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How to Open Multiple Amazon Seller Accounts in 2024– Black Hat & White Hat Strategies

Can you have more than one Amazon Seller account? The short answer is yes, but you need to have a legitimate business need (according to Amazon). In this article, I'll talk about what qualifies as a legitimate business need and what you'll need to do to open up a second Seller Central account. I'll also discuss how other sellers use blackhat strategies to open multiple Amazon seller accounts without Amazon ever knowing.

Related Reading: How to Structure Your Company for Multiple Brands

Are You Allowed to Have Multiple Seller Central Accounts?

Around April 2020, Amazon changed their policy regarding multiple accounts and now allows sellers, with legitimate business reasons, to open multiple accounts without Amazon's approval. As per Amazon:

Selling Partners who have a legitimate business need can operate multiple Selling Accounts and do not require Amazon's approval. However, Amazon recommends that you only open a second selling account if you have a legitimate business need and all of your current accounts are in good standing.

According to this policy, you no longer even need to request explicit permission from Amazon to open an additional Seller Central account IF you have a legitimate business need.

What is a Legitimate Business Need?

Amazon is incredibly ambiguous in their terminology legitimate business need. Is operating multiple brands a legitimate business need? Is wanting a second account to get a new IPI to score a legitimate business need? In my experience, Amazon basically allows sellers to open up a second account for nearly any reason as long as it isn't because your other Amazon account is suspended or in jeopardy of being suspended.  Again, this is my experience only after having operated numerous Seller Central accounts over the years.

Do I Need a Separate Company for Separate Amazon Accounts?

This is one of the biggest misconceptions about operating multiple Amazon accounts – you DO NOT need a separate company to open a separate Amazon account. You do, however, need a separate bank account and credit card, but it can be in the same company name as your existing credit cards and bank accounts.

I've seen people open multiple companies just to open multiple Amazon accounts. You don't need to and it can make your life a lot harder in many aspects including accounting, management, and getting insurance.

Why Have Multiple Amazon Seller Accounts?

There are legitimate business reasons for wanting multiple accounts and not-so-legitimate ones including:

As mentioned, in my company we have different brands operated under the same company but that is entirely separate from one another. We have different branding, customer service emails and phone numbers, etc. If we have all brands under the same account it would make separating the brands down the road (potentially for a sale) very difficult.

Another reason to open a second Amazon account is to get a new IPI (Inventory Placement Index) score. Some sellers get stuck at a low IPI score and it severely affects their ability to replenish inventory and they turn to open a new Seller Central account. I have no idea if this would be defined as a legitimate business need or not but I know many people who have opened additional accounts for this reason and they have not gotten into trouble.

However, many sellers want multiple business accounts because they are very deliberately breaking Amazon's Terms of Service and they are terrified of having their account shut down. By having multiple accounts they're able to hedge their bets. If one account gets shut down, they can simply start selling their products on the other account.

Open Multiple Amazon Seller Accounts
If and when an Amazon Seller gets suspended from one account, a second Amazon account allows the seller to continue to sell.

The more grey area comes from legitimate white hat Amazon sellers who fear having their account suspended for illegitimate reasons. We've all heard horror stories from sellers who have had their accounts shut down simply in error.  Unfortunately, this happens all too often. If you're an Amazon seller with your life savings stored in inventory and/or with employees relying on you for employment, having all your eggs in one basket is not necessarily the best business decision. I know many sellers who open a second (or more) Amazon account without Amazon's permission simply to mitigate their risk even though they do not explicitly break any of Amazon's rules.

Now keep in mind, that even if you open multiple selling accounts, Amazon is very good at detecting that these accounts are owned by the same person, even if there is not any information explicitly shared across them.

Do Most Chinese Sellers Have Multiple Amazon Seller Accounts?

I was first made aware of the seriousness of the problem of Chinese sellers with multiple accounts when a friend showed me a very complex diagram of all the Amazon accounts of the Chinese company he was working for. It was over half a dozen accounts. Ironically, this company shuttered its Amazon operations after about a year after it lost hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to bring its brick-and-mortar brand to Amazon.

During the massive suspension of thousands of hi profile sellers in 2021, many sellers were reported to have dozens of linked accounts.

However, this problem extends well beyond Chinese sellers. In many of the ecommerce groups, I'm a part of, having multiple seller accounts is a strategy employed by many sellers to allow them to stretch the Amazon rules more than they might if they only had one account. These sellers are often using incentivized reviews, super URLs, and other black hat techniques. This is why there's a problem – these sellers have an unfair advantage over sellers with one account.

Using Import Records to Snoop on Competitors

One of the best things an importer can do is to use import records to see which supplier a competitor is using.

Jungle Scout allows you to see the real export history of nearly any Chinese Supplier.

As mentioned, in America, import and export records are public information, however, the government does not catalog or give easy access to this information. However, there are tools that do allow you to easily search this information, the most popular and cheapest being Jungle Scout (others include Import Genius and Panjiva).

These tools allow you to:

  • Find out what Chinese supplier a competitor is using (great for finding products)
  • See how much a supplier exports
  • Find out what suppliers export specific products

See our article A Secret Weapon for Doing Supplier Research

How Do the Black Hat Sellers Open Multiple Amazon Seller Accounts?

Amazon is very sophisticated at finding sellers with multiple accounts so black hat sellers have to be very sophisticated in return to avoid being detected in case one account gets suspended they do not risk all accounts being suspended.

To open up a second Amazon account, with or without Amazon's permission, requires the following things:

  • Separate credit cards
  • Separate email addresses
  • Separate bank accounts.

This is actually the easiest part of the equation as Amazon does not require any of these three things to match up to the seller entity name, i.e. EcomCrew Inc can use a bank account under Dave Bryant.

multiple amazon accounts
Amazon Sellers are using multiple computers with multiple ISPs to hide the identity of their Amazon accounts.

The seller entity part is slightly more tricky although it is still relatively easy as one can simply use another personal name (i.e. your wife or relative) or register a new business. In China, it is a well-known secret that many Amazon Sellers require their employees to open up Amazon accounts under their names to avoid the whole seller entity issue. Many Chinese sellers have multiple (sometimes in the double digits) Amazon Seller Central accounts.

