How to Sell on Amazon: Seller Account Setup Guide

Most people who want to sell on Amazon overthink the process, as if it required passing a complicated approval or getting a special permit. In reality the flow is fairly defined — the hard part is not technical, it is the decisions: which account type to open, who ships the product, and what is left after commission. In this article we have gathered, from a seller’s point of view, how selling on Amazon works end to end: the difference between the Individual and Professional plans, the documents requested when opening an account, the video identity verification step everyone gets stuck on, the FBA/FBM choice, and payout timing. At the end we also cover how to set up your profit correctly before your first sale.

How does selling on Amazon start? The general flow

In one sentence: choose your account type, upload your documents, verify your identity, list your products, decide on a shipping model, and sell. Step by step it goes like this:

1. Choose the account type: Individual or Professional. This determines the fixed fee you pay and the tools available to you.
2. Register on Amazon Seller Central: enter your email, phone, identity, and payment/bank details.
3. Upload documents and complete identity verification: there is usually a video call / identity check step.
4. List your products: either add yourself as a seller to an existing listing or create a new product page.
5. Choose a shipping model: ship it yourself (FBM) or from Amazon’s warehouse (FBA).
6. Price, sell, and track your payout: after commission and fees, the remaining amount reaches your account on a set schedule.

The technical steps can all be done in a single afternoon. The part that takes real time and shapes your fate as a seller is the first two decisions: which plan and which shipping model. Let’s take them in order.

Individual or Professional? Choosing the account type

Amazon offers two seller plans, and the core difference is the fee structure. Picking the wrong plan can push you into unnecessary cost before you make a single sale, or bottleneck you as you grow.

Individual plan

The Individual plan is designed for people starting with low, irregular volume. There is no fixed monthly subscription; instead you pay a fixed per-item fee on each sold product. So if you sell a few items a month, it is an advantage that no money leaves your pocket in the months you don’t sell. As a common rule of thumb, if you’ll sell fewer than about 40 items a month, the Individual plan is considered sensible — but that is a suggested threshold, not a hard limit; run the numbers for your own case. On the Individual plan some advanced tools (bulk listing, some advertising options, campaign tools) may be limited.

Professional plan

The Professional plan is for regular, high-volume selling. There is no per-item fee; instead you pay a fixed monthly subscription. Past a certain sales count the Professional plan becomes cheaper than the Individual one, because the per-item fee no longer piles up. It also comes with the infrastructure for bulk uploads, advertising/campaign tools, and the “featured offer” (buy box). Sellers planning serious scale — usually as a registered taxpayer / business — choose this plan.

Short rule: if you want to “pay nothing in the months you don’t sell,” start with Individual; if you plan regular sales and scale every month, choose Professional. Good news: you can upgrade the plan later as the business grows — you don’t have to get it perfect from day one.

One important note: your account plan (Individual/Professional) and your tax status are separate things. In Turkey the tax and registration side of marketplace selling has its own rules; don’t conclude “I opened an Individual plan, so I have no tax obligation.” Whether you must form a company, under what status you can sell, and which taxes you declare are general information that varies by person; for your exact situation, consult your accountant and verify the current rule from an official source (the tax authority, etc.).

Opening an Amazon seller account: the documents you need

During registration, Amazon asks for documents to verify your identity and payment channel. Which documents are requested can vary by your status (individual/business) and the current registration flow; the list below is a general framework so you go in prepared. Verify the exact, current document list from the guidance on the registration screen:

• ID document: usually a passport or a two-sided national ID. You’ll also be asked to show this document to the camera during video verification.
• Bank account / IBAN: the account your payout will land in. The name/title must match the account holder.
• A working credit card: a valid card open to international transactions is required for charging fees.
• Tax information: if you sell as a business, your tax number / tax certificate and, if needed, company documents. The information requested for individual status may differ.
• Address verification: a recent proof of address (e.g. a statement or a utility bill) may be requested.
• Phone and email: active details you can access, for verification codes and contact.

Practical tip: upload documents that are clear, uncropped, and legible. The most common delay is the name/address on the document not matching exactly what you entered on the account. Even a one-letter or one-digit difference can send verification back; matching them exactly from the start saves days.

The step everyone gets stuck on: video identity verification

This is the stage new sellers ask about most. To weed out fake accounts, Amazon requires an identity verification meeting on most applications: a live video call, or a step where you show your documents to the camera. The purpose is simple — to confirm that the person opening the account is really you and that the documents are yours.

To pass this step on the first try:

• Attend with your original ID document; a physical document is required, not a screenshot/photocopy.
• The name, address, and document details you entered at registration should match exactly; mismatch is the most common rejection reason.
• Prepare a well-lit setting, a stable internet connection, and a setup where you can show the document clearly to the camera.
• Keep any additional document (proof of address, etc.) at hand; searching for it during the call wastes time.

Once verification is complete, your account opens for selling. If it is rejected, don’t panic: usually a piece of information is missing or inconsistent — fix it and try again. This step is not an obstacle but a filter that protects your account.

FBA or FBM? Choosing the fulfillment model

After the account is open, the most decisive decision is who fulfills the order. There are two models, and both can be used on the same account — even mixed product by product.

FBM — ship it yourself (Fulfilled by Merchant)

You store, pack, and ship the product; you also handle returns and customer service. Upside: you pay no storage/handling fee, you have full control over stock, and starting at low volume is cheap. Downside: the packing and shipping load is on you, and you may fall behind FBA on fast delivery and some visibility advantages. Beginners testing a few products mostly start with FBM.

