“How to ‘legally’ set up Amazon Seller Account (Amazon Seller ID) from Pakistan” – In today’s write-up we will be answering the one of the most frequently asked questions from the Amazon Selling aspirants from Pakistan.

This is the single most asked question on any forum for quite some time now. And unfortunately, whatever material is available online on the subject, none really truly answers it correctly for Pakistani Residents.

Most of you would not like the simple and straight answer but it has to be what it is;

Pakistan not being on the Amazon’s Approved Countries List to set up an Amazon Seller Account, Pakistani Residents cannot open a personal Amazon Seller Account (Amazon Seller ID) in any of the Amazon marketplaces, be it US, UK or any other country for that matter.  

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Shocking news right? I know.

Now you will be wondering, if the above is true, how so many of the Pakistan Amazon Training businesses are luring audiences towards learning and selling on Amazon.

The thing is, like any other destination, this destination too has multiple routes leading to it. The only thing is that none of them routes through Pakistan. Well, not right now, in any case.

So if none of the routes leads through Pakistan, you will be wondering, then what is the most proper and the ‘legal’ way to set up an Amazon Seller ID from Pakistan.

Let us dig into answering this question for you.

METHOD ONE:

You can request an individual already resident in any of the country of your target Amazon marketplace, be it a friend or a relative or even a family member, to open the Amazon Seller Account for you. That individual’s personal details will be verified by the Amazon and if all found in order, the seller account will be verified and the individual would be eligible to sell on Amazon. Depending on the Seller plan chosen, the individual may have to pay the recurring monthly Amazon Seller Account fee.

• Pro: Once the individual has the account opened, they will have to allow one or more persons to manage the Amazon Seller ID. The person(s), which can be resident of any country around the globe, including Pakistan, then can log into the said Amazon Seller Account and can manage the account, on the behalf of the Amazon Seller and can sell on Amazon..

• Con: The individual setting up the Amazon Seller Account in the target Amazon marketplace will receive all the amounts resulting from the sales, resulting from this Amazon Seller Account selling activity into their bank account. How to get those sales proceeds then transferred to Pakistan is then totally dependent on the Pakistani Resident(s).

In above scenario, the foreign resident (Amazon Seller) and the Pakistani Resident, can then pay remuneration or split the profits based on the personal binding/non-binding contract based on their mutual understanding. However, if there is no real binding contract in place, there would always be this risk that the foreign resident may not be motivated to pay the person(s) back in Pakistan.

METHOD TWO – THE PREFERRED METHOD:

A company (a legal person) is formed in the target Amazon marketplace where the foreign resident acting as an Office Manager (or as a Director, or even as a Shareholder) of the company, opens a Corporate Amazon Seller Account. This legal person (or company) is a professional outfit that is incorporated to allow the sales proceeds to come to the company. Based on the corporate agreement between the foreign resident and the Pakistani Resident(s), the sales proceeds can then be allocated appropriately and legally between the Office Manager, or Directors, or Shareholders as the case may be.

Amazon allows this method since a legal person (company), who has provided all the legal documentation to the Amazon for verification purposes as part of the verification process, is the legal owner of the Amazon Seller Account. In this arrangement, no single individual is the owner of the Amazon Seller Account but it’s the company that owns the Amazon Seller ID.

The Pakistani Resident(s), as a Director or a Shareholder of any percentage (that is negotiated between the Pakistani Resident(s) and the foreign resident Office Manager, or the Director or the Shareholder) can then transfer the allocated profits from the Amazon selling activity to Pakistan, legally.

• Pro: There are more than one actually;

1. It is a secure and completely legal set up
2. Pakistan Resident(s) will not be needing any Virtual Private Server (VPS) or any other similar arrangement (such as Team Viewer, AnyDesk, Mini PC etc.) to access the Amazon Seller Account
3. The distribution of Profits if completely legal and binding under the corporate setting and the moneys thus earned are one hundred percent white, if transferred legally into Pakistan that Pakistani Resident(s) can declare in their Income Returns with the authority as per law of the land.
4. Backed by the lawyers and the CPAs of the foreign country, even being a non-resident the Pakistani Resident(s) similar legal status in the eyes of the law as the foreign resident, to settle any disputes.

We hope this would have answered your question, “How to sell on Amazon from Pakistan”, legally.

Author – Rizwan Zaffar (Originally posted in Ecommerce Outset)