Starting an Online Business All-in-One For Dummies®, 3rd Edition

Achieving Pro Merchant Status

Realizing that you might want to increase your sales potential by using Amazon.com, the site established the Pro Merchant account. You're a primary candidate for this type of account if you sell more than 40 orders per month. As a Pro Merchant, you're still selling in the Marketplace: The way your listings look, the options for where the listings appear, and the way you post your items for sale are the same (see the preceding section “Joining the Marketplace,” for details about selling in the Marketplace).

When you become a Pro Merchant seller, you gain a few definite advantages:

• Reduced fees: The 99-cent transaction fee is automatically waived for all Pro Merchant accounts. All other commissions and fees remain, however.
• Bulk listing capabilities: Designed for sellers of large inventory, the Pro Merchant account provides tools that make it easier to load and manage multiple listings. Included among the tools are
  • Inventory Loader: Modify, delete, and upload thousands of products at one time.
  • Book Loader: Match and upload books considered to have pre-ISBNs. Rare, collectible, or out-of-print books are in this category.
• Continuous listings: Your listings never expire. You keep them posted until an item sells or you decide to remove them.
• Management functions: You gain access to various reports that show the status of your account at any given time. These reports allow you to view all account activity (including items that shipped) for periods of ...