How to start selling on Amazon.eg: a step-by-step checklist

Getting onto Amazon.eg isn’t hard. Getting onto it properly, with pages that sell, the right shipping set-up and prices that protect your margin, takes a little more planning. This checklist walks you through it in order.

If you haven’t decided yet whether to sell to Amazon as a vendor or on Amazon as a seller, start with our guide Amazon vendor or seller: which is right for your brand? This checklist covers the seller route, which any business can start today.

Before you register

Pick your first products. Don’t upload your whole range on day one. Start with the products that sell best in your shops, have healthy margins and are easy to ship. You can add the rest once the first ones are working.

Check whether your products are already on Amazon. Search Amazon.eg for your brand name. Resellers often list a brand’s products before the brand itself arrives, sometimes under a generic name, with poor photos or the wrong price. Note what you find. You’ll want to fix those pages and decide what to do about those sellers.

Work out your numbers. Know your cost per unit, your target selling price, and what you can afford to spend on ads. Amazon charges fees on every sale, so a price that works in your shop may not work online.

Step 1: Gather your documents

Amazon Egypt asks for:

• A national ID for the person registering
• For a business: your commercial registration, plus a power of attorney if the person registering isn’t the owner
• A recent bank statement, credit card statement or utility bill
• A bank account where Amazon can pay you
• A business email address and phone number

Have clear scans ready before you start. Blurry or mismatched documents are the most common reason registration gets delayed.

Step 2: Register on Seller Central

Sign up at sell.amazon.eg and create a Professional seller account, which is the right type for a brand. Enter your business details exactly as they appear on your documents, since Amazon checks that they match.

Check the current fees on Amazon’s pricing page as you register. Amazon sometimes runs offers, such as waiving the monthly subscription for a limited time.

Step 3: Verify your identity

Amazon will verify the person registering, usually by checking the documents and sometimes with a short video call. Make sure that person is available, and that the ID they show is the same one they uploaded.

Step 4: Protect your brand

If you own a registered trademark, enrol it in Amazon Brand Registry. It gives you more control over your product pages, tools to report sellers who copy your brand, and richer content such as A+ pages and a brand store.

If your trademark is still being registered, start the application now. It takes time, and it’s worth having before you grow.

Step 5: Choose how you’ll ship

Amazon.eg gives you three options:

Many brands use a mix: FBA for their best-sellers and Easy Ship for the rest. Whatever you choose, factor the fees into your price.

Step 6: Build product pages that sell

This is where most brands win or lose. For each product:

• Title: brand, product type, key features, size or set count, in the words shoppers actually search for
• Images: a clean main image on white, then photos of the product in use, close-ups, size and what’s in the box
• Bullet points: the five things a buyer needs to know, benefits first
• Description: a short, clear paragraph, plus A+ content once you have Brand Registry
• Arabic and English: write both properly. Many shoppers in Egypt search in Arabic, and a machine translation shows

If your product is already listed by a reseller, you usually add your offer to the existing page rather than creating a new one, then fix the page with Brand Registry.

Step 7: Set your prices

Price each product after Amazon’s fees, not before. Check what similar products sell for, and keep your Amazon price in line with your shop, your website and other marketplaces. Big gaps confuse shoppers and pull your prices down elsewhere.

Step 8: Launch

• Send or list your first stock, enough for the first few weeks without running out
• Start Sponsored Products ads on your launch products, with a small daily budget you watch closely
• Run a launch deal or coupon to get your first sales moving
• Earn your first reviews honestly. Great products and good service bring reviews. Never offer anything in exchange for a review: Amazon prohibits it and can suspend your account.

Step 9: Build a weekly routine

Once you’re live, set aside time every week to check:

• Sales and stock, so you reorder before you run out
• Ads: which search terms sell, and which waste money
• Prices compared with other sellers and your other channels
• New reviews, customer questions and account health

Mistakes we see often

• Uploading everything at once. Twenty great pages beat two hundred weak ones.
• Skipping Brand Registry. Without it, it’s much harder to control your pages and deal with sellers who copy you.
• Pricing before fees. The price looks fine until the first payout arrives.
• Running out of stock early. It loses sales and the ranking you worked to build.
• Treating Arabic as an afterthought. It’s often the language your customers search in.

Your checklist

1. Choose your first products and check what’s already on Amazon
2. Gather your ID, commercial registration, proof of address and bank details
3. Register a Professional seller account and verify your identity
4. Enrol your trademark in Brand Registry, or start registering it
5. Choose how you’ll ship: FBA, Easy Ship or self-ship
6. Build strong product pages in Arabic and English
7. Set prices after fees, in line with your other channels
8. Launch with stock, ads and a deal
9. Review sales, ads, prices and stock every week