Hey, thanks for tuning in to another Partner Interview at EcomBalance. At EcomBalance, we’re all about creating win-win partnerships where we are able to grow with other companies in the eCommerce space.
In this exclusive interview, we interview Aaron O’Sullivan from Amazon Seller Accounts, a successful businessman in the e-Commerce world. He started selling on Amazon back in 2013 and since 2018 he has helped thousands of Sellers who have spare, unused, accounts by paying them cash windfalls. Aaron has spoken at Amazon Seller conferences in London, Orlando, Washington DC and Hamburg and he’s also appeared on dozens of Amazing selling podcasts.
We hope that you enjoy the interview and that it brings value to you as an eCommerce business owner.
Connor: Hey Aaron, thanks for taking the time to chat with us today. As a company, one of our goals is to highlight our partners so that our clients can benefit where it makes most sense. To get started, can you give us a high-level introduction to Amazon Seller Accounts and a little bit about how the company got started?
Aaron: Hey Connor, it’s great to be here with you!
Sure, so, almost 4 years ago I found myself in a position where I had numerous friends asking if I had a spare Amazon Seller Account that I could sell to them so they could grow their Amazon business without having all their eggs in one basket. (As you know, Connor, Amazon suspends seller accounts, oftentimes by mistake, and that can have a devastating impact on people’s livelihoods. However you can legally own as many Amazon accounts as you want, providing you get permission from Amazon). Anyway, I had all these people reaching out asking if I had spare accounts, and at this point I realised that I did! I had three accounts that were just sitting there doing nothing. So I sold them to a friend and he used them to grow his business. Having the extra stores also helped him avoid having Amazon hit the “off” button on his income by having his income spread through 3 different accounts.
After I sold these accounts I realised there’s actually thousands of people that also have a spare Amazon seller account that they don’t use, and I was pretty certain they could do with some extra funds because, let’s face it, there are a lot of people having a rough time on Amazon. As you know, selling on Amazon is not for the faint hearted! Anyway we wanted to start helping as many people as we could by purchasing their stores and giving them some closure on the Amazon game. Then in turn give an opportunity to someone else to use that asset (the Amazon account) and put it to good use so they can grow their income and support their family. Plus help Amazon make more money by using accounts that are just dormant and can be grown a lot quicker.
So that’s the backstory of how and why we got started. Fast forward to now – we’ve transferred well over 1200 Amazon stores safely and we do it with a fully legal and compliant process that Amazon allows. We ask for their permission throughout the process and, actually, this process is no different to if an Aggregator was purchasing an Amazon business. We use an Asset Purchase Agreement and essentially we’re transferring the assets from the previous owner to the new owner.
Connor: Thanks for sharing that! Can you dive a bit more into the account management services that you offer? Our audience is always looking for reputable companies that they can lean on for specific parts of their eCommerce businesses.
Aaron: Essentially we work with people who have a spare Amazon seller account that they no longer use. We purchase that account from them and send them a cash windfall – nice and easy!
The process is just as simple:
- We jump on a really quick call with them (usually 10 minutes) and we review the health of the account
- We make them an offer for their account. If they want to move forward we send them an Asset Purchase Agreement which simply states that we are now the owners of their asset (store)
- We send them their funds via Escrow
- The final step is that we safely transfer the account without setting off any red flags with Amazon. We remove all of their details from the store so that they can be confident everything has been processed and transferred correctly. We do this in a fully legal and compliant manner
Connor: Jumping off of that…when you’re thinking about your ideal customer, who is that? Where are they selling online? Where are they located in the world? How much sales do they typically have in a year? If there’s any other qualities, please include them as well. We’re all about making introductions where it benefits both parties.
Aaron: In a nutshell – anyone that has a spare Amazon account that they’re no longer using! Maybe they’ve thrown in the towel or maybe they’re considering not selling anymore (lets face it there is a lot of competition on Amazon!) These are the people that we would love to help. We will send them a cash windfall for something they’re no longer using and they can be confident and have peace of mind that we’ll transfer ownership of their store in a fully legal and compliant way. If they sell their store elsewhere there is a very high risk of their account not being transferred correctly, or their details not being removed, which opens them up to liability.
Connor: For our audience to truly understand what makes you stand out from other companies in the e-commerce account management space, can you share a story of how Amazon Seller Accounts truly helped one of its customers?
Aaron: We have dozens of stories we could share with you!
You’ll find this testimony on our website: Tina had two stores she no longer wanted. We purchased both of them and she used the money to fund a flight to visit her Mother who was in hospital in New York. Sadly this was the last time Tina saw her mother as, very sadly, she passed away shortly after Tina’s visit. Tina said without this money she wouldn’t have been able to afford the flight so she was very grateful that she found our business and sold her stores.
We’ve had others who used the money to pay medical bills for their family. Sadly inflation is at an all time high right now and the cost of living crisis is, unfortunately, forcing some people to choose between heating and eating. It truly is a win/win situation to sell something you no longer use. It’s like a secret lottery win.
Also, we send cash to people who refer us to their friends who go on to sell their store to us. So that’s free cash for you and a win for your friend selling their unused store. It’s also a win for us as we get to help people during their time of need, and then we get to polish up their store, find another person who wants to purchase a store to grow their income and support their families, or even grow their businesses, create new jobs and employ new team members. Everyones a winner here.
