In the world of online retailing, few companies can compete with the size and reach of Amazon. In Q4 2024 alone, the company generated nearly $188 billion in net sales, thanks to the millions of retailers and individuals using the platform to sell products across the U.S. and globally.
Thanks to Amazon’s massive customer base and seller success tools, businesses that open an Amazon storefront have the opportunity to establish a more robust and immersive brand experience and reach a much wider audience than on their company website alone.
Here’s a quick step-by-step guide on how to open a store on Amazon.
Open an Amazon Seller account
The first step to getting your products on Amazon is signing up for an Amazon seller account. You will be prompted to enter the following information:
- Name.
- Business location and entity type.
- Address.
- Billing information.
- Proof of identity.
Amazon offers two pricing plans for U.S. seller accounts: an Individual plan that costs $0.99 per item sold or a Professional plan that runs $39.99 per month. If you’re planning to make your Amazon store a primary revenue stream for your business, you’ll want to choose the Professional plan, which gives you access to brand-building tools like enhanced product pages and a digital storefront, the ability to create promotions and coupons, business reporting tools, and more.
Register your brand on Amazon
Following your seller account setup, you’ll need to enroll in Amazon Brand Registry, which helps you protect your brand and provides access to free tools and reports. To participate, you’ll need an active seller account and a registered trademark in the country where you want to enroll (or a pending trademark application filed through Amazon IP Accelerator). Amazon also requires that your brand name or logo be prominently displayed on your products and packaging.
If you meet the eligibility criteria, you can begin the enrollment process. Choose which country’s marketplace you want to enroll your brand in, log into your seller account and fill in the rest of the required information. Then you’ll submit your enrollment for review.
Even if you don’t plan to sell a large number of items in your store, it’s still a good idea to register your brand and claim that piece of real estate on Amazon’s site.
“Having a store allows you to control your brand’s integrity online, and being part of Amazon can also help you appear higher up in Google search results,” said Theo Prodromitis, Co-founder of Ever New, a professional auto detailing accessory company, and CEO of Spa Destinations, which sells natural beauty products, sponges, and loofahs; and Co-founder of Ever New, a professional auto detailing accessory company.
Decide which products you’ll sell
A big part of your success on Amazon will come down to the profitability of the products you sell. To identify profitable products, it can help to see what is already selling well on Amazon.
“You’ll need to search different products to determine how much of an opportunity there is, and compare against the competition to determine if you can compete in the category,” said BJ Wright, Chief Strategy Officer for Empowered Cooks, Fabulessly Frugal, and Pine and Pepper. “We use tools such as DataDive, Jungle Scout, and Helium10 to assist in our research.”
Beyond market opportunity, it’s helpful to choose products that are lightweight and easy to ship and have at least a 50% profit margin. You should also avoid selling trademarked items or items from Amazon’s restricted product list.
Add products to your store with rich details
Once you’ve decided which products you’re going to sell, you can begin adding them to your digital shelves. Inside the Seller Central hub, you can either add products one at a time with the “Add a Product” button or you can add multiple products at once with a Microsoft Excel-based spreadsheet.
Every product in your inventory must have a unique SKU number. You will also need to input how many of the item you have in stock, its price, what condition it is in, what type of classification it should have, and other information.
For those with professional accounts, you can add Amazon A+ Content for each product. A+ Content effectively lets you add more photos, videos, artwork, charts, and more in order to make your product more enticing. You can start adding A+ Content to your product listings by logging into Seller Central, clicking Advertising in the navigation menu, and clicking Enhanced Brand Content. From there, enter the SKU of the item listing you want to improve, select a template to work from, and then fill in the template with photos and more.
As you build out your product listings, Nicole Pomije, Founder and CEO of The Cookie Cups, advised researching your audience, competition, and Amazon’s rules and creative guidelines for stores.
“Your product listings need high-quality images because Amazon’s algorithm favors them, and customers rely on them to make buying decisions,” she told CO—. “A strong title, keyword-rich description, and competitive pricing also matter. [Ignoring these] can make your product invisible.”
Reviews impact rankings, so always engage with customers, address concerns, and deliver a great experience to keep them happy and coming back.
Nicole Pomije, Founder and CEO of The Cookie Cups
Design and launch your store page
Once your seller account is active, your brand is registered and you have inventory uploaded, it’s time to finally launch your store page. Follow these steps to get your store page up and running:
- Log in to Seller Central.
- Click Stores in the navigation menu, then click Manage Stores, and then click Create Store.