The hardest part of having multiple seller accounts is avoiding being detected. Almost all black hat sellers I know, whether in China or elsewhere, have multiple ISPs and computers. Each computer is then linked to one particular internet connection and they take as many precautions as possible to avoid ever accidentally logging one computer into the same internet connection as this would almost immediately alert Amazon that the accounts are from the same sellers.

How Does Amazon Detect Multiple Accounts?

Known ways that Amazon detects that a seller may have a second account are as follows:

  • Device ID
  • IP Address
  • Credit Card
  • Bank Account
  • Company name (and/or DBA)
  • Billing and/or Shipping Address
  • Phone number

How to Open A Second Account – The Right Way

Once you've exceeded a few hundred thousand dollars in revenue per annum it is not a bad idea to open a second Amazon Seller Central account. The reason for this is that one temporary Seller Central account does not normally affect the suspension of the second account. If you get permanently banned, both Seller Central accounts will almost certainly get permanently suspended though.

If you ever decide to sell your business, having a second seller central account that you do not sell with your business also allows you to keep selling without having to build up seller history from scratch.

A fair warning – operating a second Seller Central account will increase your accounting work and overall maintenance.

How to Open a Second Account

As mentioned previously you will need a separate bank account, separate email, and separate credit card. They do not require a separate business or personal entity.

Again, even though Amazon has stated that you do not need their approval to open a second account, I still recommend that you open a case with them to request permission just to be safe.

You can also NOT sell the same products across multiple Amazon accounts, specifically at the same time. We have sold the same products across multiple Amazon accounts at different times (usually because of an inventory storage issue on one account) and have never gotten in trouble for it. Having two offers on the same product detail page is likely a recipe for trouble though.

Conclusion

Hopefully, this gives you some insight into how sellers are using multiple Amazon Seller Central accounts to get an advantage over you. With Amazon easing their policy on opening multiple accounts, having a second (or third!) Seller Central account can be valuable.

Do you have multiple Seller Central accounts? If so, do you find it to be an advantage for your business? Would you like to open a second account and have any questions about the process? Post your comments and questions below.

Dave Bryant

Dave Bryant has been importing from China for over 10 years and has started numerous product brands. He sold his multi-million dollar ecommerce business in 2016 and create another 7-figure business within 18 months. He's also a former Amazon warehouse employee of one week.

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161 Comments

  1. Thanks for the info Dave. Love the work that you guys do. Always very informative and actionable. Much appreciated. I’m not ready to open a second seller account at this stage but it’s definately in the cards for the future as I expand the brand portfolio.

  2. What is your recommendation on giving or receiving access to an account that is not yours? You are just consulting in someones account OR you have an employee that needs to login into both of your Amazon seller accounts because they handle all your claims for each of your brands?

    Thanks Dave!

    1. Hi Tesha – you should create a new user for this account. If it’s not your admin/owner account Amazon won’t give you any troubles with multiple users accessing an account.

  3. Great content! Wrote to Amazon w/ the same request (stressing tax reason) and got this response:

    “In order to have multiple accounts, you must answer the “Know Your Seller questionnaire” to assess whether or not your business need is valid.” Following this was an extensive list of questions (brick and mortar location, yearly sales, anticipated monthly sales, # of employees, etc.).

    Is this the same flow you had gone through? If not, would it be better to close out the case and open a new case, OR directly email seller-performance@amazon.com as suggested in the response email from AMZ?

    Lastly, how would you go about notifying Amazon that this second account will be owned and managed by both myself and a partner, where both happen to have individual SC accounts and are currently selling? Product sold on second account will have no product relation to products being sold on the two individual accounts.

    Thanks!

    1. Hi Jay,
      Sorry for the late reply. When I first got two accounts I have similar questions or not exact. You should not lie on any questions but you can cherry coat them (i.e. but very optimistic for estimated sales). I would submit answers and keep trying every couple of months until you get approved. IMO, there’s no need to tell them about your arrangement with yourself and your partner – Amazon would ask us questions about having 2 accounts from time to time and we would reference our approval letter and we’d never hear from them again.

      1. Hello, Amazon gave me permission to open a 2nd account but not yet my partner(who has her own account). They said we needed to get permission separately. When I open the account does my partner need to avoid logging into it from her computer? Or do I have to wait for her to get permission?

        1. IMO, permission to open the second account should apply to both of you. That’s not to say your partner won’t get the account flagged. It’s probably best if your partner is logging in to have them setup with a different user (not your master admin user).

          1. Can I use the SSN of the first account for the second account ? , in Tax Infomation

  4. Thanks for this great info Dave!
    Maybe you can elaborate with a couple of examples what might be “multiple sales tax requirements for different products”?

    1. If you own two brands under different companies, each could hypothetically have different nexus requirements (i.e. one company has nexus in New York and the other doesn’t).

  5. Hi Dave

    What if a brother wants to have separate business as at some points u have arguements with ur brother and u need to separate yourself from his brother at same address but different floors and compelte different setup.

    1. Amazon will likely flag it and you’ll have some splaining’ to do. Unfortunately Amazon is often a guilty until proven innocent platform.

  6. Hi Dave,
    Just ran across your website and love your great content.
    Here’s my situation. I currently have a grandfather account focus on retail arbitrage. I currently sell on Amazon in a random assortment of categories and plan to keep doing so. Since I am planning this new venture that focuses on one category would it be better to start a new Amazon account exclusively for the private label venture or should I continue to sell under my current account? My grandfather account is sole proprietorship. I heard it’s better to have new account since you need to have LLC to set up your brand.
    Also if I set up a new account, can I use same physically address as my old account. My current grandfather account currently set up using my home address.
    Any input and suggestion would be greatly appreciated.

    1. I’d continue using your current account. The only thing you officially need separate are bank accounts and credit cards but Amazon is pretty hit or miss for giving you permission to open another account.

