How to Use a Virtual Office for Your Amazon Business Address

A new requirement from Amazon Marketplace went into effect on September 1, 2020, that impacts hundreds of thousands of solopreneurs and businesses selling products on Amazon. In an effort to counter fraud, Amazon now requires all sellers on its U.S. marketplace to display their business name and address on their Amazon.com seller profile. This is already a requirement for its stores in Europe, Japan, and Mexico. 

If this requirement affects your Amazon store, make sure to change the information soon. You can edit your seller profile on Amazon by following these steps:

1. Log into your Amazon seller account.

2. Find the “Settings” menu and click “Account Info.”

3. Choose the “Edit” option. 

From there, you can change the name, address, and other basic information about your Amazon store.

However, you don’t have to attach your personal name and home address to your Amazon store to meet this requirement.

Why You Should Not List Your Name and Home Address

This requirement may put some sellers in an uncomfortable situation. To begin, many sellers are individuals lacking a business registration. In these instances, they must publish their name and home addresses as their Amazon seller contact info. This ratchets up visibility, and if something goes wrong with your product, you could be personally liable without the business protection of limited liability. Personal possessions such as a vehicle, home, money in the bank, and other items could be required to settle outstanding debts the unregistered business cannot cover.

But beyond the legal liabilities, most solopreneurs and small businesses will not want to add personal names and home addresses to their Amazon seller account info. Imagine having a customer drive past your home to see what your worth might be or worse yet stopping by during dinner to air their complaints. 

Using a Virtual Office as Your Amazon Seller Business Address

The upside is that there is an alternative—one that solves these challenges. Let’s take a look at some of the ways a virtual office can be used for your Amazon business address.

Registering Your Business 

A virtual office often comes with business registration service that enables you to rely on the service provider to make sure all of the paperwork is filed correctly. Rather than spending hours hunting down the right information online and filling out and mailing documents to the correct authorities, you can focus your time on running your business. 

Davinci Virtual makes it especially easy on its users of Virtual Office Solutions, partnering with Legalinc for registered agent and business formation services that offer automated, digital registered agent services in every state. It is important to remember that many state laws regarding business registration differ, and thus having an expert to help you along the way is especially helpful when you set up a business address for your online business.

Getting a Professional Address

First impressions count—even on Amazon. Having a professional business address for an online store goes a long way in conveying a brand that embodies confidence and trust. Anyone who thinks customers on Amazon will not pay attention to the name and address of the business from which they are considering a purchase needs to think twice. In the case of Davinci Virtual Office Solutions, tens of thousands of solopreneurs and businesses leverage its more than 2,000 locations around the world. 

Receiving and Forwarding Mail

Getting inundated with incoming mail at a home address can create logistical issues with other members of the household and consume valuable time sorting through. Placing your home address on your Amazon seller profile is only going to increase the incoming volume of mail. With a virtual office service, mail receipt and forwarding solves this problem. Your business mail goes to the physical address of your online business, while your personal mail goes to your home—the way things should be. Plus, when you do need to have your mail forwarded during vacation or business travel, virtual office services can do so.

Listing Your Business in a Lobby

For solopreneurs and businesses that need to meet with clients, prospects, or business partners, a virtual office affords you the change to do so in a professional location that includes a lobby directory listing. When they come to your building for a meeting, you look much bigger than a seller on Amazon. The credibility and image of a well-known location goes a long way in fostering a brand impression demanded by every business.

Expanding into New Locations

For businesses with international operations, a virtual office service provides them with the ability to quickly, easily, and inexpensively expand into new locations without acquiring an expensive permanent office. Even for businesses operating in the U.S. alone, the ability to have office addresses in different locales may aid in sales and moreover infer broader presence than if only one address is listed. 

Using Coworking and Rented Office/Conference Space

Solopreneurs and small businesses thinking about renting permanent office space are likely reconsidering their options in the face of the pandemic. Yet, having a professional location from which to work and collaborate with other like-minded professionals and the opportunity to rent conference rooms that satisfy specific meeting requirements still exists. In this case, you need to make sure you evaluate virtual office providers based on whether they also provide coworking and meeting room capabilities such as Davinci Meeting Rooms. In addition, make sure to vet them based on their service offerings—lobby greeters, internet and presentation tools, business and administration support, and catering.

Ensuring the Legitimacy and Compliance of Your Virtual Office Service

As often is the case in the business world, “not every size is the same” when it comes to virtual office solutions. One important area of demarcation is onboarding services. Solopreneurs and businesses need to seek out virtual office providers that require mandatory corporate information disclosure, identity verification, and notarized documentation processes. The good news is that Davinci Virtual Office Solutions requires all three as part of its diligent compliance process. Getting locked into the wrong virtual office provider can be detrimental and create new risks that every business should avoid. 

About Patrick Spencer

Patrick Spencer (Ph.D.) is the President and Founder of TIRO Communications that helps companies develop, build, and manage content, customer, advocacy, and demand-gen programs. Included in its offerings is TIRO Cognition Insights, a data analytics tool that enables B2C and B2B businesses to pinpoint what their customers and competitors’ customers are saying and to identify corresponding actionable product, services, competitive, sales, and marketing intelligence.

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Website: www.tirocommunications.com