Amazon Seller Central Guide Series: Setting up and Navigating The Top Bar Menu

Last updated on June 5th, 2023

Written by Himanshi Raj

You’ve been hearing a lot about Amazon’s potential to take your business to new heights. But, of course, in a world that is rapidly shifting, this wouldn’t come as a surprise.

The exciting potential you see comes with a drawback - doubt. Suppose you’re one of those entrepreneurs who are used to a traditional brick-and-mortar type of business. In that case, learning Amazon’s technology relative to the online marketplace can be confusing and time-consuming - more so if you’re planning to start a wholesale business.

Yet, the best way to improve your understanding of things better is by actioning it. Learning about Amazon Seller Central and putting up an Amazon online business is no different. So, we’re here to alleviate the doubt in your head by providing you with a do-as-you-read guide. That way, you won’t feel so isolated about venturing into the unknown world of Amazon.

What is Amazon Seller Central: An Overview

Seller Central is a platform developed by Amazon catering to entrepreneurs, business owners, and brand managers. It's a marketplace to sell products to Amazon's pool of customers directly.

This type of arrangement gives sellers control to manage their selling activities. For example, sellers can list their products, track sales, provide customer service, analyze performance, manage inventory, and even ship (subject to Amazon's regulations).

Businesses are drawn to Seller Central because it allows them to use their management and marketing strategies to influence performance and profit. If done strategically, sellers can make wild profits in the Amazon marketplace.

So, if you're convinced that Seller Central is for you, leap now and set up your seller account. Here's a walkthrough on how to do it.

Set up an Amazon Seller Central account

1. Google "sell on amazon" or go to https://sell.amazon.com/

2. At the bottom of the page, choose the marketplace country you want to start selling in just above the sitemap. There are 24 countries to choose from.

3. It's important to note that it will register you to a professional account once you click the Sign-Up button. If you want to see your options first, you can:
   • Scroll down mid-page, where you can see three boxed options.
   • Navigate to the "Make Money" box. The third box from the left of the page.
   • At the bottom of the box, click "See pricing."
   • Scroll down to check the comparison table between the Individual Plan and the Professional Plan.

4. After clicking the Sign-Up button, it will prompt you to enter essential information about you or your business. This information is categorized into three:
   • Business and Contact Address (where your business is located)
   • Mobile or Telephone Number
   • Chargeable Credit Card Identity Details

5. Be sure to read the terms and conditions 

6. Click “Agree and continue”

7. Another layer of registration needs to be completed to set up your Seller Central account. Check out the following sections and the things you need to accomplish with each one.
   • Individual Information - This section will ask your country of citizenship and birth, birth date, business address, and contact info. You will need to verify your contact number with the pin code sent.
   • Billing - This section will outline what you need to have a valid bank account number to deposit and withdraw money from. It will also request a valid credit card number for payments. First, you'll have to acknowledge it by clicking "I understand." Once you click it, you will be asked to fill out your bank account and credit card information.
   • Store and Product Information - This section will ask for your store's name, whether you have Universal Product Codes (UPCs), diversity certifications, and if you're a manufacturer or a brand owner. Simply fill out the store name, tick the appropriate buttons for each question, and click "Next."
   • Verification - This portion will review all the information you entered from the previous sections. It will also require you to upload identity documents (i.e., photo of your ID) and additional documents (i.e., bank statement or credit card statement). ard statement). 

8. Click the “Submit” button once you’re done

9. Your account will be reviewed by Amazon within two business days.

Seller Central Dashboard:  A Tour of the Top Bar Menu

Here’s an overview of the heavily used section of the Seller Central interface. The top bar menu. This is where you can manage your account or ask for help from Amazon support. 

Catalog

The catalog manages your entire product selection. In addition, the Catalog menu allows you to:

• Add products
  • If you want to add new products and list them on the Amazon marketplace, navigate here.

• Complete Your Drafts
  • If you didn't complete the process, you could get back to it here. This is an excellent way to pre-plan your product additions.

Inventory

This option lets you manage, plan, and evaluate the number of products stored and ready for use. Some of the critical sub-menus are:

• Manage Inventory
  • Here, you can see all your store's product listings and its details, including name, image status, price, sales rank, and fulfillment options.

• Add Products via Upload
  • For advanced sellers who want to efficiently list products in bulk, this sub-menu will help you. You'll have to use a template that allows you to bulk upload hundreds of products in one go.

• Inventory Reports
  • Here you can download the analytics of your listings. You'll have reports for all your active, inactive, sold, or canceled listings here.

• Sell Globally
  • You can list your products on Amazon marketplace countries using this option. It also allows you to view sales data for each country you participate in. 

• Upload and Manage Videos
  • This will allow you to upload videos on your listings. To use this feature, you'll need to be brand registered through Amazon brand registry. You can upload, edit, and manage product videos here.

Pricing

This option allows you to manage your listings' price points to give you a competitive edge against other buyers. 

• Pricing Health
  • Pricing Health will show you if your price point is competitive, too low, or too high compared to the competition. In addition, pricing health gives you insights into whether you're competitive enough for buy box placement.