- Select a template that makes the most sense for your store, with options including a simple product grid and a marquee to highlight curated items.
- Open the Store Builder to start building the store.
- Select the Page Manager option and then tap Add a Page so you can create subpages for your store. (Subpages can feature different product types, for example.)
- Use the Tile Manager option to help you add or rearrange text, photos, and videos on your pages.
- Once you’ve selected the top products you want highlighted in the store, then use the Preview Window feature so you can see what your store will look like on most desktop and mobile browsers.
- After you are done designing your store, click the Submit for Publishing button. The page may take a few days to receive approval.
- When your store is live, you can then click on Store Builder and then Insights to see your general performance with page views, visitors, and sales.
One of the most important elements on your store page is the banner at the top of your page. This banner should include a hero image—a large and prominent image that appears at the top of every page in your store and helps to differentiate your store’s navigation and content. Choose an image that represents your brand and captures people’s attention.
In addition to static images, consider adding a video to your Amazon store to tell your brand’s story.
“This is your chance to create a feeling and capture brand loyalty,” said Prodromitis.
If you decide to include a video, keep in mind that Amazon does not permit videos to be longer than five minutes.
Set up your shipping plan
The final step to getting started as an Amazon seller is to set up your shipping plan. When it comes to shipping, you have two options:
- Do it yourself: If you choose to handle shipping yourself (known as Fulfilled by Merchant, or FBM), you’ll store and ship the products directly to your customers through the shipping method of your choice (e.g. USPS, FedEx, UPS, etc.). This is best for very small sellers that fulfill a low volume of orders every month.
- Let Amazon ship for you: Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a much more convenient shipping option for high-volume sellers and promises shipping costs that are 70% less per unit compared to other U.S. fulfillment services.
Amazon has more than 175 fulfillment centers worldwide, and sellers who use FBA receive access to that storage space. If you choose to go this route, you’ll ship the items to Amazon. Then every time a sale goes through, Amazon will ship those products directly to the customer. Keep in mind that there are additional fees associated with using this service, but it may be worth it for sellers who want access to all the resources and convenience FBA has to offer.
Set up systems for customer service and enterprise resource planning (ERP)
Good customer service is a critical part of keeping your Amazon store in good standing. Joe Napoli, CEO of BuyBackStore.com, noted that Amazon expects sellers to answer all customer inquiries within 24 hours, including weekends and holidays. Failing to respond in time can result in Amazon crediting the buyer directly, often at the seller’s expense.
Napoli recommends making sure all follow-up happens through Seller Central, as Amazon rarely sides with vendors when issues arise. Setting up a clear, consistent process — and having someone available to monitor and respond promptly — can protect your reputation and bottom line.
Equally important is setting up an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that integrates with your Amazon store. ERP software helps manage orders, track inventory, monitor returns and replacements, and analyze profitability.
“You will need your ERP to … be able to facilitate order import and profitability analysis,” Napoli explained. “It’s better to have Amazon talk directly to your ERP for order imports, updates, and settlement reports so you can track true profitability.”
As your business grows and you expand to other marketplaces like Walmart, Etsy, or eBay, your ERP becomes even more essential. A solid system can help you avoid overselling and stay on top of inventory across all channels, said Napoli.
Track your store’s performance and customer reviews
Amazon provides performance metrics about visits, traffic sources, and sales for your store. You can also access reports about your audience, including age, gender, income, education, and marital status. Be sure to study this information to help you optimize your brand’s success.
“Keep an eye on your data, tweak your pricing, and use Amazon ads to stay competitive,” Pomije advised.
Another important element of success on Amazon is customer reviews. Potential buyers take these reviews seriously, so having a lot of positive reviews will add credibility to your business.
“Reviews impact rankings, so always engage with customers, address concerns, and deliver a great experience to keep them happy and coming back,” said Pomije.
Use Amazon’s free resources
Although creating an Amazon store might seem daunting, Prodromitis assured it’s not as difficult as it may sound: “Even if you have no prior website experience, the Amazon store uses very simple templates and is really user-friendly.”
Still, it can be a good idea to take advantage of Amazon’s free resources to help you learn the process of selling on the site. For instance, Amazon offers a step-by-step guide for opening an Amazon store on their website. The site also offers free advice through its Seller University. With a series of helpful videos on YouTube, Seller University walks new sellers through selling features, best practices, case studies and more.
Kristin Collella, Sean Ludwig, and Jamie Johnson contributed to this article. Some source interviews were conducted for a previous version of this piece.
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