With the Internet revolutionizing global trade, becoming a retailer or manufacturer is more accessible than ever. Amazon, as a prominent worldwide marketplace, offers a game-changing platform for businesses. Utilizing Amazon’s Seller Central, which facilitates seamless communication between sellers and customers worldwide, can propel your business to new heights. However, if circumstances require it, understanding how to close your Amazon seller account is essential.
It’s possible, though, that you won’t want to keep doing business here forever. There’s no denying that Amazon is the greatest online marketplace, but with millions of new merchants signing up every year, competition is fierce. As a result of this, several merchants are considering closing their accounts. Many sellers abandon their Amazon accounts because they don’t know how to deactivate a seller account. If you really want to get rid of your Amazon seller central account, you need to follow the correct procedures for doing so.
Here, then, we’ll show you exactly what steps to do to close your Amazon Seller Central account.
Unattended Amazon Seller Accounts Can Have Serious Repercussions
If a seller is losing money or isn’t making enough sales on Amazon, they can decide to abandon their account. If you leave your store open without closing it, it will just pose more problems in the future.
- Neglecting your account gives your consumers an open invitation to flood you with nasty comments and ratings. Your store’s credibility and position may take a hit, making future sales more challenging.
- When you leave your Amazon seller account active without monitoring it, Amazon may suspend your account. You are in violation of Amazon’s policies when you fail to keep an eye on your seller account. Thus, doing so would be a wise decision.
In the event that you feel you can no longer manage your account, closing your seller account is the best option.
Pausing an Amazon Seller Account Temporarily Is an Option
You may be considering canceling your Amazon account because you are sick of either the hassle of selling on Amazon or the high cost of maintaining an Amazon seller account. Even during the financially challenging COVID pandemic, Amazon attracted the most online traffic worldwide, so maybe you shouldn’t close your Amazon store just yet.
If you decide to terminate your account, you will no longer have access to any of your prior sales records or buyer communications. Before you decide to deactivate entirely your Amazon seller account, you may want to look into the following alternatives.
- Going on Vacation Mode
- Reducing the price of my seller account
Let’s look into all of the possibilities.
Vacation Mode
When a seller puts their Amazon account into vacation mode, their product listings disappear. Customers will not be able to view what you have available for sale, even if you still have stock. With Amazon’s Vacation Mode, it’s as if the company hit “pause” on your sales.
If you’re feeling burnt out from work, this is a great short-term fix. To avoid unfavorable comments from returning clients, you should take the following precautions before activating Vacation Mode:
- Before making your product listings dormant, make sure that any pending orders have been processed and sent. No matter what your listing status is, any pending orders will stay just that.
- It’s a good idea to change your product listings’ status to “inactive” around two days before you leave on a trip. This is so you don’t lose sales to last-minute buyers after you’ve already removed your listing.
- Email service providers typically allow users to configure an automated response. If your customers have any questions, you may rest assured that they will receive at least an automatic answer if you set this up for the email address in your seller account. The length of time you won’t be accepting orders should be communicated to clients via automated responses.
Here is how to put your listings into “Vacation Mode.”
- Sign in to your Seller Central account on Amazon.
- In the upper right, you’ll see a gear-shaped symbol; click on that to access the settings.
- Select Account Info from the option that appears.
- On the Seller Account details page, look for the Listing Status column. A link labeled “Vacation” should appear in the upper right corner of your screen.
- You’ll be taken to a website where you may configure your vacation settings for all the Amazon marketplaces (global regions) in which you participate. To make your Amazon listings disappear, select the marketplace and then click the Inactive option.
- Hit the Save button after you have turned off all of the listings. Please be aware that your items won’t be deleted from Amazon’s search results until 1 hour has passed after you click Save.
Please be forewarned. You still have responsibilities when in Vacation Mode, including but not limited to:
- Within 24 hours of receiving a customer communication or return request, you must respond. The Amazon Seller app, available for both Android and iOS, makes quick work of these kinds of exchanges.
- Invest in a professional selling strategy and pay the monthly membership fees.
Now that you’re well-versed in Vacation Mode, you should look into an alternative that doesn’t involve terminating your seller account.
Downgrading Your Amazon Seller Account: How to Close and Downgrade your Seller Account
As an Amazon seller, it can be frustrating to have to pay a subscription fee every month. If you already have a Professional Selling account, switching to the free Individual Seller arrangement is as simple as following these steps:
- Visit Amazon’s Seller Central and sign in.
