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.
THINGS TO CONSIDER BEFORE CLOSING YOUR ACCOUNT
It is important to note that when you fully close your seller account, Amazon will not be able to reactivate or reinstate your account. You will need to sign up again at https://services.amazon.com.
Once your seller account has been permanently closed, you will no longer have access to the following benefits:
- You won’t be able to access other websites using your Amazon.com log-in, such as Audible and Amazon accounts in other markets.
- You won’t have access to digital content related to Amazon Music, Amazon Drive and Prime Photos, or your Amazon App Store purchases.
- Your customer profile will be removed and inaccessible. This includes any reviews, discussion posts and images that customers have uploaded.
- You won’t have access to your account history (including credit card information, order history, etc.). It is also important to note that once your account is closed, you can no longer process returns, issue refunds, respond to A-to-Z Guarantee claims, or communicate with buyers.
- Returns and refunds can’t be processed for orders on closed accounts (including textbook rentals).
- If you have a remaining Amazon.com Gift Card or promotional credit balance, these funds will be inaccessible.
- If you have a North America Unified Account and you close your seller account, all of your other eligible accounts will be shut down at the same time. For example, if you close your U.S. account, your Canada and Mexico accounts will also be closed.
If there is any information (for example, transaction records and financial data) that you need to keep, it is critical that you take a record of this before proceeding with closing your account.
Aside from permanently deleting your account, there are other actions that you can take, depending on the reason why you are considering closing your account.
OTHER OPTIONS YOU HAVE AVAILABLE:
Downgrade account:
If you want to avoid paying monthly selling fees, you can downgrade your account from a professional selling plan to an individual selling plan. Rather than paying $39.99/month as a subscription fee, you simply pay a $0.99 fee for every item sold (plus additional charges). This is suitable if you are selling less than 40 units per month. To learn more, see selling plans.
Vacation mode:
If you do this, you will continue to receive customer emails. However, you will still need to attend to your performance metrics. To put your account on vacation mode:
- Go to Seller Central, navigate to Settings > Account info.
- Under Vacation Settings, choose Inactive > Submit.
When you are ready to resume trading, you can set your account status back to active.
Close down listings:
If circumstances related to sourcing inventory change, such as product supply issues from your manufacturer or international shipping disruptions, then you may wish to consider this option. To close down listings, follow these steps:
- Go to Inventory in Seller Central.
- Select the item(s) that you want to stop listing.
- From the Action menu, click Close Listings.
It can take up to 36 hours for all of your listings to be removed from the Amazon marketplace.
Deleting some product listings:
If you have products that you can no longer source or you wish to make a permanent change to a specific title, then this option may suit you. Please note that such changes are permanent and irreversible. To permanently delete product listings, you need to:
- Go to Inventory in Seller Central and select the items that you wish to edit.
- Click on the Delete Product and Listing option from the drop down Edit menu.
Process for permanently closing your seller account:
If the above options are not relevant to you, and you wish to proceed with a permanent closure of your seller account, you need to take the following actions:
- Process all outstanding orders.
- Wait 90 days after processing your final order to ensure that your A-Z Guarantee Claims period is satisfied.
- Wait until you have a nil balance in your account.
- Resolve all buyer transactions including refunds.
- Confirm that Amazon has your current bank account details on file so that you can receive your final payment.
If you have any remaining FBA inventory, you must submit a request to either return or dispose of it prior to closing your account. For more information, see remove inventory (overview).
Once you have completed the above checklist, go to the contact us page.
- Click Close your account.
- Fill out the form and click Submit request.
Once Amazon has received and processed your request, they will either send you a confirmation email that your account has been closed, or send you an email detailing why your account can’t be closed at this time and actions that you need to take in order to successfully close your account. This tutorial provides helpful illustrations for filling out the ‘close your account’ form.
HAVE YOU CONSIDERED SELLING YOUR AMAZON BUSINESS?
Another option available to sellers, which people don’t always think about is selling your Amazon business.
Get in touch with us at MuseMinded for options on How to Sell your Amazon Business. ')}
