If you are an entrepreneur or manufacturer and desire to offer your Nigerian product to potential customers or clients outside the country, then what you need to know is how to sell on Amazon from Nigeria.
Amazon is rated the top world online store with millions of unique visits from all over the world. This online selling platform gives you the opportunity to find international customers and therefore, improve your own sales. Many keep asking how they can sell on this U.S based online platform from Nigeria. This article provides you with information on all you need to know about selling products and goods on Amazon from Nigeria.
How to Sell on Amazon from Nigeria
Read on below:
How to sell on Amazon from Nigeria
It used to be utterly impossible to use the Amazon seller app if you did not live in the USA. But this is not the same anymore. Now, you can easily learn how to sell on Amazon even if you do not reside or work in the USA.
This often looks impossible for Nigerians at first glance. This is because Amazon does not list Nigeria in its list of countries whose residents can register as a seller on Amazon. However, there are still ways you can manage this rather sad incident and bypass the system.
General rules
There are general rules for residents outside the United States of America who wish to sell on Amazon. These rules are not difficult to follow and are easy to pull through by every Nigerian who has a big desire to join the biggest global online market and become a worldwide seller. There are several important steps you have to complete before you can become one of the many sellers on the biggest e-commerce site in the world. These steps are crucial in making sure that every seller on the platform is eligible to sell on the platform. The first step is registration, here, you have to make sure to provide honest information. Read on below:
Required steps to begin selling on Amazon
Registration of an account
It is not possible to sell any of your products without an account on Amazon. It is such good news that you don’t have to travel from Nigeria to the USA to register to have such an account. However, it is also sad that you cannot register from the comfort of your home or office in Nigeria because Nigeria is not eligible to join sellers on the platform. However, there are ways to go about this problem and make it work for you as a Nigerian. This is how to go about it:
Citizens of countries such as Niger, Namibia, and many other African countries are eligible to register officially as sellers on Amazon. So, if you have relatives or friends who reside in any of these African countries, you can use their location for your registration. If you are unable to find someone in Niger, Namibia, or another supported country, then you can find a U.S.-based partner that will offer you their own physical address in the United States of America for a rental fee.
Other requirements include:
- Internet connection
- Ready documents (the account must be verified)
- Register a non-USA seller account on Amazon through a business partner or with your friends/relatives help: VPN which will be used to hide your Nigerian IP-address during registration and platform usage
To register your account, you will need the following:
- Your real physical address (at the supported country only)
- Real name
- Mastercard/Visa international banking card and other bank details (Other bank details are needed so that you will be able to receive electronic payments and automatic wire transfers). Many Nigerians who wish to sell on Amazon directly from the country use international partners and a Payoneer prepaid card for receiving money in U.S. dollars. They withdraw the money and later convert it to Naira.
- Patience for account approval
Once you have successfully registered a seller account on Amazon, you need to be patient and wait for Amazon to activate and approve the account.
- Choosing a shipping partner
Upon registration, if your account is successfully activated, you need to read all the guides listed by Amazon for its network of sellers from all over the world. You can then decide to:
Ship your products to your seller partner who lives in the African country that is supported-for-selling by Amazon: This option is not the best because of the cost of international shipping which is most times more expensive and scares away potential buyers. Another downside to this is that it can take a long period of time for your products to be shipped from African countries directly to your customers in other parts of the world and sometimes, the parcels can get lost on their way.
Ship your products to Amazon warehouse through its FBA (Fulfilment by Amazon) program: This is another option and it is safer and more attractive to potential customers from the USA because they are assured the products are physically located at Amazon’s warehouse.
- Calculate the prices of goods well
Once you have decided on how exactly you plan on selling on Amazon, ensure you take time out to calculate prices for your products such that will leave you with a nice profit. You can then add the products to your Amazon store.
- Download the mobile Amazon seller app
You can use the Amazon seller app to manage your new online store. Amazon gives you the option of advertising on the platform.
Amazon boasts of having more than 95 million visitors per month from the USA only, and million more customers from all over the world. This is how you can sell your products from Nigeria on Amazon. Amazon is also working with many African countries directly so as to allow their residents become sellers on Amazon seller app, perhaps it will not be long before Nigeria gets added to the list of these countries supported by Amazon.