Connor: As you and your company think about the next year ahead, what does it look like? Are there any specific initiatives that you’re working on as a team to better your product or service for your customers?
Aaron: We’re currently looking to expand our team so we can continue to provide funds to those who no longer sell on Amazon and want to sell their store and also help all the businesses out there who want to grow their income while protecting their downside with multiple Amazon stores.
We’re excited to grow our team because half of our team are from Ukraine and obviously the situation out there is challenging right now so we’re excited to support more Ukrainian team members at a time when their Country needs it. We also donate a portion of our profit every month to Ukrainian charities (including children’s charities and cancer charities) to support the current displacement of a lot of their people so that’s something we’re really excited about and we are pumped out about it in our team.
Connor: How about this…everyone loves a company’s growth story. We all naturally go through ups and downs as a company. What was one of the biggest challenges that the company faced in its growing stages?
Aaron: My business partner and I actually met because I was selling Amazon stores to him. Separately we’d both been selling stores for 4 years. JZ is an incredible operator technician and he had a lot of the back office stuff set up. I’m a Marketer and Sales person so I said why don’t we collaborate and see how it goes. We joined forces well over 18 months ago now and the business is going from strength to strength.
One of the biggest bottlenecks we’ve experienced at the start is figuring out how to transfer these stores exactly how Amazon wants them transferred legally AND without setting off a single red flag with Amazon. Frankly, it’s been a painful experience which has cost well over $1m+ in testing :)
Because Amazon can suspend a store 6 or 12 months AFTER it was transferred (if it was not done properly), the feedback loop is LONG which means you don’t see the issues until it’s too late.
So testing, and through doing over 1200 of these transfers successfully over the last 3 years, we have this down to a science.
Which means we’re excited to continue building and helping more and more people in the Amazon world.
Connor: Thanks! Let’s talk about eCommerce! Where do you see the industry heading in the next 1-2 years? Any big changes that you’re predicting for the industry? How can eCommerce companies prepare for it?
Aaron: I believe eCommerce will continue to grow and of course evolve – I think new platforms will gain market share. Amazon will still be the biggest player though. This is because the service they deliver is second to none to their customers.
I do feel that Amazon will continue to, as it has done over the years, add many more third party sellers and as the market share grows, the opportunity to make money on Amazon will continue to grow as well. I don’t see that slowing down or stopping at all.
There will be other platforms that do pop up, however I don’t think it will impact the massive hold that Amazon has over the market share. I do think it will continue. We’ve seen over the last 10 years on Amazon (which is when I started back in 2013) the sophistication of the Amazon seller has increased dramatically; you have to create a great brand; you have to offer a great product and deliver great service plus add value. It’s all these new fundamentals that weren’t always necessary back in the early days when you could simply launch a product and it could literally take off overnight. All of these are positive things though – they give the industry a better name and create better competition resulting in people offering better value to their customers which is always a good thing.
Connor: Changing gears a little bit…When it comes to bookkeeping and accounting, what do you think the biggest pain points for eCommerce business owners are? Feel free to speak from personal experience as well.
Aaron: For the vast majority of entrepreneurs (and especially me, for sure!) their skill sets don’t lay in spreadsheets and looking at financial reports. At the start of my business journey, sometimes I’d feel like I was being suffocated if I was reading spreadsheets and the like; mainly driven by a lack of understanding and ignorance on my part – I was never naturally gifted with that stuff! It’s just one of those traits that business owners/ Entrepreneurs don’t tend to be good at but it’s something you learn over time that it’s a must and you need to get to grips with in order to grow a healthy business.
The biggest pain point for eCommerce business owners, I think, is getting your head around cash flow and making sure you have the right accounting procedures in place and that you’re reading the right data that’ll help you make those key decisions to increase your cash flow cycle so you can continue to fund growth as you grow your business. As you know, growth eats cash and if you don’t have a handle on that stuff then – unfortunately – you’re not going to grow.
Connor: Okay, here’s an open mic opportunity. If there’s one thing that you’d want the EcomBalance community to hear from you, what would it be?
Aaron: If you know anyone who has an Amazon seller account that they do not use, or they have an account they’re considering selling, then we’d love to talk to them.
We’ll jump on a quick 10 minute call to check their store, make them a cash offer and then transfer the store legally and compliantly without setting off any red flags with Amazon. This will give them peace of mind that the store they sell is transferred properly and is carried out exactly how Amazon wants to see these transactions done.
They’ll then have a nice windfall to pay off some of their mortgage, or whatever they like. We’ve had some people say it’s like finding a wad of cash in your inside coat pocket that you forgot you had!
So to recap – if you or anyone you know has an Amazon store that you’re no longer using, let’s jump on a quick 10 minute call so we can check the health of the store then we’ll make you a cash offer. And if you’d rather keep the store, that’s ok too. But you can at least get an idea how much it’s worth!
Connor: As we close this out, I just have one more question. Where is the best place to find and follow you and the company online? Also, if you have one, is there any special offer that you’ll be offering to the community today?
Aaron: You’ll find me over at www.sellmyselleraccount.co where you can book a call with the team, submit screenshots of your seller account and we’ll make you that cash offer.
As an added bonus; if you do know anybody who has a spare seller account, we will pay YOU up to $500 for referring us (providing we do go on to purchase their store). We’ve had people add an extra $2k – $5k per month just for reaching out to their Amazon friends and referring them to us – a great way for them to help their friends out and for both of them to make easy money.