Amazon Seller Central: the complete guide to selling on Amazon
What exactly is Amazon Seller Central?
On Amazon, around 60% of sales come from independent sellers — not from Amazon itself (figure reported by Amazon, 2024).
Seller Central is their digital back office: you run everything from there, and Amazon pays out your sales in 14-day cycles (newer accounts may also see a reserve of a few extra days on top of bank processing time).
You steer from Seller Central → Amazon displays your offers → customers buy → you get paid every 14 days.
Seller Central or Vendor Central?
Amazon runs two separate portals: Seller Central, open to everyone, where you sell directly to the end customer and set your own prices; and Vendor Central, invite-only, where you sell your goods wholesale to Amazon, which resells them under its own name. 99% of sellers use Seller Central.
- ✅ Open to everyone
- ✅ You sell to the end customer
- ✅ You set your prices
- ✅ "Sold by your store"
- 🔒 Reserved for big brands
- 📦 You sell to Amazon (wholesale)
- 💶 Amazon sets the retail price
- 🏷️ "Sold by Amazon"
How to create an Amazon seller account in 6 steps
Wondering how to sell on Amazon? Everything starts here, with your seller account. Allow 30 to 45 minutes for the sign-up itself, then 24 hours to a few days for verification.
- ✉️1. Email+ a dedicated password
- 🏢2. Businessregistration number — a sole proprietorship will do
- 🪪3. Identitypassport or national ID of the account holder
- 💳4. Bankbank details (IBAN) + credit card
- 🎥5. Verificationoften a short video call
- 🚀6. You're live!account active, start selling
Individual or Professional account: which one to choose?
- 💸 €0.99 charged per sale
- 🚫 No Buy Box
- 🚫 Limited advertising
- 👍 Fine for testing (< 40 sales/month)
- ✅ Unlimited sales, no fixed per-item fee
- ✅ Buy Box (the "Add to Basket" box)
- ✅ Advertising, deals, full reports
- 🧮 Pays for itself from 40 sales/month
The Buy Box in practice: why the Professional account changes everything
On Amazon, a product page is shared by every seller offering the same item. At any moment, only one of them wins the "Add to Basket" box — the Buy Box — which captures the overwhelming majority of that page's sales. Amazon awards it based on total price (product + delivery), shipping speed, and your account metrics. An Individual account is not eligible: your offers stay buried behind an "Other sellers" click. That is the real reason to go Professional as soon as you're serious.
The Seller Central dashboard at a glance
Three areas to check every day:
- 🛒 Orders — what has to ship today;
- 📦 Inventory — a stock-out sends your ranking tumbling;
- ❤️ Performance — Amazon grades you continuously: order defects < 1%, late shipments < 4%, cancellations < 2.5%.
The dashboard: menus on the left, the essentials in the middle — 90% of your day-to-day happens in Orders, Inventory and Performance.
Suspended account: how the appeal works
When a performance threshold is crossed or a document expires, Amazon can suspend your selling privileges overnight — and your funds stay frozen while the process runs. Reinstatement goes through a plan of action (POA) submitted from Seller Central: root cause, immediate fixes, preventive measures. Precise, factual submissions get through in a few days; vague answers pile up rejections for weeks. The best defence is still prevention: the Performance tab checked every day, and documents (address, bank details, ID) always up to date.
FBA or FBM: who ships your orders?
FBM: you ship every order yourself. FBA: you send your stock in bulk to Amazon, which delivers to each customer — with the Prime badge ⚡ as the prize.
The FBA route — with its overlooked link: the prep centre, which gets your stock up to Amazon's standards.
FBA or FBM: the numbers on a €25 product
With FBA, fulfilment for this product costs around €4.50 (pick & pack + Prime delivery) plus a few dozen cents of monthly storage. With FBM, the same shipment through a national carrier or parcel-shop network runs €5–7 in postage, on top of which come packaging, your time, and the missing Prime badge — which weighs heavily on conversion. FBM keeps the edge on bulky, fragile or slow-moving products (FBA long-term storage is expensive); for a standard product that turns over, FBA wins almost every time once your hours are counted.
VAT and the One-Stop Shop (OSS): the trap of storing stock abroad
As long as your stock stays in your home country, your EU cross-border sales can run through the One-Stop Shop (OSS) for VAT. But the moment Amazon stores your products in another country — which happens automatically if you enable the Pan-European programme — you become liable for VAT registration in every storage country: the OSS covers distance selling, not holding stock. It is the #1 administrative trap for sellers who tick "European storage" without realising it. Check in Seller Central (Inventory → Fulfilled by Amazon) which countries your stock actually sits in, and get an accountant on board before switching on Pan-EU.
Amazon Seller Central fees on a €25 sale
On a €25 sale fulfilled through FBA, around €11.90 goes to Amazon — referral fee, fulfilment fees and extras — that's 47.6% of what the customer pays. The seller is left with €13.10 to cover cost of goods and margin. The breakdown, at the October 2026 rate card:
| Item | Amount | Share |
|---|---|---|
| What you keep (cost of goods + margin) | €13.10 | 52.4% |
| Amazon referral fee (~15%) | €3.75 | 15.0% |
| FBA fees (fulfilment + delivery) | €4.50 | 18.0% |
| Other (storage, subscription) | €3.65 | 14.6% |
| Total taken by Amazon | €11.90 | 47.6% |
Detail: Professional plan €39/month excl. VAT · referral fee 8–15% depending on category · FBA fees from ~€3/item · storage ~€28/m³/month (higher from October to December).
The 7 classic beginner mistakes
FBG Prep receives, inspects, labels (FNSKU) and ships your goods to Amazon's European warehouses. Per-unit pricing, instant quote at fbg-prep.com.
Frequently asked questions about Amazon Seller Central
❓ Is Amazon Seller Central free?
Access to the Seller Central platform itself is free. What you pay for is the selling plan: €0.99 per item sold on the Individual plan, or €39 per month (excl. VAT) on the Professional plan — plus referral fees on each sale.
❓ How do I log in to Amazon Seller Central?
The Seller Central login is at sellercentral.amazon.co.uk — or the marketplace where you registered — using your seller account credentials, which are separate from your regular shopping account. Two-step verification is mandatory.
❓ Can I sell on Amazon as a private individual?
For a few second-hand sales, yes. As soon as the activity becomes regular, a registered business is required — a sole proprietorship or equivalent is enough to start, and Amazon asks for your company registration documents.
❓ Does one Seller Central account cover all of Europe?
Yes: the unified European account covers Amazon's European marketplaces (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Poland, Ireland…) — the up-to-date list is shown in Seller Central. Since Brexit, the UK is managed separately, and storing stock outside your home country creates local VAT obligations.
❓ What is the difference between Seller Central and Amazon.co.uk?
Amazon.co.uk — like every Amazon storefront — is where customers shop; Seller Central is the seller-only interface for managing your catalogue, prices, inventory and orders. They are two doors into the same site.