  7. Sorry need to clarify. You mean you don’t suggest me open a second account just for private label. Someone says it’s better to open a second account to diversify the business. Plus the account I have right now I have 60 positive feedback in case my private label business don’t do so well( I mean if I receive some negative) that will hurt my original account.

    Also can I have multiple account using same physical address?
    Thanks for your info.

    1. You’re going to struggle to get approval and there is very marginal benefit in your case.

  8. Hi Dave,

    First off, thank you for the great articles and info that you and the ECOMCREW provide!

    I work for a bigger company which has multiple business divisions. When I took the first division to Amazon, I did not know that the other divisions would follow. In complete ignorance I have set up several accounts for each division. They all operate independently, all have there own bank account, email address, customer service/emails, etc. However, I give myself and my employees all access to each account. Is there risk there? I was completely ignorant of this subject until one of the podcasts I heard from you all. I never submitted anything to Amazon, but have not had any issues, as we are doing everything by the book.

    1. Without approval you probably shouldn’t have done it this way. As you’re all logging in from the same IPs, Amazon probably will or has connected the accounts. Ideally you would get retroactive approval but you want to be careful not to alert them to anything they don’t know as well.

  9. Hi Dave,

    Just ran across your Ecomcrew site as of today! These articles always stand out to me, as I’m forever interested to see if people truly have successfully opened multiple accounts within the TOS. I was given approval from Amazon to open a second account as I had legit business reasons. A month passed and I had yet to open the second account, although was slated to do so soon. Before I could open it, I got suspended from Amazon, its been 8 months and still no relief there. I’m dying to sell again and have that 2nd account on my mind. What would you advise in this situation? Before the suspension, they simply said yes you can open it but send us the nickname when you do? I never sent the nickname because I had yet to open it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    Thank You!

    1. Hi – it’s hard to say without knowing the reason for the suspension but they did you permission to open a second…

  10. Hey Dave, Itganks for your review great info. I just started doing pl and just now setting up my first product! I also came across amazon automation as well and was thinking about having a seperate account setup for that. Do you think it is possible to get another seller central account or just use the one account and do both amazon automation and PL?

    1. What do you mean by Amazon automation? Some sellers have different accounts for different purposes, i.e. dropshipping and PL.

  11. Can u use a different credit card for each account although both credit cards have the same name , address on them ?

  12. I can’t get approval for an original Amazon Account. I am not sure why, but I think it is because my last name is 2 words and some of the documents use punctuation and some do not. Since I am not approved, if my husband were to try and open an account, on the same computer, would we be violating the Terms and Conditions or would this use be a first account as far as Amazon is concerned?

    1. As long as you don’t have a current account, you wouldn’t be violating TOS in terms of having multiple accounts as you wouldn’t.

  13. Thanks for your valuable information.
    My Question
    Can we link inventory management 3rd Party software like linnworks with multiple amazon accounts?
    As in amazon seller central it shows 3rd part software integration but doesn’t show who set up this software.
    The reason we are asking as I offer return /inventory management services to other Amazon sellers.
    Please advise

  14. Correcting typos:
    Excellent article. You mentioned that we can request after having done hundred of thousands in revenue. My wife is no where near those numbers (only 25K sofar in private label, started last October) yet I have the desire to open up my SC account for my own pl brand (and possibly do some wholesale). Can I still request my account? Concerned about having the same ISP as my wife and logging into separate accounts. Thanks for your advice!

  15. Hey Dave,
    Thanks for your insights!
    One question: I have an individual seller account but it is in very bad conditions but its still active (I have 5 product listings, around 20 pieces of inventory in total and an average of 1 item sold per month). This account was opened a long time ago (around 5 years ago) and now all the personal information (address, phone number, etc.) is completely outdated. I would like to open a new Business Seller account under a new LLC business I’ve just opened but I am scared they will flag the new account because I have of my name, even though my address, bank account, and email will be different.
    So, should I first remove all the inventory I have and close my individual seller account and then open the account or I should just open the business account and not be worried?
    Would really really appreciate your opinion!

    Thanks in advance and have a great day!
    Edmundo

    1. You’ll probably want to get approval for the second account – I suspect it’d get flagged pretty quickly, especially if you’ve logged into it any time recently.

  16. Hey ! Thank you so much for tour post its amazing ! I got suspended because i am in a country that is not on the allowed list !
    My wife is from italy Can she open an account using her not allowed country credit card ?

  17. Can I just open up a new LLC of each account I want and each llc has its own, bank account, credit card, emails. All still in my name and all the LLC but different. The I will just never log into each under the same IP..

  18. Hey, Can I use my same phone number as a second step verification or will they link the two accounts. I had a problem with my first account and the notifications system. Which was supposedly fixed by IT department. Which all they did was cause more problems when they removed my notifications all together. They had told me that it was their fault and they would remove negative feedback that resulted from this all happening and my selling matrix would be unaffected. Well I recieved one negative feedback and they did infact remove it and it didnt cause me any problems. Then a second negative feedback. Which they refused to remove. One rep told me that since I kept calling in to have it removed and the feedback removal team wont remove it, I could create a new account but I would need new everything. Is this true as for the phone number? And do you think that this informal second account permission is enough? I would have just kept my old account up and going but I was at 100% negative since I only had one feedback (silly they wouldnt just remove it since it wasnt even my fault) But anyhow, I appreciate your response. Thanks Trey

    1. Yes, using the same phone number will almost certainly link the accounts.

  19. Hi !
    First of all, I would like to thank you for your fantastic content and this post!

    I have followed your instructions and got approved for a second Amazon Account.

    However, I got approved through e-mail from the seller performance team.
    How can I request the approval letter? since I am not able to show this approval from an Amazon Case ID? The email and performance notification does not contain any ID or Approval number I can use as a proof in case Amazon contact me in the future asking of why I do have two Amazon Accounts.

    I hope I make sense.

    Thank you again!

    1. Just keep the email. It’ll be enough if they ever ask – they can look it up with your email address on file.

  20. Hey Dave- great article actually exactly what I was looking for.

    So unfortunatley for me amazon recently suspended my account on one illegtament claim from another seller. I am in the process of moving all my inetory to the new account and followed all these steps to make sure their is no connection between accounts.