FBA — Amazon ships it (Fulfillment by Amazon)

You send your stock to Amazon’s warehouse; Amazon handles most of the storage, picking, packing, shipping, returns, and customer service. Upside: fast delivery, easier scaling, and usually higher visibility. Downside: storage and fulfillment fees kick in; on slow-selling or bulky/heavy products these fees can quickly eat into profit. So FBA is not automatically “better” for every product — you need to run the numbers product by product.

Short rule: for fast-moving, small/light, steadily selling products, FBA usually pays off; for heavy, bulky, or slow-moving products, FBM can be safer because of storage fees. Make the call with a per-product cost calculation, not a gut feeling.

If you want to see FBA’s cost items (storage, fulfillment fee, long-term storage extras) in detail and which products it makes sense for, the article What is Amazon FBA and its cost is a natural continuation of this decision.

Commission, fees, and payout timing

You don’t keep the whole price you sell at. Amazon deducts a referral/service commission from every sale, and the rate varies by category. Roughly, in high-volume groups like electronics the rate tends to be low, while in fashion and accessories it tends to be higher — but verify your category’s exact rate from the fee table in Amazon Seller Central; general ranges point you in the right direction but don’t replace your panel.

A critical detail: on Amazon the commission rate is applied to the VAT-excluded base, and a separate 20% VAT is added on top of the resulting commission. This differs from Trendyol’s model of “commission is calculated from the VAT-inclusive price with no VAT on top”; sellers coming from Trendyol underestimate the deduction here. Let’s see it with an example:

• Sale price (VAT-included): 300 TL, item at 20% VAT → VAT-excluded base 250 TL
• Say category commission is 15%: 250 × 15% = 37.50 TL commission
• VAT on commission: 37.50 × 20% = 7.50 TL
• Deducted from payout for the commission item alone: 45 TL (FBA/shipping and withholding come on top)

Instead of doing these two steps by hand on every product, enter the price, VAT rate, and category into the Amazon commission calculator and let the commission and its VAT separate automatically. To see the approximate rates by category and how the band shifts, the Amazon commission rates article gives the reference table.

When is the payout (settlement)?

Amazon doesn’t pay the sale amount instantly but on a specific settlement schedule — in practice usually in periodic cycles (commonly about every two weeks), and for new sellers with a “reserve” balance held for a while. Verify your specific cycle and any reserve/hold rule from the payment screen in Seller Central; a generic “it’s deposited on this day” won’t be correct for every account. Remember that the amount reaching your account is not the gross sales total but the net payout after commission, commission VAT, any FBA/shipping fees, and withholding are deducted.

Set up your profit correctly before your first sale

The most expensive mistake new sellers make is setting the price as “cost + the profit I want” and only later seeing the commission, commission VAT, FBA/shipping fee, and withholding. By then it’s too late: you’re already selling at a loss or on a razor-thin margin. The correct order is the reverse — put all deductions into the calculation before listing, then set the price accordingly. In your first pricing, consider four items together:

1. Category commission (from the VAT-excluded base) and the 20% VAT stacked on top.
2. Depending on the shipping model, the FBA fee or your own shipping cost (a TL item, not a rate).
3. 1% withholding and your estimated return rate — both take a share of every sale’s profit.
4. Product cost + packaging and any advertising/campaign spend.

Rather than working these out in your head for a single product, use the Amazon commission calculator; it separates commission and VAT, shows clearly what’s left, and gives you a solid starting point to reverse-calculate the price you need for your target margin.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to form a company to sell on Amazon?

This is entirely a tax/legal question and varies by person; it wouldn’t be right to give a definitive answer here. The plan choice (Individual/Professional) and tax status are separate matters. Find out whether a company is required in your case and under what status you can sell by consulting your accountant and verifying the current rule from an official source (the tax authority, etc.).

Can I switch from Individual to Professional later?

Yes, you can upgrade or downgrade the plan later. So there is no pressure to make the perfect choice from the start; starting Individual at low volume and moving to Professional once sales settle is a common and reasonable path.

Should I start with FBA from the beginning?

Not necessarily. Many sellers start with FBM and move a product to FBA only after seeing it truly sells. Because FBA brings storage and fulfillment fees, it can eat into profit on slow-moving products; make the call with a per-product cost calculation, not a gut feeling.

I was rejected in video verification — what should I do?

Most rejections come from the information on the document not matching what was entered on the account. Match the name, address, and document details exactly and try again with the original document (not a photocopy/screenshot). It is usually a fixable gap.

Becoming a seller is easy — selling profitably is a matter of math

Opening an account and listing products on Amazon takes an afternoon; the real challenge is doing it profitably. Commission rates vary by category, VAT is added on top of commission, FBA fees differ product by product, and you only see the actual deduction on your payout breakdown. On top of that, if you sell on channels like Trendyol, Hepsiburada, and n11 alongside Amazon, keeping each channel’s different commission and deduction logic in your head becomes impossible. Verimle, once you connect your sales, reads the real deductions of every order (commission, commission VAT, FBA/shipping, withholding) from the breakdown, derives your net profit per product, and alerts you when a deduction is larger than expected; it compares channels on one screen. Instead of memorizing the table, let the system track the deductions — you focus on the product and price decisions.

One last reminder: the Amazon seller steps, fees (monthly subscription, referral fee, FBA fees), and registration requirements in this guide change over time and with current promotions; what’s here is general guidance and does not replace Amazon’s current official terms. Before opening an account, be sure to verify the current plan, fee, and document requirements from an official source: Amazon Seller Central (sellercentral.amazon.com.tr) and the Amazon Turkey selling page (satis.amazon.com.tr). To try out numbers and separate the commission and the VAT stacked on it product by product, you can use the Amazon commission calculator. This guide was reviewed on July 18, 2026.