Hi,
I’ve been selling FBA since late 2016 in my niche. Frankly my niche is small and it’s hard to grow further. So I’m interested in getting into another niche that is entirely different from the one that I’ve been selling. So I need to create a new brand and logo that fits the new niche. I would prefer to use the same Amazon account and US LLC to operate the new brand. Is that a bad/good idea? Would the customers able to see that I’m running two brands in different niche?
Here are the pros and cons that I could think of:
Pros
Simplicity of operation from running only 1 account
Amazon doesn’t like people running multiple account. Hence less chance of having problems with Amazon
Cons
Problems (e.g. account suspension) from one brand could affect another brand because they’re under the same Amazon account.
A little more complex accounting work because Amazon might combine numbers of two brands (I’m not sure about this).
What do you guys think? Would you start a new brand under your existing Amazon account or you would separate it? Please share your thoughts. Thanks.
As someone that has 2 accounts, I would say stick to 1 absolutely.
I have 2 accounts because I own 2 different businesses, but in the same category. There are different people involved in these businesses, with different bank accounts, addresses, CC’s, phone #'s, emails, EINs, etc.
One of my accounts sells 4 different brands. It’s fine, and that’s the way it should be done.
What you are talking about here is not a legitimate reason to open a second account and I don’t think Amazon will even let you unless you totally separate the businesses on the outside.
IMO, having 2 accounts is actually far more dangerous. If one does get suspended, they are both going down under the related accounts policy. Now you would have 2 accounts to get reactivated instead of 1.
Further, Amazon’s enforcement of their policies has hit an all time low IMO. As long as you follow the rules, you’ll be fine. Stick to 1!
Glad to hear this. Thank you.
Do you happen to know whether your customers would see all your 4 brands under the same account? I don’t want them to see different brands because they’re in a different niche.
Oh, that’s new to me.
I’m feeling that too. Not as many account suspension horror stories as 3-4 years ago. I wonder whether competitions (like Walmart, Tiktok, eBay, etc) help taming Amazon agressiveness.
We are set up this way as well.
There would/could be no overlap between the two accounts. Nothing is the same, nothing “matches”, log in an operate from different IP addresses. Seperate computers. There would be no way to connect them, at least in a legitimate manner. Has served us well over the past many years, the “smaller” account was the original. They sell completely different merchandise, the larger account has one and it’s only brand, this account also has a brand but was more to “test the waters” kind of thing.
If you can stick to ONE I agree with ASV it’s definitely safer. But if it’s done as described (and do not log onto both accounts with any of the same devices) in the event of an issue that takes one down, the second should be safe.
Best to you whatever you decide.
How do you handle the identity for each account? They are different people?
I’m the contact for both. I do use different computers but the same WIFI.
There used to be an issue way back when, when you were signed into both accounts on the same computer, in different windows, where when you set up a listing on one account, it ended up in the other accounts inventory… Crazy but true. Happened to me when I first opened the second account which is when I went immediately to the store and bought a new computer. LOL
I didn’t know about the related account issue when I set up my second account. Had I, I would have gone totally separate, having my partner be the account user, and used a separate IP.
We aren’t doing anything against policy, and I did get Amazon’s approval for a second account when that was a thing (it’s no longer).
Is what it is. 1 account is better if you can help it and I doubt the OP wants to go through the trouble of setting up a completely different business entity to get to 2 accounts separately.
Amazon is really good at connecting accounts, sometimes seemingly by mistake at times, so something tells me Amazon knows you have 2 accounts.
Thanks. Where is this “See all products by seller X”? All I could see is “Visit the X store” See green arrow below. After I click there, I don’t see the See all products by seller X.
Yup. Inventory limits are account level, not brand level. We have several corporations so they have to be different accounts, but if they were all one account we would have been starved out of inventory back at the unit limit days and today with hazmat limits.
The unused minimums for hazmat on each of the separate accounts combinedm, exceed the total capacity of one of the one that does sell hazmat. (I think I worded that right) You get my point, I hope.
Two separate businesses. Two separate contacts.
Different WIFI, not even the same carrier. Different computers.
Different business names, different business addresses, EIN’s bank accounts are both different.
One business “owns” a building, the other operates out of a separate location which is “rented”. .
We do everything separate.
Everything is within policy. When I had an issue with a certain group of people who like to cause issues with buyer accounts, I was in touch with an outstanding ESR at amazon. She had no idea we had more than one account and I would guess she could see the “back” of my account which gave no information about the other. Yes Amazon may know there are “2” of us, but looking at their guidelines, everything is within policy. We have never had an issue.
No, that’s not where you would find that. You need to click on the seller (shown below), then you will get an opportunity to view the entire catalog for the seller.
As you can see, all 56 of this seller’s listings show up.
A seller can have an unlimited amount of brands and an unlimited amount of brand stores.
The odds of a consumer taking that many clicks to see what else you sell are almost as high as getting struck by lightening. It’s not something I would be concerned about unless the scenario @GGX laid out is what’s going on here. Even then, I still wouldn’t open 2 stores and start a whole new business entity.
Thanks for the info. Even though this may sound like a drawback, I think it’s actually not. Inventory limit depends on the sales volume. As long as products in multiple brands sell well, Amazon would provide enough inventory limit, right?
Just noticed your reply to another person after writing the paragraph above. Got it.
Thank you for multiple screenshots. Appreciate it. I wish all forums would be as easy as SAS to post pictures (copy and paste). Most forums require tedious tasks of screenshot and save to jpg/png file, then attach to the post, too many steps. Kudo to SAS for picking this great software
Hmm…so there is no way to hide listings of different brands in the same store, I guess
Nope. Not always. It is also dependent on Amazon capacity. Want a dissertation on that fact, ask @ASV_Vites, as he got hammered hard a few years ago. He couldn’t keep 15 days in stock. He had to postpone building his hardened swimming pool that he was going to Scrooge McDuck in.
"Your capacity limit is influenced by your IPI score, as well as other factors such as historical sales volume, seasonal and peak selling periods for your products, forecasts for your ASINs, the new selection that you carry, deals that you’ve scheduled, fulfillment center capacity, and shipment lead time. https://sellercentral.amazon.com/help/hub/reference/GAFNWEYTJUV2GBFC#mnd_2jc_jcb-1
Thanks for the info. Hmm.. so this would be one advantage of separating the account for two different brands. I wonder if would be more of a hassle to separate them later down the road if this problem actually arrives.
I wonder if would be more of a hassle to separate them later down the road if this problem actually arrives.