    From your experience does amazon flag an account if the products they are adding to are the same as a previously suspended account?

      1. Dave,

        We would like to move over all our private lablel items to the new account. Any way to this?

  21. Hi Dave, my seller account got suspended one year ago and I tried emailing amazon a few times and never heard back from them. I don’t know what happened here as amazon won’t reply back at all. Can I now use my wife’s information and open an account on her name. Should I open a new DBA too?

    1. If there’s any connection between the accounts (i.e. shared IPs, addresses) they’ll likely both get suspended at some point.

      1. Hi,

        After getting permission from amazon do you still use your same name and phone number when opening the second account?

  22. Hi Dave,

    two quick questions.

    1) Can you use the same phone number for the verification process?

    2) Did you get permission from the seller support team or did you reach out directly to sellerperformance@amazon.com?

    Thank you very much

  23. Hi Dave,
    Happy New Years and thank you for this article.
    We are spending holidays with my family together. So out of my ignorance i have helped my family member to create a seller account…using my laptop

    I run my own account from this laptop. Now i am so worried that the damage has been done and both accounts will be linked and shut down.

    Shall i just email support team and explain what happened, and ask for approval, even though both accounts have absolutelly different details but used same machine ID and internet connection?

    How to explain what happenned in the way that wont raise suspision? I also have to mention that family member asked to help with ads and listing creation, so ive read that we can do it with set up of user permissions.
    Just so worried about my own account now

    Thanks,
    Kate

    1. They’ll almost certainly be aware of the shared machine/IP. Sometimes it’s a flag, sometimes not. Emailing them may or may not do anything though and I don’t want to give you any information that might put your account in jeopardy.

  24. Hi
    I have tow sellers account and both has suspended. I tried to close both of them but Amazon not doing that to me , now both of them suspended, the question is can I open new seller account under my name using different email, bank account, credit card, address, phone number, laptop, and different internet and WiFi?
    Thank you

    1. Are you allowed? No. Can you? Potentially, as long as they don’t trace the accounts. They do some pretty stringent ID checks now though.

  25. Dave,

    Is there any way to let Amazon know that we are stopping to sell our PL items on one account and moving then to the new account?

  26. I understand that you are concerned regarding the Second account.

    I would like to inform you that the request approval for another seller account.

    At this time, we cannot approve your second account request due to multiple reasons such as various performance notifications etc. Hence, the request is denied.

    Dave, My account overall is healthy I have one IP complaint for a listing I didn’t create that has since been removed from the page, some performance notifications for mislabeled products that were incorrect sizes that I have fixed.

    Do you think I can appeal this right away should I wait a month, should I email seller performance direct? Thanks so much for all this useful info.

    1. I’ve never seen this before, but shouldn’t be any harm in appealing right away.

  27. Hey Dave,
    Fantastic article. We are looking to open a second account to sort out our personal brand from other brands we help launch on amazon.
    If we get permission for a second account, do we need to take precautions with wifi/computers? Was told if the account is under 6 months it should only be accessed from a virgin computer that hasn’t logged into your other account or wifi.
    Any recommendations there ?

    1. If you have permission, in theory it shouldn’t matter. With permission I’ve never taken any cautions setting up or accessing the account.

  28. Hi Dave, thank you for writing this amazing article!
    I have a question and I was wondering if you could help me.

    I have opened a personal selling account with all my personal information in November 2019. I did not do anything with the account after that. I wasn’t able to provide a valid credit card so my account got suspended.

    Now, however I am much more prepared. I have designed a dietary supplement which will be manufactured in the US and I want to start selling it on amazon. I am starting an LLC to protect myself from liability issues and I will open a bank account and credit card in the name of that LLC.

    I don’t know what to do about my amazon seller account now. I sent an email to Account Health Support asking if it was possible to permanently close my personal account and open a new one in the name of my LLC. I got an email back that stated I should ‘submit the information requested on November 14, 2019’ to reactivate my account.

    What do you think I should do? Should I permanently close the personal account I opened in November and open a new account in name of my LLC? Or should I change all the information on that account I already opened to that of my LLC?

    I don’t want to get in trouble with seller support and I really appreciate your advice!

    Thank you,

    Lieze

    1. Amazon changed their policy recently to be more forgiving to multiple accounts so if it was me I’d open another account. Again, that’s just me though and use your own best judgment :)

  29. Hello Dave,

    First of all thank you for the all information you provided, great helpful informations in your article. I have 1 active amazon seller account and i would like to open 3 more, so i would like to make it clear before i do it. Each account will be in the same location but i will use different ISP, different computers, basically different IPs, also different credit cards, phone numbers and bank accounts. Im planning to create each amazon seller account under different names (such as my friends, and sister), and i will open a new individual LLC for each account but all LLCs’ will be under my name, should this cause any issues? So basically everything will be different and unique on each amazon seller account, even the LLCs’ but LLCs’ will be under the same name. Is that okay?

    1. It’s hard to say – Amazon is very good at figuring out related accounts. Even if you’ve done everything as you should, all it takes is accidentally logging in from the same IP one time to raise flags.

  30. Quick question I have an account under my name trying to get a separate account under my LLC and just have my contact info be my gf ? Do you think they will link account since it’s my LLC

  31. Hi Dave, I can’t see an update to the Amazon TOS regarding multiple accounts. Where have you seen this update and do you have a link too it?

    Many Thanks

    1. You have to open a case log and they’ll echo this new policy. I don’t think their TOS online has been updated to reflect this.

  32. Hi Dave,
    I ve running my SC account for over 3 years now. Last year I opened the U.K. account to start selling over there and got automatically suspended. Don’t know why yet. Never got to send inventory. Nothing. I tried appealing and nothing. So I gave up.
    Do you think that I can ask for a second SC account and with that open U.K.- EU.? Do you think I can say it because of tax purposes as you said at first?
    Thanks

    1. Amazon says you can now open a second account without permission. A lot of people run into similar issues as you with immediately getting suspended upon registration because of some minor issue with documentation or information. IMO it’s worth a shot trying to register again.