• Pricing Dashboard
  • Displays graphical data which shows your product listing's chances of placing for a buy box and how pricing is faring against other sellers. It also indicates whether your product is selling slow or fast. In addition, you can use the Pricing Dashboard to your advantage by analyzing fee discounts if you agree to a specific pricing offer.

• Fix Price Alerts
  • This alerts you to change pricing errors that are triggered by overpricing on your product listing. The errors occur if the product listing has a set low and high pricing limit.

• Automate Pricing
  • It lets you create specific "rules" that trigger an automatic price change. 

Orders

The orders section is where you manage and monitor customer orders, returns, and claims you've made for your products.

• Manage Orders
  • Allows you to view pending, canceled, or all order statuses among different sales channels.

• Order reports
  • Allows you to download orders with different statuses (i.e., new, unshipped, archived). It also lets you schedule reports and manage them effectively.

• Manage returns
  • Applicable for seller fulfilled products that require manual authorization of product returns. This permits you to track product returns from pre-authorization to closure.

• Manage SAFE-T Claims
  • Seller Assurance for Ecommerce Transactions (SAFE-T) allows you to process reimbursements for damaged or mishandled products that you can no longer sell.

Advertising

If you want to initiate, manage, and monitor advertising efforts for your product listing to boost sales, the Advertising section is where you go. Only the Professional Amazon account plan gets this feature.

• Campaign Manager
  • It lets you create an advertising campaign for your product listing with different goals targeting specific consumers. You're also going to be able to set budgets to spend on your advertising efforts.

• A+ Content Manager
  • This is used by brand owners and managers who are part of the Amazon brand registry. It allows you to tell your brand's story and value proposition using multimedia content.

• Early Reviewer Program
  • You can pay Amazon for a review service, and Amazon will ask customers to give you a review on a particular product listing. Great for adding credibility and value to your products.

• Vine
  • This Amazon program lets you tap on Amazon's list of credible people to post reviews and opinions about your product listing. You can send your product to a maximum of 30 people to obtain reviews.

• Deals
  • Allows you to plan and structure promotional deals for your product listings.

• Coupons
  • You can create a coupon for one or several of your products. You can also track the performance of your coupons in this section.

• Promotions
  • Create three kinds of promotions for your prospective customers. Free shipping, Percentage Off, and Buy One Get One. Here you can use one or combine several on one or multiple product listings.

Stores - Store Manager

The store manager option is for sellers who are Amazon brand registered. It lets you create a brand landing page sponsored by Amazon and drive traffic to your branded product listings.

Reports

This section gives you a detailed breakdown of important account information to better analyze your Amazon business operations.

• Payments
  • Provides you an expense statement showing a breakdown of how much you paid Amazon in a given date range, transactions, or all statements.

• Amazon Selling Coach
  • Produces reports that provide suggestions on how to improve your Amazon business. Among them are recommendations for your product listings, inventory management, and search recommendations.

• Business Reports
  • If you want to see reports about sales traffic and performance, this is the section where you can view historical data for your products. 

• Fulfillment
  • This section allows you to view various reports related to fulfilled shipments. Reports include inventory, sales, inventory and storage fees, customer returns and replacements, order removals, and more.

• Return Reports
  • This reports on all customer return along with the reason for the returns on an account level.

• Tax Document Library
  • The Tax Document Library Generates reports involving tax payments and exemptions imposed on your Amazon seller account. This can be used as a reference for tax filing purposes.

Performance

This section gives you a quick overview of your Amazon account's performance. If you're hands-on with your account management, this will likely be your go-to section.

• Account Health
  • Provides you an overview of your customer service performance, product compliance, shipping service performance, and customer's voice

• Feedback
  • It shows you the overall buyer satisfaction or dissatisfaction that ranges 30 days, six months, one year, or lifetime. It allows you to track negative reviews as well and manage them via a removal request.

• Chargeback Claims
  • It lets you view and manage charge disputes if you've filed a claim for an incorrect charge due to unauthorized payment or non-receipt of items.

• Performance Notifications
  • This section is where you'll find Amazon's communications that are critical for your accounts, such as product listing suspension or takedown.

• Voice of the Customer
  • This shows your buyer's sentiment on a listing level and categorizes listing on a spectrum from very poor to excellent. This way, you can manage your poor-performing listings.

• Seller University
  • Acts as a knowledge base for beginner sellers looking to improve their seller process knowledge.

A Reference Guide

This Amazon Seller Central guide your go-to reference, especially when starting. It is an article designed for you to go back and quickly search through the document. 

You can bookmark this article by clicking on the star icon on the right side of your browser's address bar. It will show up as a tab below the bar once it has been bookmarked. You can also find it by clicking the three vertical dot menu on the top right side, then scroll down to the "Bookmarks" section. Additionally, you can easily find certain sections on this article by pressing CTRL + F on your keyboard and typing a word or phrase on the bar that popped up on the upper right portion of the page. 

And don't forget to enjoy the learning experience. For more help, consider using an Amazon account management service for your Amazon goals.