It’s no secret that Amazon doesn’t like talking about transferring Amazon FBA accounts. In fact, their terms of service technically do not allow FBA accounts to be transferred, but this hasn’t stopped people from being able to buy and sell their FBA businesses. Our goal at Flippa is to remove the barriers between buying and selling of all online businesses, including Amazon FBA businesses. In one of our more recent sales, we worked alongside Amazon Seller Central representatives and were able to capture the exact steps necessary to transfer an FBA business. Here are the steps to transfer an Amazon FBA business:
Step 1 – Update the Primary Email
The first step is to update the primary email of the account over to the new owner. This can be accomplished by going into your account settings and under the related links section, selecting “Login Settings”. Once you’re on the Login Settings page, you can edit the primary user email ID and password. It is recommended to discuss with the new owner which email they prefer using, and then setting the password (and making sure to write it down!). Now that a new email and password has been set, the new owner should be prompted with an email saying the account has been transferred to them. Now provide the login information to them, as they’ll need to finish out the rest before the transfer is complete. (Note: If you’re also transferring the email account, it is recommended to change the password and then give them the login information.)
Step 2 – Have New Owner Complete Tax Interview
Now that the new owner has control of the account, it is up to them to complete the tax interview. This is standard process when updating the business information of an FBA account. The tax interview can be found by going to account settings page and clicking “Legal Entity” within the Business Information section.
Step 3 – Update Bank & Credit Card Information
Once the tax interview is completed, the new owner will need to update both the “Deposit Methods” and the “Charge Methods” which can be found on the Account Settings page underneath the Payment Information section. Once these three items have been completed, the new owner will now have full control of the seller account! If you’re curious about the original contents of the email from Amazon Seller Central, here it is:
I would like to inform you that the seller of a particular account can provide all the authority over the account to someone else by simply updating the primary email address and re-taking the tax interview and updating the bank and credit card information of the other person to whom you would like to sell. Kindly know that, to update the primary user email ID, all you have to do is go to account settings> Login settings (under ‘related links’) section. Once the page is opened, you can edit the primary email ID and the password. You can update the primary email ID section with that of the email ID of the person that you wish to sell to. Secondly, ask the other person to go through the tax interview once again (tax interview is nothing but the initial process that you had to undergo to update the business name.. etc..) in the Legal entity link under the ‘Business information section in the account settings page. Once the other person completes the tax information, he can go ahead and update the bank details and the credit card details in the ‘Deposit methods’ and the ‘Charge methods’ respectively under ‘Payment information’ section in the account settings page. Once the other person completes all of this process, the account will be under the other person’s control with the bank, credit and email information all will be under the other person’s name.
It’s important to note that the transfer process may differ depending on the circumstances of each Amazon FBA business. It is always recommended to contact Amazon Seller Central before transferring ownership of an FBA business.