  33. Hi Dave
    I am a citizen / resident in a country (Malta) not currently approved by Amazon.
    I was thinking of registering for an account through an LLC based in the US.
    Do you think that would work?
    Best

    1. You might run into issues with ID checks which they often do upon registering. Not 100% sure though.

  34. Hi,
    I created a case on Amazon for approval of second account. Amazon informed us that we can open second account if we have a legitimate business and we have to use separate laptop and ip.

    Please confirm if i can create secondary users of both accounts from separate laptop then can I access both secondary accounts from single laptop.

    1. That’s the first time I’ve heard Amazon saying you need to use separate IPs so can’t really comment.

  35. Hi Dave. Thank you very much for your article. There is one thing I don’t understand though about setting up multiple accounts with different Companies/LLCs without explicit permission from Amazon. Even if you used all the necessary precautions, different Company names, different Bank Accounts, different Computers, etc, you would still be required to submit your personal name and ID for verification. Wouldn’t they match the various accounts since they share the same verification name/ID? Thanks

    1. Yep – Amazon has tightened those controls now and normally you need someone else to use their ID to open the account (this is also where Chinese sellers have an advantage as the verification is less stringent).

  36. Hi Dave,
    I live with my kids. My son in law opened a sellers account a few years back but does not use it. I want to open a sellers account. We do not share anything except an address and an internet connection. Should I request permission first or should I request permission after I open the account? Or do I need permission at all?

  37. Hi Dave,

    Thanks for the valuable information in your article.

    I have opened an Business SC. The business entity is registered under my residential address.

    Can I open another SC as Individual seller using the same residential address?

    Thanks

    Allen

    1. Normally it’s OK to share addresses but make sure with Amazon :)

  38. Had an account on Amazon under my name which got suspended and could not get them to reinstate, this was back in 2017

    Now my wife wants to sell on amazon her stuff which is different to what i was selling on amazon, she already sells on ebay and other places.

    Will living at the same address be an issue, she was a shareholder in my company but is no longer, the wifes company is a separate entity and the business address is different.

  39. HI Dave,

    Do you know if Amazon have a DOB data base for screening new applicants. Just like they would check IP address, bank acounts, company name etc?

    thanks

    John

  40. Hi Dave,
    Thanks for your content. Today is 25/06/2020 and i wanted to open a second account without approval already waiting months for it and never arrives.. I wanted to find first on amazon page where is written that there is no longer need of approval.. but i was unsuccessful just found the opposite.
    https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/G200421970?language=en_US&ref=ag_G200421970_cont_181
    Where did you found this information so i can read it in an official way.

    Thanks
    Gabriel

    1. If you contact them asking permission they’ll say you don’t need explicit permission.

  41. can you be beneficial owner on two amazon accounts without amazon permission?

  42. Hi Dave,
    Hope you doing well. I’ve question for you.
    I’ve seller account in Canada but is it possible if I open another separate account in UK with the same identity but with different address, phone number, IP, credit card and also that account will be operating from UK not from Canada. Like I’ve driving license from both countries so I’ll provide identity documents from UK driving license.
    These’s still chances of getting flag or suspended?

    1. I would think you would be fine. Normally UK is treated separately regardless.

  43. my credit card adress and my home adress need to be the same? if it differ of each other may cause suspension?

  44. Hi Dave, thanks for this insightful article.
    I have issues setting up my seller Central account as I submitted a wrong document (twice), now I am stuck as I am unable to submit the correct document. Amazon seller Central support keep sending my template replies stating that I can resubmit my document or change the information provided to match the document. Both options are not valid as there is no more “Upload Button” for me to submit the document and as the submitted document is incorrect, I am also unable to change information to match the it.

    Do you know in this case, can I just forget this submission and open a new account? Since this account is never approved in the first place.

    Thank you for your advice in advance.

    Best,
    KP

  45. Hi Dave
    I am a seller on amazon. I have recently opened a second account under a separate company (Same Owner). Amazon has suspended my second account with the reason of having multiple accounts. The reason for opening a second account to sell two different sector products under different brands. I was not aware of the restriction of 2 accounts. Can you please guide how to handle this issue?

    1. I believe you’ll have to substantiate it with a legitimate business need to seller performance.

  46. Hi Dave,
    Thanks for your kind sharing! I’m also facing this issue since I have 2 Shopify stores and Shopify’s policy is one selling account can only connect to one Shopify store. I just opened a case and got reply from Amazon that “Selling Partners who have a legitimate business need can operate multiple Selling Accounts and do not require Amazon’s approval.”(Is it a approval or not?)

    However, I don’t know what’s my next step, should I just follow the ordinary steps to create a new account with my credit card and tax information which I used for the selling account I have now? (As far as I know, my company has only one tax information and address in the USA) Or there’s another page to register? Looking forward to your reply, really appreciated!

    1. You’d normally just go through the motions to open a brand new account. There’s no separate page.

  47. Hello, congratulations on your explanation, I want to ask you if the parameters to create a second account are the same for KDP? both for readers and book owners? thank you

  48. Hi Dave, thanks for the article. I would have a quite urgent question for you.

    I am a 20 y.o. student and I started my consulting business on Amazon few months ago. I am now working for 3 different companies. I didn’t know anything about the possible problems of accessing different account from the same PC. So, I used their accounts, switching from one to another for several times, from the same PC. Later on I discovered this could be a big problem and I wrote to the performance department of Amazon, explaining the situation – that I am an Amazon consultant and the only reason I used several accounts from the same PC and IP address was this -, but they haven’t answered yet.
    I logged in the accounts using their own main credentials, so not how a second user. All the data inside the accounts are different, but anyway I used the same computer several times for the different accounts.

    I am really afraid Amazon could suspend the accounts of my clients.

