be discussing to sell your products in USA through Amazon –a well-known e portal.
For selling the products in USA, you have to follow the following steps-Registration at Amazon.com and opening of seller account, fulfillment and Shipping, customer support and return. Please be clear that you have to be registered in Amazon.com even if you are already registered on Amazon.in for selling your products in India.
Registration and seller account on Amazon.com
You will be registered on Amazon.com with your name, email id and password.After registration on Amazon.com you have to create sellers account by providing your business details, phone no., a valid international credit card, and tax information. For tax information you will have to complete a W-9 form if you are a US tax payer or W-8BEN for if you are a non US tax payer. Your status for this will be determined by following an online step by step interview. You will also be required to inform whether you want to sell as individual where fee is charged on commission bases per item and transactions are limited to less than forty or as professional where fee is charged as monthly subscription plus additional fee for items sold and no limit on transactions.Here also in you seller accounts you are required to enter the items you want to sell.Please note that items selected should meet the standards and specifications of USA. Saleable items falling in open category do not require any approval while other products require approval from Amazon. If requirements are met as indicated by Amazon, approval can be requested by using ‘Contact us’ form. Items may be added or deleted also afterwards.
For selling your products, login your seller account, click yours products for sale, enter quantity, price, details and specifications of the product, shipping details and estimated time of supply.
Fulfilling and Shipping
(a) On your own
When customers in USA purchase your products on Amazon, one way to fulfill these orders is to ship them yourself internationally direct to your customers. So you have to choose the carrier that can ship internationally.The carrier acts as the broker by default according to the terms and conditions on the freight bill.The carrier will collect the duties from the buyer upon delivery of goods.
Customers should be provided with accurate information about the country from which you are shipping your product. Specifically, you need to accurately state the ‘shipping from’ country in your seller profile and manage customer expectations by stating the actual shipping times from your country. You will be responsible to meet the shipping expectations for all orders you receive.
International shipping charges depend upon package dimensions and weight, delivery time and source (where you are shipping from) and destination (where you are shipping to).
In addition to the above charges, you should be aware of customs duties and taxes that will need to be paid. Amazon is not responsible for any customs duties and taxes associated with FBA inventory. Any shipments arriving at an Amazon fulfillment center with customs duty charges due is returned to sender.
(b)Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA)
An alternative way to fulfill your international orders is to use Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) in the country corresponding to the Amazon marketplace where you are listing your products i.e.USA. Using FBA will require exporting your products for storage in an Amazon fulfillment center at USA, to sell them to customers.
By using FBA you can decrease the shipment time to your customers making your offers more competitive and provide returns and local language support. Shipping task is also taken care of by Amazon fulfillment center.
Customer Support & Returns
- When fulfilling yourself
It’s not just the picking, packing, and shipping to customers that you’ll need to handle. Customers expect prompt, helpful service when they have questions or concerns about your products. So a timely and local language support is needed. You may be tempted to use automated computer translators or hire a third party service providers.
When listing in an international marketplace and fulfilling items on your own, you must either provide customers with a local return address within the country of their Amazon marketplace website or offer them free shipment for returns. This is a requirement to sell on Amazon’s marketplaces.
So you haveconsidered how your customers will return itemsconveniently that they purchase from you.
- Customer support when using Fulfillment by Amazon
When you use FBA, Amazon will provide 24-hour customer support on your behalf in the local language of the relevant marketplace. It will also take care of every query or customer help required. Even the returns, refunds or partial refunds are taken care of.
For payments you may open an account in USA bank or use currency convertor and get money at your place.
Author: This blog is written by Ms. Eishani Behl, a passionate blogger & intern at Aapka Consultant.
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