- Visit the profile page for your account.
- Select the Preferences menu in the upper right. After that, select Account Info from the menu that appears.
- Under “Your Services” on the Seller Account Information page, select the Manage link.
- Select the Downgrade link in the Sell on Amazon row on the My Services page.
- Click on the confirm button.
See Also:
Sell Your Amazon Account Instead?
What if we told you your account doesn’t have to die a profitless death? Profits from an Amazon FBA firm can be expected to grow by 3 to 6 times a year if the company is publicly traded. Because of this, even a business with yearly profits of about $20,000 could be worth selling for over $100,000!
Since many Amazon aggregators and individual buyers are interested in purchasing firms like yours, the market value of your company may be more than you think. There are generally purchasers in the market for an Amazon account with some history, even if the business itself isn’t profitable.
Instead of giving up and canceling your account, why not give it one last shot at making a profit?
What Happens After You Close the Amazon Seller Account?
After you cancel your Amazon seller account, all of your product listings will be deleted and your inventory will be removed from sale. Not only will you lose any funds in your account, but you will also lose access to all of your account information. Therefore, if you are thinking about canceling your Amazon account, you should give some thought to the following.
When you cancel your Amazon account, you may have a few issues.
Losing Feedback and Ratings
The loss of your previous ratings and comments is one of the most serious repercussions. If you’re trying to sell goods on another site, this can hurt you because customers won’t know what kind of merchant you are.
Giving Up on Your Balance
If you close your Amazon account, you will also lose access to any funds that may have been in there. Be sure to settle any pending payments or requests for refunds before canceling your account.
Loss of Data Access
When you cancel your Amazon account, you will no longer have access to any of your previous purchases or other account information. Information about past orders, past customers, and past products all fall under this category. You should save any data you want to save before canceling your account.
Deleting Your Amazon Account
If none of your strategies to revive the sales worked, and pausing the account temporarily is not one of the options, it’s time to terminate the account. There are three tasks that must be finished before you may cancel your Amazon seller account.
Complete all requests
To begin, you must either ship out all outstanding orders or cancel them. Orders placed using the Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA) service will be processed immediately. If you’re taking care of shipping the orders yourself, don’t forget about any of them.
If you’d rather cancel orders, simply visit Seller Central’s Manage Orders section, make the necessary selections, and cancel the orders one by one.
Get rid of your listings
The next step is to take your listings off Amazon. Go to Inventory in Seller Central and use the pull-down menu next to the product you want to delete. When you’re ready, select the “Create removal order” option. You’ll be asked to verify the destination to which the stock is to be shipped; after you do so, the shipment process will commence.
If your products are spread out among various FBA warehouses, the removal order process can take up to 45 days and come in many separate shipments. Avoid having ‘stranded inventory,’ or products Amazon is holding that they can’t link to a listing, by performing this step before deleting listings.
Clean your account balance
Since Amazon neither sends nor receives funds to or from closed accounts, you must ensure that your balance is zero. Either settle your account with Amazon if it’s in the red—or give them your current banking information so they may send you a final payment if you’re in the black.
When you’ve finished everything on this list, you can close your account.
Detailed steps to closing the Amazon Seller account
If you’ve made up your mind that canceling your account is the best course of action, you can do so in a jiffy by visiting your Seller Central account and following the instructions there.
- Go to Seller Central’s Account Information page.
- To terminate your account, select the corresponding link.
- Verify that you really wish to close your account for good.
Amazon understands that deciding to terminate an account is a major action. Therefore, they provide you with a final opportunity to ensure this is the choice you truly wish to make. If everything looks good, proceed with the closing by clicking the confirm button.
Final Thoughts
All your hard work will be for naught if you close your Amazon account. Please give this some serious consideration before making a move. It’s easy to come up with a workaround that deletes your Amazon account while still ensuring its security. You could, for instance, reach out to Pirscapital and plan out a payback strategy when your sales are up and profitable again. Our experts will also guide you in this endeavor so you’re in good hands!
I work with companies that sell products on platforms such as Amazon, Shopify, Walmart, Ebay, Etsy, etc. I understand that every business is unique and thats why I form genuine relationships with owners so I can help them reach their goals and find success through our working capital solutions.
