Amazon is the most popular online shopping platform, with over 310 million active users worldwide and over two million active sellers. It generates over $1.4 billion in sales every day.

Tanzanians widely use Amazon to purchase electronics and beauty/home care products. Apart from using Amazon as a platform to buy products, some Tanzanians use Amazon for other purposes, such as selling, promotions, and affiliate marketing products.

This article will discuss how you can receive Amazon payments in Tanzania.

But before that, let’s look at how people living in Tanzania make money through Amazon.

How Tanzanians can make money on Amazon

Amazon offers several ways for people to make money. For Tanzanians, there are two common ways people make money through Amazon. Those ways include directly from Amazon associates’ programs, a unique e-program for affiliate marketers, and Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (Amazon KDP), which allows people to publish books directly on Amazon.

Below is how Amazon associates and Amazon KDP works:

Making money as an Amazon affiliate through the Amazon Associates program

Amazon has a unique program that awards users a commission for each sale they make through their affiliate links. This program is commonly known as the Amazon associate program.

Although the Amazon associate program is the most straightforward program for creators and affiliates, it has a few criteria you need to meet to be Eligible. Below are the requirements to meet to be accepted for the Amazon associate  program

Eligibility criteria’s for the Amazon Associates program

• The website you want to use to promote products should be owned by you and have a minimum of 10 blog posts with at least one blog article published within the last 60 days.
• For promotions through mobile apps, your app should firstly look and function differently from Amazon’s shopping app, and it should be free in major app stores with original content
• If you want to use social media to join a program, you need only an established following base and an active social media presence on platforms like Twitter(x), Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.

Note: Although commissions differ in percentages depending on product categories, many products average between 3% and 5% commission per sale.

Making money by selling books through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)

This is a popular publishing service offered by Amazon. Through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, independent writers can upload their books and sell them worldwide as paperbacks, hardbacks, and ebooks in minutes.

Selling books on Amazon KDP has several perks, such as

You can get paid per page people read in your book

Amazon KDP offers special royalties, such as Amazon Kindle Unlimited. This program lets you earn money based on how many pages people read from your book.

You can earn up to 70% per each ebook you sold

Amazon KDP offers two royalty options for each ebook you sell. Two royalties’ options are 30% and 70%. Each loyalty option has requirements.

You can earn up to 60% on printed books.

Earn up to 60% royalty on paperback and hardcover books sold through Amazon KDP.

Learn more about paperback royalties and hardcover royalties

Note: For new Tanzania writers, selling books on Amazon KDP might be difficult, and thus Amazon KDP has unique systems that allow people to sell low- or medium-content books, which means selling colouring books, planners, word search books, and journals.

Now that you’ve made your first money through Amazon associates programs or Amazon KDP, the next step is receiving your payment.

Amazon offers two ways for associates and affiliates in Tanzania to receive their payments: Gift cards and International bank accounts.

1. Gift cards

With this option, you can use your earnings from Amazon’s affiliate program to purchase  directly from the platform.

While this is an excellent option if you have short-term needs, there are also shipping fees to consider.

2. International bank account

Amazon pays directly to international bank accounts; all you need to have is either US, UK or Euro bank accounts from one among 52 Amazon-supported countries.

Tanzania is not among these 52 countries. This means that if you have a USD bank account domiciled in a non-supported country like Tanzania, you will not be able to receive your payments.

Fortunately, you can receive Amazon payments through your US, UK or Euro bank account with Grey, as these accounts are domiciled in supported countries.

For you to be able to receive payment through Grey, all you need to have is a foreign bank account from Grey. Follow these steps to open a foreign bank account from Grey.

Open a Grey Account:

• Visit the Grey website or download the Grey app

• ‍Sign up for free and complete the identity verification process.

• Access virtual accounts in multiple currencies, ideal for receiving Amazon payouts.

Once you have your account information, you can link it to your Amazon account.

For Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing)

Log in to your Amazon Kindle account, click on ‘Your Account’Select ‘Getting paid’, Enter your Grey virtual account details, and Save

• Log in to your Amazon Kindle account
• Click on ‘Your Account’
• Select ‘Getting paid.’
• Enter your Grey virtual account details and Save

Related: How to receive Amazon payments in South Africa.

For Amazon Affiliates;

• Log in to your Amazon associates account
• Visit the settings page by hovering over your email address and scrolling towards ‘Payment and Tax information’.
• Under this section, select ‘Change payment method.’
• Choose ‘Direct deposit.’
• Select the country that corresponds with your bank address. For example, if your Grey UK bank account is in London, select ‘United Kingdom.’
• You’ll receive a form. Please enter your Grey account details. Remember, your Grey account is a checking account.
• Review the form and click on “Submit.”

Fun fact - By switching your payment method to direct deposit, you can still choose to receive some earnings as Gift cards by switching back.

Related: How to receive Amazon payments in Egypty.

How to transfer my Amazon earnings to Mobile Money

• Login to your Grey account

• On the homepage, select USD balance.

• Click “Send”.

• Then click " Send via mobile money" to send directly to your TZS mobile money account in Tanzania.

Getting your freelance payments from Amazon shouldn’t be tough. With a Grey account, you can receive money from anywhere worldwide and swap it for your local currency.

We hope this article has made your work easier. Sign up with Grey today to experience seamless cross-border payments tailored to your needs as an Amazon seller.

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