Close Your Seller Account
You can choose to downgrade your account from a Professional selling plan to an Individual selling plan, if you don’t want to be charged a monthly subscription fee. To downgrade your account to an Individual selling plan, click Downgrade in My Services. For more information, see Selling plans.
If you choose to close your account, go to Settings, choose Account Info and click Close Account, to request account closure. You will then receive a confirmation email once your account has been closed, or an email detailing why your account can’t be closed at this time and additional steps required. Note that you must close each regional account individually: North America, Europe, Japan, and Australia. If you keep any accounts open with a Professional selling plan and have buyable listings, you will still be subject to a monthly subscription fee . You can see a list of your global accounts here.
Note:
However, before you choose to permanently close your seller account, we urge you to read the following.
How To Close Your Amazon Account Permanently
Without further ado, lets go through a step-by-step guide on how to permanently close your Amazon seller account.
First of all, go to Account Info under the Settings drop-down menu:
Now, click on Close account in the right-most section of the page:
Fill the required fields and hit Send to request Amazon to delete your seller account:
Now, youll see this message:
Amazon will process your request and will either send you a confirmation email stating that your account has been successfully shutdown, or – if you dont meet their criteria – they will notify you of all details regarding why your account cannot be closed.
Moreover, they will also recommend you some actions to take in order to meet their eligibility criteria. If your first attempt to close your account is not successful, implement these recommended steps and request Amazon again to close your account.
Amazon Seller Account Hackers
Sometimes hackers can gain unauthorized access to a sellers account and change bank information, and transfer funds to bank accounts belonging to the hacker. If Amazon detects suspicious activity in your Amazon seller account, they will suspend your account.
When your Amazon account is suspended due to a hacking issue, youll be able to gain access after they have verified your details.
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Are There Any Tips For Deleting An Amazon Seller Account Of A Deceased Individual
Because seller accounts may be tied to upcoming payments, unsold inventory, and even tax records that need to be filed, focus on getting Amazon support in touch with the executor or an estate attorney working on the deceaseds case.
The legal implications are complex enough that simply working to close the account may not leave you with all the information you need.
The Policy Isn’t What Sellers Or Consultants Thought It Would Be
When the August 16 policy was enacted, sellers and consultants believed Amazon would give them that 30-day notice when they were suspended. That’s what much of the messaging around the new policy communicated.
“This is a much-ballyhooed improvement to account suspension and transparency and we’re looking under rocks for it,” said Chris McCabe, who is the founder of a consultancy called eCommerceChris that helps Amazon sellers whose accounts have been suspended.
The fact that this new policy doesn’t protect suspended sellers and only ones headed for permanent removal was “a surprise to us,” McCabe said.
The limits of the policy were also news to Jason Boyce, who was a multimillion-dollar seller on Amazon and is now a consultant to Amazon businesses.
“When I read the policy change that came shortly after the EU rulings, I thought, ‘Thirty days this is a good start,'” Boyce told Business Insider. “‘I would prefer 60 or 90 days, but this is a step in the right direction to protect third-party sellers.’
“To hear now that it had nothing to do with account suspensions, only to do with account cancellations, to me it seems that they only paid the account policy lip service,” said Boyce, the founder of Avenue7Media.
An Amazon spokesperson said sellers are “incredibly important” to Amazon and its customers.
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Poor Customer Service Score
To ensure a positive customer experience, Amazon has a performance target score in place. Sellers are required to keep their late shipment rate below 4% and pre-fulfillment cancel rate below 2.5%.
Also, Amazon requires your order defect rate to be below 1%. Not fulfilling any of these metrics can result in account suspension.
Selling An Amazon Fba Business Is Different
When you sell an FBA business, youre not selling an account: youre selling a business.
There is no way for Amazon to stop this from happening it would actually be illegal for them to do so.
In the midst of all the mixed messages, the truth is that they dont even want to stop it from happening.
This isnt baseless gossip we have personal contacts at Amazon that have reached out to us because theyre extremely keen on meeting people who buy Amazon FBA businesses and find the entire process fascinating.
They proactively work with some of our larger buyers to help them optimize PPC campaigns and other streamline features that entrepreneurs get when they start moving massive volume. Remember, the bigger your Amazon FBA business becomes, the more Amazon benefits.
So its not that Amazon is against you selling your Amazon FBA business theyre all for it. It all comes down to how you handle it.
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But Why Should Your Ip Address Matter
Then, the discussion goes to why should I have to use VPNs to fake where I am logging in from so that I dont get banned from Amazon from working from a different location? Isnt the whole point of doing a location independent business about working anywhere from your laptop in a coffee shop and wifi connection?
