If you immediately cringed at the thought of an upset customer randomly showing up at your private residence, then you’re not alone. 👊
Amazon's notice upset many sellers—despite the fact that this change will discourage counterfeiters and hijackers.
One seller claimed online that several buyers showed up at his warehouse asking for their packages. Now imagine if he didn't have a warehouse and instead registered his home address with Amazon. Would customers have gone to his house and asked for products? Creepy...
Today, I'm going to outline two simple steps to ensure that doesn't happen to you:
First, purchase a remote address
European seller information is already publicly available as required by law. In Europe, sellers adapted by purchasing a remote or "virtual" address.
A remote address is a mailing address where you have no physical presence. In the USA, the most well known type of remote address is a PO Box with the United States Postal Service (USPS).
I'm going to show you how to purchase a PO Box in three easy steps:
Step 1: Go to USPS.com. Search for Post Office locations near you using the search bar under "Reserve a New PO Box".
Step 2: Choose a Post Office location and select your desired PO Box size and payment period.
Step 3: Enter your contact and billing information to reserve your PO Box.
You will need to register for a USPS account if you do not already have one.
Note: UPS offers a similar service called a Personal Mailbox.
Next, register the remote address with Amazon.
Obtain a proof of address. This can either be a bill from the USPS or a utility bill addressed to your PO Box.
Amazon requires you to send a proof of your address. The information you give Amazon must match the wording on the proof of address perfectly. A period or comma can throw the whole process off and get your account suspended.
However, when Amazon sees this address, it can't have "PO Box" in the name. To get around this, have your utility company send the bill to the street version of your address. The street address version of your PO Box address is the address of the post office followed by "#" and the number of your PO Box. For example, instead of having your mail sent to "PO Box 963, New York, NY", have your mail sent to "1525 E Gun Hill Rd #963, New York, NY". Fill out and return this form to your Post Office before you get your mail sent to the PO Box in street address format.
Follow these five steps to edit your Amazon business address:
- Login to your Amazon seller account.
- In the Settings menu at the top right corner of Seller Central, click Account Info to view the Seller Account Information page.
- In the Business Information section, click the links for the information that you want to view.
- To change your business name, click Display Name and to change the address, click Business Address. Enter new information or edit the current information.
- Once completed, click Submit to save.
Should you be afraid if you don't get a virtual address?
No. People have much more bark online than bite in real life.
A while ago, a buyer left one of our students a critical one-star review on his new listing—a devastating hit early in his product’s history!
Instead of getting angry about it, our student recognized the flaw in his product, fixed it, refunded the buyer, and sent the customer the new version of his product. The result? The buyer changed his review to 4 stars. They reconciled and even met up for a drink in real life.
The world is as you make it.