    1. Which is the probability this could happen? And how soon?
    2. I need to access their accounts from the same PC, but in a regular way. How can I do this? I can’t ask for the classical permission of using multiple accounts; it is a different case in my situation, I am only a consultant, these are not my companies. I thought about signing up my agency inside the Service Provider Network, but I don’t know if this could be a solution.
    3. What can I do in order to be sure that the old accesses (in the different accounts from the same computer) won’t be a problem in the future? Even if I solve the problem now, anyway the data will remain…and I am afraid the accounts will be suspended in the future.

    I know it was a long question, but it looks like nobody has a clear answer. You could literally save my business. Thanks in advance!

  49. Hello Dave,
    Our Brand is register in UK but our seller central account is disabled now can i use my Brand with another seller central account

    1. Most likely you’d have to transfer brand registry which will be “fun” if the other account is disabled.

  50. Hello, I have a professional seller account that I haven’t sold anything yet. Also I established LLC in USA. I am waiting for EIN right now. I want to open new business seller account for my LLC. Is it possible? Or if it is not possible, can I convert my professional seller account into bussiness account? Which one will be true? Thank you.

  51. Hi Dave,

    I hired a virtual assistant in the Philippines to help me manage my Amazon seller account and gave him user permission. I am aware that he is managing other Amazon seller accounts as well, if any of the other Amazon seller accounts he is managing get suspended can that have any effect or jeopardize my seller account as he has user permission to both (and others) accounts?

    Thank you very much!

  52. I’m thinking of starting a new account. I do have a legitimate business need and contacted amazon to ask permission as you suggested. I’m still a little nervous about this process as I’ve heard they sometimes still suspend accounts even after giving permission. I’m mostly concerned about how to get around the device ID. Is this something I should worry about and do I need to purchase a new computer? Would strongly prefer not to buy a new computer for this.

  53. I am currently dropshipping on Amazon. I want to open up a new PL store. I am worried if I request for a second account from Amazon they may possibly figure out I’m dropshipping on my current account and suspend/block me. Have you heard of this happening?

  54. A brand owner that I reached out to (wholesale) is interested in having me manage his brand’s Amazon presence.
    He currently sells to 5 sellers and he wants to get rid of all of them. He wants to be the only seller and he wants me to manage his Amazon account (PPC, restock advise, listing optimization, etc). He is going to pay me a commission of the sales to do this under a contractual agreement. He does not currently have an Amazon account.
    I have a few questions:

    1. What would be the best way to go about creating a new account to manage this product considering that I already have a seller account?

    2. In order to abide by Amazon’s multiple account policy, would I have to create the separate selling account and notify Amazon ahead of time?

    3. Should the seller account be in my name/address or his? Is there a way for him to create a seller account and for me to “legally” manage his seller account?

    1. The best solution is for him to open an Amazon account and add you as a user (do not open it for him…even with his info- potential for a lot of nastiness doing it this way). Otherwise, if you want to open it up under your name, then follow the steps here.

  55. Hi Dave,
    I sincerely appreciate all the information you give out. Are there any WMS or ERP’s that would work with multiple account users? I don’t want to flat out say black hat users, but how do smaller companies trying to scale into a 3PL avoid getting banned once we accept and launch more brands? I know with the policy change in Apr, 2020- we might be allowed a second account, but would Amazon approve a third or forth as long as we are in different categories?

  56. Thank you for such interesting topic. I am solving now a problem with my Amazon seller account.
    I am a sole enterpreneur, and I need to transfer my legal entity to the limited liability company registrated for VAT, within the same seller account. I can ask the Amazon for the approval of such transformation of the account under new legal entity, but (based on their emails) this step can take a long time (several months), during which I cannot sell through my original account and receive payments, plus there is no guarantee for getting this approval. Also I dont have a chance to get an official second account, since I am focused in just 1 type of products.
    Thatswhy I am thinking about such strategy: (1.) first try to get an approval through Amazon verification process, (2.) if this process takes too much time, I will establish new seller account for my limited liablity company (with different owner, address, phone, email, bank account, new PC, new IP address, etc). How deep they compare the sellers account, are they also comparing the old data? (for example if I use the return address, which I originally used (but later changed) in previous account). Also is a problem if I will offer same products (just with small difference)? I would be happy with any advise. Thanks a lot

  57. Hi, I would like to ask you for a help with my Amazon seller account. I am a sole enterpreneur, and I need to transfer my account to the new legal entity – a limited liability company (100% owned by me). I can ask the Amazon officialy for an approval of such transformation, but (based on their emails) this step can take a long time (several months), during which I cannot sell through my original account and receive payments, plus there is no guarantee for getting this approval. This is not acceptable for me to interrupt my business for such a long time.
    Also I cannot ask Amazon officialy for second account, since I dont have a legitimate business interest for the second account (I am focused only to 1 type of product offering through Amazon).
    Thatswhy I am thinking about such strategy: (1.) first try to get such approval for account transformation under new legal entity through Amazon verification process, (2.) if this process takes too much time, I will establish new seller account for my limited liablity company (with different owner, address, phone, email, bank account, new PC, new IP address, etc). Only my previous return address (for parcels sent back by customers) will match with my new address, this is difficult to change (do you think that they are also comparing the old data?). Plus I need to offer same products (just with small difference). Please, what is your opinion (based on your experience)?
    Thanks a lot

  58. Dave, can I format one of my pcs that previously logged on amazon account, then use IP changer and log in another account in the same internet? Nowadays I have 2 internets but I want to have just one, as well as I use a exclusive desktop for this, But I would like to carry the work to where I go.

    1. For a second account you’re trying to run stealth? No, you’ll need to do more than just change the IP.

  59. Hi Dave,
    Thanks for the all information you provide to the public. I would like to open a second account and asked sellercentral about it and got the permission although they don’t have any restriction about the second account except the legitimate business reason. I also asked if there will be any problem if I use the same mail and IP address. They also said there wouldn’t be any problem. Should I trust these answer since we have been hearing a lot of similar situation and Amazon deactivates the accounts without any reason. Would there be any problem if I use same computer(s) for my second account although I got the permission for the second account. Thanks

    1. I’ve been using two accounts as described above for years now without incident.

  60. Hi Dave,

    It’s a great content! Thanks for sharing this. I got a question, we somehow realized that we have 3 different Merchant ID’s and we have only one amazon account. We are using just one merchant id but amazon brand registry teams see another merchant Id when we try to do some brand-related thing we figured that out this but we don’t have any idea how this duplication happened. Our Brand registry seems to look related to a Merchant ID that we can not access at the moment, we just know that there are 2 more Merchant ID’s out there. We have a lot of case about this, but couldn’t solve the issue since December. What do you recommend we do?