Times seem to be changing. Governments around the world want to collect their taxes, and are probably the ones putting pressure on Amazon and other marketplaces.
Temporarily Deactivate Your Listings
This option is suitable for sellers who just want to take a break or are going away on holiday.
What I mean to say is that they want to keep on selling the same product, but just want to pause for a while. They would like things to be just as they are once they are ready to start selling again.
So, how to make your listing inactive? Let me guide you step-by-step:
First of all, go to Manage Inventory under the inventory tab:
You will see a detailed list of all of your product listings. Each listing will have a Edit drop-down menu. Find the listing you want to make inactive, and select Close listing from this menu:
This option makes your listing inactive until you reactivate it again. The deactivation takes effect within 24 hours.
The reactivation process is also pretty simple and takes effect right away . You can relist any inactive item whenever you want.
Be careful though, this option does not ask for confirmation and just deactivates the listing right away.
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Money Saving: Potentially Downgrading To An Individual Account
Before you delete or deactivate your listings, there is another thing you need to take care of first: downgrading your professional account to an individual account.
We discussed above that you still have to pay your monthly fees even after having deactivated your listings? By choosing this option, you can avoid that.
Unlike a professional Amazon seller account, an individual seller account does not have a monthly fee. Instead of the monthly $39.99, individual sellers only have to pay $0.99 for every item sold on Amazon.
Having no active listings means you wont be making any sales, so why keep paying a hefty monthly fee? Downgrade your seller account to avoid it right away.
To Downgrade Your Amazon Seller Account Follow These Instructions:
- After logging into your Amazon Seller Central Account, select Account Info from the Settings drop-down menu in the upper right-hand corner:
- Now, click on the Manage button in the Your Services section of the page:
- Amazon will ask you to confirm your decision. Select proceed to downgrade your account
Remove Any Problematic Products
Make a risk assessment and value judgment before you decide that you couldnt possibly consider deleting a favorite product. While it may seem like its worth the risk to you, consider what would happen if your account ended up suspended and you were unable to sell any of your products. Is it still worth it? The busy season is not the time to be taking these risks, as it could come at a very costly price to your business after an already difficult year.
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Our Case Study With 3 Former Amazon Sellers
We wanted to perform an experiment for a case study so we contacted a few individuals we knew that had stopped selling on Amazon a while back. They never closed their accounts so those accounts were still open and able to continue selling with.
When we told them that they might be able to sell their accounts, all 3 were quite excited about the opportunity. After locating the private investor that buys them through some close contacts in the business, we provided them with his contact details.
We let them complete the online form, get a cash offer and be mindful of security during the process. We asked them to report back to us with the details of their experiences so we could share them with our readers.
After a few days, all 3 had successfully sold their accounts for a few thousand dollars each and were quite elated. All of their seller accounts were several years old with a few hundred seller feedback ratings, which made them more valuable and they explained the process to us.
They submitted some basic information about their account through an online form. He then made an offer within 24 hours to purchase the account, verified that their accounts were legitimate and paid them. Once they confirmed receipt of the funds, their sensitive information was removed, replaced with the new info that he provided them with and the transfer process initiated.
This made the entire process 100% safe and secure.
How To Close Your Amazon Seller Account For Good
Amazon is an amazing vehicle for bringing your products to market. However, for varying reasons, the time may come when you no longer wish to continue trading on this platform. In this article we cover the options that you have available, as well as the key points you should consider before proceeding with the step by step process of closing your Amazon seller account.
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Outrage Has Grown Amongst Customers As More And More Receive Bans From Making Too Many Returns This Has Caused Some Affected Users To Take To Social Media In Frustration
Nir Nissim, a 20-year-old from Israel, told the Wall Street Journal that he received an email in March 2018 alerting him that his account had been banned because he was in direct violation of the companys policy. Meanwhile, Nissim has a $450 gift card balance on his account that he was unable to use. He contacted Amazon every day for a week or two out of frustration, unaware of how he violated the policy.
After weeks of prodding, Nissim was told that his account was shut down because he had made too many returns. He later told the WSJ that he had returned just one item in 2018 and four in 2017.
A North Carolina native named Nancy Von Gunten shared a similar story with a local news outlet, WRAL:
I went to return something, and they allowed me to return it, but I got a warned notice on my receipt that said I had excessive return activity. Von Gunten detailed. I can still shop I just cant return anything because my percentage of returns on this return activity report that I received is higher than what they allow.
