Is it necessary to pass KYC on Amazon Europe? What is the KYC review process?

Nowadays, many merchants will choose the European site when opening a store on Amazon. However, to open a store on this site, you need to pass the KYC audit. If you fail this audit, you cannot open a store. Some merchants do not understand this KYC audit, so they ask whether it is necessary to pass the KYC? Let me explain to you below.

Is it necessary to pass KYC on Amazon Europe?

KYC audit is a must for entering Amazon's European site. Depending on the seller's situation, the triggering time will be different and the required information will also be different.

What is the KYC review process?

1. Triggered directly during account registration.

At this time, check whether the information has been prepared in full as required, whether all the information is true and detailed, and then conduct KYC review according to the platform prompts.

Tip: When registering, sellers need to fill in company information, primary contact information (the individual who performs account operations on behalf of the company) and credit card information, as well as beneficiary information (the individual who holds 25% or more of the company's shares). After that, most sellers can directly sell online after uploading product data (note: without filling in the beneficiary information, the seller cannot sell online).

2. Once registration is completed and you enter the seller platform, a KYC review may be triggered immediately.

After the seller enters the backend, when the homepage displays "Your account has been deactivated", it means that the account has entered the European site account review stage and the account needs to be activated; if it displays "More information is required", it means that the KYC review has been triggered.

When the European account review and KYC review are triggered at the same time, you need to activate the account first and then process the KYC review. Otherwise, you will not be able to enter the KYC review and your account’s sales permissions will be suspended.

3. From registration to normal sales in the store, KYC review will be triggered before a certain sales threshold is reached.

When the sales amount of sellers on the European site reaches 5,000 euros or more, sellers will be required to undergo KYC review. If your cumulative receipts reach 15,000 euros and you have not passed the Amazon KYC review, your sales rights will be suspended until you pass the review, and Amazon will reopen your sales rights.

Although it will take some time for the cumulative sales to increase from 5,000 euros to 15,000 euros, sellers can go for audit during this period. However, given that sometimes there may be some omissions in the audit materials, it is recommended that you prepare for KYC audit at the beginning of account registration.

4. Change your credit card.

When you change the credit card information submitted when registering an account, it may also trigger a KYC review, but the probability is relatively small.

5. Modify background information such as ID card and contact person.

Modifying background information such as ID card and contact information will trigger a KYC review. A normal review takes 3 to 5 days. Some sellers may be reviewed for half a month or even longer. It depends on your information and whether the Amazon staff responsible for this review are busy. Adding a sub-account also counts as information modification.

6. Modify the receiving account.

Modifying the payment account can easily trigger Amazon's KYC review.

7. Modify the company address.

Some sellers have already completed the KYC review when registering on the European site, but because their business license is included in the abnormal list, they need to change their address. When changing the address, it is easy to trigger a second review, and they will receive a KYC review email from Amazon.

In addition, if the seller has successfully registered on the European site and the company has moved, and the actual business address is different from the address on the business license, then what needs to be done is to update the address on the business license. This also counts as an address change, so just prepare the information first and then wait for the background review.

8. Amazon’s phased review

Amazon's operations are becoming more and more formalized, so the audit will also be a phased state. For example, when sellers change information, sales increase sharply, operations are abnormal, etc., quantitative changes lead to qualitative changes, which may eventually trigger Amazon's phased audit.

Regulatory agencies in Europe are very strict in anti-money laundering investigations, so if you want to open a store on Amazon's European site, you must pass a KYC audit. This is unavoidable. Many merchants are unable to open a store smoothly because they fail to pass this audit, and there are techniques to pass this audit.

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