    Best,
    Emre

  61. Hi there Dave, amazing read, I probably wont get my suspended account back so i was wanting to open a new accounr, can i use the same name for identity information as they will ask for some form of Id, if not how can i counter this? Also in terms of address I can use the houses next door which is a different address but unfortunately does have the same post code, will this be ok?
    Faizan
    Thank you

    1. That’s really tough. Amazon is pretty good at eventually allowing suspended sellers back so you need to work on that if you want any hope of using your current identity to sell again. If you truly are you permanently suspended that’s going to be tricky.

  62. Hi Dave,
    Thank you for great input. Question:
    Scenario Husband and Wife have different last names. Live is one home address. Wife just opened one account, formed LLC with home address and personal credit card to pay for monthly membership fee.

    Husband opening second account, formed LLC, used forwarding address (not home address). Bought/Using different new computer, using different internet. For his bank info he inputted his personal bank account info and not LLC, got to the page where his DL and A copy of Bank statement is needed.

    Since the bank account info cannot be changed and since the husband has not pressed SUBMIT with the documents above, Can husband register another account and input proper business account in the new store?

    1. Should be OK but I’ve seen people get flagged for similar things. It only normally creates problems if/when one of the related accounts gets suspended.

  63. Great content Dave. I’m planing to open a second seller account with a partner who’s hesitant to form LLC as a partner with me for tax reasons. If the new LLC is formed only on my name now for this second account and I already have one account with another LLC and all different information on Amazon, Would there be problem amazon find out that both LLC’s belong to me? Just want to make sure I don’t do anything that can create trouble with first account and against amazon policies. If I must have new LLC with both of our names and or with different persons,?
    thanks

  64. Hi Dave,

    Great content here very informative. I had posted a question here few days ago but didn’t get an answer maybe my email wasn’t correct. Anyway here it is again. I have one amazon account on amazon currently running successfully with my own LLC . Scenario; Now I have a friend who is interested in doing business with me but he hesitates to form an LLC in partnership with me for some tax reasons and wants me to open an LLC on my name only to create another amazon seller account. Obviously I cannot jeopardize my first account, so I would like to ask If I form LLC on my name run business as usual ( by the way its gonna be different products etc. ). Does amazon check LLC public record and would amazon find out or would they suspend us? We are going to have a agreement done by CPA and the whole thing its just he cannot have his name on LLC .
    please guide I highly appreciate it. thanks again

    1. They would most likely find out the accounts are related. Shouldn’t cause any problems unless one of the accounts gets suspended.

  65. Hi Dave

    Dear Seller,

    Your Amazon account could not be opened as we have noticed that you have multiple Amazon selling accounts. If you wish to proceed with your verification, you will need to close all other accounts currently registered from your end and answer below questions:

    1: Business justification for multiple accounts.
    2: Provide a list of accounts you currently have registered and email address.

    If we do not receive your response within 14 days, you may not sell on Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, and Amazon.com.mx.

    We look forward to hearing from you soon,

    how can I resolve this problem .Not opened com account .I answer this case but amazon bot answer to case.

    1. You may have authorized a third party app or someone to access your account. Review what other apps/people you’ve given access to and try to explain this in your case.

  66. If I have registered multiple legal entities e.g LLC. Is it possible to open different accounts?

  67. Hi Dave.
    Thank you for this enlightening piece.
    Our company has one account, where I am registered as the beneficial owner and I handle our Amz account. Our company recently bought 25% of a totally different company with a separate brand, that sells different products, and I have just registered a new (second) seller account under the new Brand, where I will also be listed as the beneficial owner, since I will be responsible for the Amz account there too. The new brand has the same address as for the first account. This account has been approved.
    Within a matter of 6 months, we will most likely do the same with a couple of other companies, where I will be responsible for the different accounts. All of these will be separate companies, brands, and products.
    Do you know, if this will potentially cause complications down the line? and is there any way, that I as a person can be approved officially to handle multiple accounts for different companies as the beneficial owner (I am an the board for all of them)?
    Best, Mia

  68. Hi Dave,

    I recently opened a Seller Central account under an LLC (LLC is a partnership with one other person, I’m the point person in Seller Central). We made this LLC exclusively to launch a private label brand and we are planning on selling that particular brand exclusively using this Seller Central account.

    My wife and I want to start retail arbitrage on the side.

    I was thinking of opening a separate Seller Central account under my wife’s name (under personal info, not a business) with separate bank account, CC, social etc…… The LLC I mentioned above is registered under my home address so If I open a new account under my wife’s name it will have the same address plus the same IP address…

    What would you suggest, is this a good enough reason to request another account, should I ask for permission form Amazon?

    Thank you
    James

  69. Hola Dave, thanks so much for the great article.
    We currently sell nutritional products in Amazon Mexico with our own corporation and brand. We recently started selling products outside the nutrition realm and we’d like to seperate those products into there own brand , but still under our same corporation. We thought a second Amazon seller account for the new brand and different types of products would a good idea so that led me to your article.
    In your opinion should we do the following
    1. Ask permission from Amazon.
    2. Get a new bank account, card, and email address.
    3. Sign up for a second seller account under the new brand but same corporation.
    4. (Here it gets tricky) Delete our current listings for the non nutritional products in the first seller account , wait 24 hours, then list the same products under the new second seller account?
    5.Does this cover it all?
    Thanks for any insight you can provide.

    1. Sounds about right to me. Just make sure you don’t have any ACTIVE offers for the same product on both accounts.

  70. Hi Dave,

    Great article.
    1. Am I correct that even if you get permission from Amazon to have a second account, you need a different account owner when you open the second one?

