Thinking About Downgrading Your Amazon FBA Account to FBM?
Here is a quick summary of the steps you’ll take to downgrade your professional Amazon seller account.
- Login to your Amazon Seller Central Account
- Go to Settings -> Account Info
- Click Manage in the Your Services section of the Account Info page.
- Under the section that says Sell on Amazon, you should see a link that says “Downgrade”. Click on that link.
- After you’ve click on that link, Amazon Seller Central takes you page where you can confirm that you want to downgrade, a button that says “Proceed”. Click on that link.
Amazon Professional Versus Individual Seller Account
In order to make it worthwhile to have an Amazon Professional Seller account versus just an individual one, you should be selling at least 40 items per month, unless you have some other reason for needing the Professional account. With the Individual account, you are charged $0.99 per item you sell. With the Professional account, you pay a $39.99 fee, which removes the $0.99 fee when an item from your Amazon store is sold.
WARNING!
After you’ve clicked the Downgrade link, you’ll be taken to a confirmation page labeled “Change Selling Plan”. You’ll need to click on the “Proceed” button here to finish your account downgrade.
On this Change Selling Plan page, Amazon informs you that the changes to your account will take effect on the next billing cycle, and that your account will be in a “staging” status for 120 days, during which time you are prevented from selling or having active listings.
They also inform you that your FBA account will also be suspended, and they warn you to remove any FBA inventory before the billing cycle is up and your Professional seller account officially becomes inactive.
But if you need the $479.88 ($39.99 x 12) that you are paying to Amazon each year and nothing is selling it may be worth it.
Can You Handle the REAL Truth About Amazon FBA?
COVID-19 makes the next level of Amazon FBA a necessity...
I was tempted to call this article "the game has changed for Amazon FBA".
But the simple truth is that the game has always been the same!
First, let me help demystify a couple of facts for you.
Amazon FBA is simply a group of warehouses tied together by sophisticated software (which is a digital product incidentally).
Third-party sellers pay a monthly membership fee (digital product) for the privilege to access these warehouses (where very real people work incredibly hard).
BTW- now millions of people pay this monthly membership fee even if they don't sell a single item in Amazon's catalog.
There are so many third-party sellers that Amazon doesn't release the numbers! But to give you a perspective there are more third-party products than Amazon products.
When your products appear in the Amazon "catalog" they are simply sitting on shelves inside of the warehouses across the planet.
Now, if you are considering selling physical products online, e-commerce, this is not necessarily a bad thing.
In the beginning, it was fantastic!
The competition was practically non-existent and regular people were making very good money, without even trying hard.
But the plain truth, if you want to hear it, is that the game has changed.
Now the 'race to the bottom' has killed the profit for the regular person (that probably means you) entering Amazon's catalog.
Here are just some of your hurdles:
- The cost for the physical items that you are buying from China (Aliexpress or Alibaba) is skyrocketing!
- COVID-19 has made shipping times and logistics very difficult.
- More categories are gated in the Amazon catalog than ever before. BTW "ungating" categories for third-party sellers is a huge business now (and it is also a digital one).
- The Asian manufacturers (folks making your product) are now selling the same product in Amazon's catalog for less than they charged you to buy it before mark up! (BTW I think it's amazing that they are allowed to do that).
Speaking of Amazing!
Despite all of these setbacks (as of this writing), a group of marketers is selling their TWELFTH version of their "Amazon FBA Training" course.
Why?
Because their course is a digital product and they make much more money on you buying the course than they ever did selling physical items on Amazon FBA!
This particular group also hosts a big seminar with all of their excited customers paying to attend. Is buying a seminar ticket a digital product?
(Side note: Writing this article makes me feel like the Tom Cruise character writing his infamous "memo" in the 1996 Jerry Maguire movie).
Now, where was I?
Right, the YouTube Amazon training videos.
Every single YouTube Amazon training video you watch is selling a digital product! In most cases it's advertising:
Pre-Roll Video Ads
In-Stream Ads
Bumper Ads
In-Display Ads
And, of course, this advertising is for other digital products.
Now in some cases, these video creators are affiliates (people who can make lots of money without the risk) referring to an Amazon training program.
Why?
Because that is where the real money is online (and has always been).
Several years ago before the bottom fell out I taught Amazon FBA workshops.
Without any backend or upsell just real strategies and methods for selling private label products on Amazon FBA.
I taught them for about a year, via Zoom, to a couple of non-profit organizations.
This was when the "average" person could still actually make money with the private label approach.
But even then you still needed to advertise (digital product) the private labeled item in Amazon's catalog.
Who is making the money on Amazon FBA now?
- J.B. and Amazon of course (smile).
- Product manufacturers (yes, the folks who make the widgets).
- People teaching you "how" to make money on Amazon FBA.
There you have it.
The new Amazon FBA reality.
Just remember, any kind of coaching, training, or membership is a digital product.
I still find that folks tend to overlook the digital aspect of memberships. Even offline memberships are in essence a digital product.
A perfect example is a gym membership. You pay that fee each month even if you never step foot in a gym.
Of course today no one is stepping into gyms. But Peloton is very happy about that (and so is their stock)!
I digress.
Digital is the future of e-commerce online. And it doesn't matter what sleight of hand the presenter is using;
- free physical book upfront;
- 'discovery' phone call;
- webinar;
It will always come back to digital products and income.
BTW a webinar is a digital product too (smile).
But, as I said earlier, it was always the real way money is made online.
Think about it.
Nothing is more direct, uncomplicated, and lucrative than digital products:
- They are delivered instantly (no warehouse hassles, etc.)
- The customers get to enjoy or learn immediately.
- And you get paid instantly in the process.
The internet was made for digital commerce!
Sure you can try to offer Amazon training. But I believe that ship has sailed for most people just getting started online.
And yes the folks I mentioned earlier will make a killing on Amazon FBA.
But if you are not making the online money you want yet and your resources are low I would not recommend it.
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