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Same SKU numbers on multiple Accounts?
 

I've had my new account, selling books, running for about 4 months now, after being suspended last summer. I am about to open up another account and am wondering what strategy I should take with the inventory and SKU numbers. Ideally I would like to have the same books along with their SKU numbers on both accounts (and eventually on more), which would be ideal when adding more inventory online . BTW the SKU numbers would be the only things identical between the two accounts, other than the book titles. Is this a bad idea? Should I split my inventory in half and put half on one account and half on the other? Any other suggestions?

Hey Rellik, I would suggest not having such a large amount of SKU's be shared between two accounts. Amazon of course does not want sellers to have multiple accounts.. they would most likely thwart this by checking EIN/address/name data and of course inventory. It would look a little odd to see 2 sellers near the same location selling a BUNCH of similar items.

I would suggest, to split them up between the two accounts to help split your risk in case one of them gets canned. However, if you have a BUNCH of a certain item, or are sharing the buybox on an item that you sell a lot of, I would say yes in instances such as those: when you are selling on the same ASIN between both accounts, you have the buybox for double the amount of time. Of course, if you're talking mainly books, that would be irrelevant as there is no buybox for books category.

Out of curiosity, did you add ASIN's from your suspended account onto the new one you've been operating on? If so, about how many?

I did add some ASIN's from my previous account on the new one. Originally I added about 500 from the previous account, but I changed the SKU numbers on them. I then uploaded slowly after.

What are the odds that two different sellers would - just by chance - have the same SKU numbers on inventory? Very slim. Now, if you were using the ASIN/ISBN or UPC, that would be a different story.

I do not know if this would kill an account as I never tried it. However, there is a risk, so I suggest eliminating the risk.

Don't use the same sku, this will link you.

Best classification advice - SKU is a measure of one shop's inventory...using same ones could be an overt link