    2. I do private label in my current account, but I am starting wholesale and I’d like to separate the accounts. I don’t have a huge amount of sales yet. Am I likely to get approved? I have different teams working on private label vs. wholesale so that’s why I would like to have them in separate accounts.

    Thanks!

  71. Hi Dave. Love the article. Do you know a good way to transfer several listings from one Amazon account to a new one you control. Keeping in mind these listings are brand registered.

    The backstory is that we have an Amazon account with over 1000 private label ASINs. 50% of the ASINS have one brand name (brand registered) and the other 50% have a different brand name (brand registered).
    We want to break these two brands apart as they sell totally different products, however, we don’t want to go through the time it will take to recreate the listings on a new account.

    Any tools/tricks you can think of?

  72. Thanks Dave for this helpful article
    I would like to ask you please
    My account registered in my person’s name has been canceled due to suspicious activity and a linked account (this happened because of my virtual assistant)
    Can I get another account by registering llc and linking a new account to it?
    Can Amazon suspend my new account if it finds out that I am the owner of the company
    Thank you again
    Regards

    1. Yes, if Amazon determines your new account is connected to the old account, they’ll likely suspend it.

  73. Thanks Dave. Does your approach to setting up multiple accounts under the same business entity (assuming legitimate business need) apply to Amazon Europe as well as Amazon US?

  74. Hi
    Thanks for the insightful article
    I would like to hire two different teams of VA’s to manage wholesaling for my amazon account.
    It will get confusing if both teams use the same account.
    Do you think this would be a valid reason for amazon to let me open a second account?

  75. Hi Dave,

    Thanks for this very helpful article.
    Out of curiosity, I am managing one seller account for the company I work for (as an admin).
    However, I want to start managing a second account for a friend (separate addresses, name, company etc and completely different categories – appliances parts vs cosmetic).
    My question is, can I operate on the second account under “user permission” option and have the main account (day to day job) working as usual ?
    Thank you

  76. Hi,
    A very helpful article thank you.
    I am now about to apply for a 2nd selling account for a separate business that does PL (or white label) only, unlike my current selling account which is for existing brand retail and online arbitrage.

    My question is; I am the director for both companies. They do have separate bank acc, email addresses, registered to a different address, but I am the director for both limited companies. Will this be ok? And what is the best way of applying for a 2nd account, should I email Amazon first or open a new case? I previously opened a case and they relied that I don’t need their approval as long as I have legitimate business reason. Where do I identify my legitimate business reason?

    Any advise is very much appreciated. Many Thanks

  77. Hi Dave,

    Thanks for your informative article.

    I currently have one selling account where I sell existing brands. I have incorporated another company that will develop its own products (PL/white label) and I am planning to open a second selling account on Amazon for this company. However, I am the director for both limited companies. Will this be an issue or will this be ok as long as they have separate bank accounts, domains, email address etc?

    Your advise is very much appreciated.

    Thanks
    Muss

  78. Hello Dave!

    If I got a permanent suspension on my old account, can I open a new account by registering a new company? And can I register it in my name or does it have to be registered in someone else’s name?

    Thank you very much for the information you provided here!

    1. Generally if they connect your accounts the new one will get banned too and simply having a different company is only one way to avoid ‘connection’ between the accounts (there’s a lot of other things, i.e. IPs).

  79. I am using multiple amazon seller account in different computers also with same internet but since last 1 month many of my accounts have been suspended by amazon so what is the problem, can you please explain what is happening and what to do?

  80. I am thinking of opening up a 2nd and 3rd account because I want to expand my brand portfolio. Getting a separate bank account, separate email address and name of person will not be a problem.

    My only question is about how Amazon detects multiple account: Device ID and IP Address.

    There are many ways to go about this. My question is, can I use virtual PC from either Azure, AWS or some other 3rd party company that rents out virtual PC with static IP address be okay for this?

  81. Hello Dave,

    I enjoyed your articles and congratulations on your success.

    I had a store that was suspended in June 2022, as well as a friend of mine which his was suspended in January 2022. We both have been researching the best way to get back to selling on amazon. Now we did open LLC, used our personal address, and our own ID for our store. We are wondering if we can use our LLC info once again with the same information (our address, our names, our ID info) , but change the Credit Card, Bank account, and email. Also if it gets approved do you recommend we request permission? We have been contemplating using VPN other steps we are just not sure. We want to make sure we do everything the right way. And any other tips or suggestions would be helpful.

    We also had funds still held for longer than 90 days, any recommendations for getting those funds back from Amazon. Should we be sending a particular type of request to get those funds returned faster?

    Our best regards.

    Thank you

  82. Hi Dave,

    Are you 100% sure about the fact, that one company name can open multiple seller accounts? Because i have contaced the support and they said that a different company name is required otherwise an error will occur.

    Thanks a lot mate!

  83. Hi Dave,

    Great content! I wonder if the account will triger KYC or any other account review if the legal entity is changed? If so, what materials should be prepared to pass the review? We are in the process of updating the legal entity and would like to prevent hiccups if possible.

    Thanks!

  84. Thank you so much for this tutorial. but my question is if you get approval from amazon and you opened multiple accounts if one account has a problem will it still affect the other account?

  85. Unfortunately I tried to open another seller account and it wouldn’t allow me because I used the same phone number.

  86. I have been selling books for a few years never made over 8,000 dollars. Used books. I am going to start selling New doing OA. I only have 150 books to list for this year in total and will no longer be selling books but just focusing on New OA. Should i open a second account for the New OA? And in a month close the other account or just use the same account and sell New

  87. Hey Dave,

    Thanks for the awesome article! I do wholesale and I’ve noticed some sellers opening 4-5 accounts to dominate the buy box. They sell the same products on all accounts. They have very similar Seller Names, similar Company names, and almost same address (only the Suite number is different). Is that against Amazon’s TOS? Can’t find a way to report it in the HELP menu.

    Thanks,
    Adam

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