Are you looking to downgrade your seller account from Professional to Individual?
If you are not generating the sales you hoped for or are finding the seller fees too high, downgrading your Amazon seller account may be an option.
In this blog post, I will walk you through the differences between Individual and Professional accounts, category restrictions of Individual accounts, what you can do to improve your account standing before downgrading, and the process of how to downgrade Amazon seller account, step-by-step.
Read until the end to see the Frequently Asked Questions for this topic!
The Differences Between Individual vs. Professional Accounts
You may want to save money, but there are several significant differences between Individual and Professional Accounts that you need to be aware of.
Amazon’s website recommends Individual Seller accounts for those who:
- Sell less than 40 items monthly
- Don’t require advanced selling tools or programs for their business
- Are still in the process of deciding what they want to sell
So if you are still above this range and have a solid product line, I think you should keep your Professional account and find other ways to earn, which I will get into later on in the article!
For now, I want to show you the comparison chart below that breaks down the differences between Individual and Professional accounts so that you can see what to expect if you downgrade.
You can read more about them here on the Sell on Amazon page.
Categories Individual Sellers Cannot Sell In
Wait! Before you move forward with downgrading, you may be unaware that the products you sell are restricted for Individual sellers.
- Automotive & Powersports
- Jewelry
- Watches
- Sports Collectibles
- Video, DVD, & Blu-ray
- Collectible Coins
- Entertainment Collectibles
- Fine Art
If you sell these kinds of products and downgrade without being aware of these limitations, it might create problems and completely ruin your operations before you can switch back to a Professional account.
What You Can Do Before Deciding to Downgrade
Are you hoping to downgrade to save money due to low sales? Amazon has many ways for you to earn extra income, boost sales, and even get cash back!
Invest in Sponsored Products Ads
Visibility of your products is what customers need for them to be encouraged to purchase. Sponsored Products are ads that appear in the search results and work best when you use them in conjunction with a keyword-targeted campaign.
Try streaming on Amazon Live
Consumers have changed their shopping habits significantly in recent years as a result of the rise of mobile devices and online shopping.
But some people are still hesitant to purchase due to bad shopping experiences in the past with misleading products arriving at their door.
Amazon Live allows sellers to show and demonstrate the real product. You can livestream as often as you want, and it brings in free traffic!
Try affiliate marketing
Amazon affiliate marketing is a way for bloggers, vloggers, and influencers to make money by referring their audience to a seller’s products. They usually do this by writing a blog about your products or making a video about it and including an affiliate link in their content.
For each sale detected from the link they provided, they get a commission. The commission rate will depend on the category that the product is in, but influencers can earn up to a 20% commission per sale.
You can get your products in front of millions of people this way!
It is great for when your storefront doesn’t have much traffic yet and you want to expose yourself to the target market of the influencers who review and promote your products!
Try the Brand Referral Bonus program
Available for sellers who are under Amazon’s Brand Registry, the Brand Referral Bonus Program is a way for sellers to earn extra income by referring visitors to their product listings from outside of the site.
When members of the program direct non-Amazon marketing traffic to their Amazon product listings, they can earn a bonus averaging 10% of the sale of the product that they directed the traffic to.
A bonus is also given to sellers for any products purchased by that particular customer from your store in the following 2 weeks after they click on your initial ad.
Request for reimbursements
As effective as a system that FBA has, Amazon isn’t perfect, and there may be times when your orders may get damaged, stolen, or lost during shipment to the customer.
Or Amazon may experience internal errors in receiving your shipments at fulfillment centers, and your inventory will appear as missing.
Has this happened to you and discouraged you from selling on a large scale? You don’t have to view it as a complete loss. You can get FBA reimbursement for it!
Amazon will need documentation from you and time to investigate, but once it’s all figured out, you can get a significant amount of money back!
You can read about the other possible reimbursement claim scenarios here.
I have an entire YouTube playlist about getting reimbursements from Amazon!
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdTpdhvbb5vYmQS4OAyc1sGUflXC5pIe8
Use seller tools like Helium 10
Helium 10, a leading product research tool for Amazon sellers, drastically helped me increase conversions and scale my business.
You can use my Helium 10 coupon codes for everything you need to start and scale your own business on Amazon!
Get 50% OFF Your First Month When You Use Code: SOURCINGMONSTER50
OR 10% OFF Every Month When You Use Code: SOURCINGMONSTER10
Do any of these options sound good to you? Maybe the extra income can cover the monthly costs of your Professional account and you won’t need to downgrade after all!
How to Downgrade Amazon Seller Account: Step by Step
Have you made a final decision to downgrade your Amazon seller account?
Seller Central has made it easy for you to downgrade.
- Sign in to Seller Central. Under Settings, click on Account Info.
- Under Your Services, click Manage.
- Under Sell on Amazon, “Downgrade” appears. Proceed to confirm the downgrade after Amazon asks if you’re sure.
It’s that easy! It’s also easy to switch back to a Professional account if you change your mind and see an increase in sales.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Individual Sellers Still Use FBA?
- Yes! Seller plans only determine fees and the services that will be available to you like reports, marketing tools, and insights. Order fulfillment is not affected by the seller plan.
Can Sellers Have 2 Accounts Using Different Selling Plans?
- Yes, but there is a specific process for opening multiple seller accounts to reduce the risk of account deactivation because Amazon is very vigilant about this. You need to have a “legitimate business reason” for a second seller account, which is described as having a completely separate business entity in which the items sold are under a different product line.
Does Downgrading my Account Affect my Ability to Sell on other Marketplaces?
- Possibly. Some sellers have reported that once they downgraded, they were informed that they would no longer be able to sell on marketplaces outside of Amazon US because they require a Professional account. Before making any decisions, feel free to contact Seller Support to ask them if your ability to sell on other marketplaces will be affected by this sort of change.
Conclusion
Downgrading your seller account may sound like a last resort to save money, but I’ve had success using their money-generating programs as well.
They are fairly easy to use, and give me significant extra income without having to put in much effort!
What are your reasons for wanting to downgrade?
Are you having business problems? Do you wish there is someone you can talk to? Who can guide you? Who knows exactly what it’s like to be in the same position as you? I have FBA Business Coaching for that exact purpose!
Have I changed your mind about downgrading your account? Let me know in the comments below!