Von Gunten will simply have to grin and bear it if one of her items is defective or incorrect on a future order since she cannot return anything. This policy could cause other affected shoppers like Von Gunten to stop purchasing through Amazon in the future.
Nathan Peterson, an Illinois native, tweeted out this picture of his purchases and returns from 2013-2018, accompanied by a caption that reads:
Bochners accompanying caption read:
Dont Choose Products That Attract Negative Feedback From Your Customers
While controversial products can have the capacity to sell well, they aren’t worth the negative attention they could bring to your business. This will lead to decreased account health, listing removals, warnings, and further scrutiny of your Amazon account. Of course, you dont always have a say in how people respond to your product. But it is something you should keep in mind when you are choosing your products. If you are ever in doubt, run it by your target market and see what response it gets. This is the best indicator of how it might perform and be viewed by your customers.
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Things To Consider Before Closing Your Amazon Account
Shutting down your Amazon account is undoubtedly a big step. So, before you proceed, there are some things you need to keep in mind as a business owner.
First of all, realize that there is no going back once you have completely closed your seller account. Amazon will not let you reactivate or reinstate a closed account. The only way for you to be able to sell on Amazon again would be to sign up all over again.
Secondly, keep in mind that you would no longer have access to the benefits you had as an Amazon seller. These include:
- Access to account history. This means orders history, credit cards information, etc.
- You would no longer be able to communicate with your buyers in any way once your account is closed. This means no processing returns, issuing refunds or responding to an .
- All websites once accessed via your Amazon account log-in would become inaccessible after youve closed your seller account.
- You would lose your customer profile completely. This means that all reviews, images or discussion posts from your customers will be removed.
- Digital content related to Amazon Drive, Amazon music and Prime Photos would all become inaccessible.
- You would no longer have access to any funds or balance in your seller account
- Last but not least, if youre a big seller having multiple seller accounts on various Amazon marketplaces, keep in mind that closing your North American Unified Account will also result in the shutdown of your other eligible accounts as well.
A Beginners Guide On How To Delete Amazon Account
There might come the point where you want to learn how to delete Amazon accounts. Of course, there are different reasons to do it, but whatever it may be, know that your reasons for doing so are all valid. In this article, you’ll learn more about the common reasons why people deactivate their accounts and how to do it yourself.
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How To Delete Or Cancel Your Amazon Seller Account
If you decide that selling your account is not right for you and you wish to cancel or delete your Amazon seller account, simply log in to your account, go to the settings tab in the upper right corner, click on Account Info, then the link to Close Account and follow the instructions. See the screenshot below for reference.
How Do You Sell Your Amazon Seller Account
So how do these buyers and sellers connect? There is a private investor that buys and sells Amazon seller accounts. So before you cancel or delete your account, you might want to consider getting a cash offer for yours rather than just deleting your account, walking away and getting nothing.
Disclaimer: When making any major business decision such as opening, operating or closing a business, you should consult a licensed business attorney for legal advice. Fast Lane Academy does not offer legal advice and the information on this page or website should not be construed as such and used only for informational purposes. Now that the legal disclaimer is out of the way, how do you get in touch with this investor to find out how much your seller account is worth?
First, if your seller account has a large amount of negative feedback from buyers and/or recent performance notifications that has put your account at risk for suspension, then it can still be sold but will only be worth a few hundred dollars at best. And of course, if your account has been suspended by Amazon, it is not able to be sold.
If your account is in good standing, even if it has been dormant for a while, then it is probably quite valuable.
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Consider What May Have Caused The Suspension/suppression
Occasionally, Amazon can be somewhat vague regarding the reasons for your suspension, suppression, denial, or ban. So, if the letter from Seller Support doesnt reveal the causes for the status, take a step back and think about all of the actions youve taken within the last few months.
Also keep in mind that the event that led to the change in your seller status might come either from something you did and can control or from something outside of your control.
Things you can control: seller performance and account health
In Amazon Seller Central, under Performance > Account Health, you can view all of the elements that Amazon uses to grade your overall performance. There are three primary elements:
- Customer service performance and order defect rate. Your order defect rate is a catch-all score based on the experience of your customers. The rate is affected by negative feedback, A-to-Z Guarantee claims that are not denied, and credit card chargebacks. Amazons policy is to keep your order defect rate below 1%.
- Product policy compliance. Your products must not violate any of Amazons product policies. A single complaint in any of the following categories can jeopardize your seller status:
- IP violations
- Product safety claims
- Customer product review policy violations
Things you cant control: policy changes and black hat sellers
*Amazon Update: Action required for listings on Amazon classified as pesticides