How to register as a seller on AWS Marketplace

What is the AWS Marketplace?

The AWS marketplace is a transaction ecosystem where tech buyers can procure and manage third-party solutions that run on AWS. The AWS Marketplace presents buyers with a vast catalog of thoroughly vetted software listings that can be purchased using preexisting cloud commits for simplified contracting and invoicing. For these reasons and more, SaaS buyers are gravitating to the marketplace as a preferred procurement route, creating a demand for ISVs to establish this route 
to market.

“Find third-party software, data, and services that run on AWS and manage from a centralized location. AWS Marketplace includes thousands of software listings and simplifies software licensing and procurement with flexible pricing options and multiple deployment methods.“
AWS Marketplace Service

Why should you sell through the AWS Marketplace?

Cloud partnerships and cloud marketplaces as a route-to-market (Cloud GTM) have been disrupting SaaS buyer and seller behavior over the past few post-pandemic years.

Back in 2022, Deloitte’s Future of Cloud survey of executive-level leaders showed that over 50% of respondents foresaw an immediate increase in cloud investment in their organization. Survey respondents also stated that only 25% of their workload remained on-prem, with a planned reduction to 15% or less.

Today, SaaS product environments are hosted and operated on the cloud. ISVs have started to align their product environments and deployment with their customers’ ecosystem early on in response to their demand for this transaction route.

With over 200 fully-featured services and 31% of the total global cloud market share, AWS is a behemoth that houses the infrastructure of everyone from Netflix to globally recognized SaaS players like Crowdstrike.

Now, AWS users want to procure solution ecosystems that integrate into their existing infrastructure and deliver value rapidly. And what better way to source these solutions than through the AWS marketplace.

This unlocks a whole new revenue channel for ISVs – speeding sales cycles by up to 40%, and expanding deal sizes by up to 80% thanks to the eagerness of buyers to burn through their commits.

But before you can list your solutions and begin transacting through the AWS marketplace, you will need to undergo the seller registration process.

Introduction to the Seller Registration Process on AWS

In registering yourself as a seller, AWS ensures your preparedness and compliance to join the ecosystem, and offers buyers the assurance of being a marketplace populated by trusted and qualified sellers. The Amazon Seller Guide serves as a living document that ISVs can use as a single source of truth. However, we’ll break down the key elements of the registration process here to outline its steps and help you plan your resources.

Prerequisites to registering as a seller on the AWS marketplace

Before we dive into specific seller requirements, let’s first go over AWS mandated readiness checks you’ll have to meet before you can register as a seller on the AWS marketplace.

Who is eligible to register as a seller on the AWS marketplace?

You can sell on the AWS marketplace only if you are a citizen, permanent resident or a business entity incorporated within the eligible jurisdiction in the below image. AWS has a list of third-party ISVs that offer support to companies outside of the AWS specified jurisdiction, but doesn’t directly endorse them.

Step-by-step guide to registering as a seller

You will need an AWS account to begin the seller registration process. We recommend you create a new account for this purpose and separate that from accounts handling production workloads, since all marketplace interactions will be tied to the account you register with.

While creating your ‘seller of record’ account, ensure that you follow AWS account management best practices and limit the use of the root user by instead assigning AWS IAM roles for everyday tasks, including administrative ones. Also, ensure that you grant the IAM user the least privilege necessary to perform a task.

The actual registration process itself can be split into three core components in terms of the information required from you -

1. AWS Marketplace public profile
2. Tax information
3. Banking information

1. AWS Marketplace public profile

Once you have signed in with your marketplace-specific AWS account credentials, head to the marketplace home page, click the Sell on Marketplace tab, and select Register Now to begin the registration process. This will lead you to the seller registration page where you need to -

• Review your legal business name - this will be your identity in transactions and communications with buyers as well as AWS
• Review and accept AWS’ seller terms and conditions
• Answer questions about your business, including -
  • What your purpose for is for registering on the marketplace
  • The kind of offerings you intend to list
  • Your pricing plan - You can select multiple options, such as contract-based, consumption-based, and free plans.
• Select your product category
• Identify the industry segments you will cater to
• Register and sign into the AWS Marketplace Management Portal for further steps.

Once you are in the portal, build the identity of your public profile. This will serve as your interface to the buyers, so make sure you put your best foot forward. We recommend collaborating with your marketing team to complete this. At this stage, you will provide information on -

• Your display name
• Your website URL
• A description or professional bio
• Your logo

2. Tax information

Next, in the Marketplace Management Portal, go to Settings, select Go to Tax Dashboard in the Payment Information section, and update your tax information. US-based entities are required to submit a W-9 form. Non-US sellers require a W-8 form and Value-added tax (VAT) or goods and services tax (GST) registration number. Make sure that your location is the same in both the AWS Billing console and the tax information you enter here. We recommend accessing AWS’ tax help resources to understand your responsibilities with respect to VAT, invoicing, and other tax obligations as tax detailing is a key step of your registration process.

3. Banking information

Once you’ve completed your tax information interview, go back to Settings > Payment information of the management portal to fill in your bank information.

Transacting on the AWS marketplace requires you to have a US bank account since the AWS Marketplace only disburses to US bank accounts. For non-US entities, AWS recommends obtaining a virtual one through Hyperwallet.

What happens after you register as a seller on AWS?

Once you’ve completed all the above, you can access the AWS Marketplace Management Portal at any time using your ‘seller of record’ AWS credentials to manage your marketplace transactions from end to end. This includes -

• Submitting new listings and updating existing ones
• Monitoring the status of your submissions
• Leveraging usage data to study the impact of your co-marketing campaigns
• Access customer data in real-time and make them available to internal GTM teams

Ensuring the success of your AWS marketplace listing will need dedicated time, resources, and an overarching strategy toward which your day-to-day operational activities will be aimed. By leaving the operational pieces of the puzzle to a co-pilot like Clazar, you don’t just save valuable engineering bandwidth but also benefit from the single-platform management of your marketplace efforts.

If you want to explore how Clazar can help you list, transact, and scale your marketplace motion to drive incremental revenue, feel free to schedule a demo or talk to our experts.