How to sell on Amazon South Africa

After months of speculation, Amazon Marketplace has finally committed to launching their South African marketplace in 2024. As yet they have declined to be more specific, but word on the street is that if you’re planning on signing up as a seller, don’t delay.

Indeed, registrations are open for companies that wish to trade on the Amazon Marketplace. The process is composed of five steps:

• Choose a selling plan
• Get your documents in order
• Create an Amazon seller account
• Add your products
• Grow your business

For efficient inventory control and order automation, especilally if you sell on multiple online channels, we recommend a sixth step - integration with your ERP via Stock2Shop.

Choose a selling plan

Depending on the number of items you want to sell on Amazon and the amount of functionality you need access to, you will need to choose one of the following selling plans.

• The individual plan (R10 for each item sold)
• The professional plan (R400 monthly selling fee)

Additional costs include referral fees (charged as a percentage of the item sold) and fulfilment fees when sellers opt for the FBA option (fullfilled by Amazon)

Get your documents in order

You will need the following in order to sign up:

• Banks statements
• Credit/debit card
• Identity document
• Phone number

Create an Amazon seller account

Once registered, you will get access to your Seller Central portal. This is where you will list your products, update inventory, manage payments and find helpful tips from Amazon.

Add your products

First create a product, either matching to an existing item that someone else is already selling on Amazon or create a new listing. Sellers on the professional plan can upload products in bulk, while individual sellers will need to list one item at a time.

Then it’s time to select a fulfilment option. Amazon offers two main options:

• FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon, ie they take care of packing, labelling and shipping your item)
• Easy Ship (Amazon sends a courier to collect your pre-packed item to deliver it)

Grow your business

Amazon makes a number of marketing and advertising tools available to you, depending on your selling plan. These include sponsored products, Amazon Brand Stores, promotions and vouchers. Contact them directly for more info.

For more indepth information, please download the Beginners Guide to Selling on Amazon Marketplace in South Africa HERE. Once you have signed up, get in touch with us at Stock2Shop to find out how to sync your inventory data from your accounting system and automate invoice creation.

Note: All pricing mentioned in this article was correct at the time of publishing. Please confirm costs directly with Amazon before signing up.