By Ali Khoddami, founder of Vela K Products Ltd., a registered British Columbia distribution company selling brand-direct on Amazon.ca and Amazon.com since 2021. Updated September 22, 2026.

Short answer: brands approve wholesale accounts for sellers who look like a real business, buy in real quantities, and will not damage their pricing. That means a registered company, a resale or tax number, a professional email on your own domain, a clear first order, and a message that talks about the brand's problems before your own. Most new Amazon sellers get ignored because they send a personal Gmail asking for a price list. Fix those five things and the reply rate changes.

I have opened brand-direct accounts in Canada and the USA for five years. Below is exactly what brands check, the six steps I use, and the reasons a brand says no even when you did everything right.

What a brand checks before it opens an account

A brand's wholesale manager is not judging your enthusiasm. They are running a risk check. In roughly this order, they look at:

1. Are you a legal business? A registered company name, a business number, and a resale or sales tax number. In Canada that is a CRA business number and, in provinces with PST such as British Columbia, a PST number so you can buy for resale without paying provincial tax. In the USA it is an EIN and a state resale certificate. No registration, no account. This is not a brand being difficult. Their accountant needs it.

2. Where will the product be sold? Brands have been burned by Amazon sellers who undercut their retailers. If you hide that you sell on Amazon and they find out later, the account closes. Say it up front, and say how you protect their pricing.

3. Will you follow their pricing policy? Many brands publish a minimum advertised price (MAP) policy. A seller who breaks MAP gets cut off, and the brand loses a channel. Telling them you follow MAP, and meaning it, removes their biggest fear.

4. How much will you buy? A first order is a test. Brands want to see a realistic number, not "as much as you can supply." A specific opening order tells them you have capital and a plan.

5. Do you already exist? A website or a live Amazon storefront, a business email that matches your domain, a phone number that gets answered. Ten minutes of checking. If nothing comes up, the email goes in the bin.

The six steps that get a yes

Step 1: Register the company first

Do this before you contact anyone. Provincial or federal incorporation in Canada, or an LLC in the USA. Get the business number, the resale or sales tax number, and a business bank account. Brands ask for these on the account application, and Amazon asks for matching business details when you verify your seller account. Having them ready is the difference between a two day approval and a six week back and forth.

Step 2: Build the one page that answers every question

Before I send a single email, I have a one page company profile as a PDF: legal name, address, business and tax numbers, the channels I sell on (including Amazon, stated plainly), the categories I focus on, my prep and shipping setup, and a line about pricing compliance. Brands can forward this internally. A profile that answers their questions before they ask them moves you to the front of the line.

Step 3: Pick brands you can actually help

Do not contact the top brand in the category. It has a distributor network and does not need you. Look for brands that already sell on Amazon but have listings with poor images, missing variations, stock gaps, or a single third party seller with bad reviews. Those brands have an Amazon problem, and you are offering to solve it. In my experience, smaller brands are far more open to a new account than the category leaders.

Step 4: Write to a person, about their problem

Find the wholesale, sales, or e-commerce contact on the brand's website or LinkedIn. Then write four short paragraphs: who you are (one line), what you noticed about their Amazon presence (specific, with the ASIN or listing), what you would do about it, and a clear ask for a wholesale application or a 15 minute call. No attachments on the first email except the profile. No flattery. No "I would love to partner." A brand manager reads fifty of those a week.

Step 5: Follow up on a schedule

In my experience, approvals rarely come from the first message. Follow up at day 4, day 10, and day 21, each time adding one new useful thing: a competitor listing that is out of stock, a review trend on their product, a category change on Amazon that affects them. Then I stop. A brand that has not answered after four touches is a no for this quarter, and I move on. The list is long.

Step 6: Make the first order easy to say yes to

When the application comes back, respond the same day with a specific opening order at their minimum or slightly above it. Pay on their terms without negotiating on the first order. Ship, sell, and reorder on time. The second order is where the real account is built. Brands remember the seller who paid on time and reordered when they said they would, and that seller gets better terms, new products first, and protection when a new seller shows up.

Why brands say no even when you did it right

They have an exclusive Amazon distributor. Some brands assign Amazon to one partner. You cannot fix this. Ask if they have a plan for Canada if you are in Canada, or for a category they are not covering, and move on if not.

Your account looks new. A seller account with no sales history is a risk. Start with brands that accept smaller sellers, build a record, and come back to the bigger names with proof.

You asked for a price list in the first line. Price lists come after approval. Asking first signals that you are shopping, not building.

Your email did not match your company. A Gmail address, a website that does not load, or a company name that does not match the tax number. Brands check.

Timing. Brands review new accounts in cycles, often after trade shows or at the start of a quarter. A no in March can be a yes in September. Keep the record and try again.

Canada and the USA are different markets

In Canada there are fewer sellers per brand and many US brands have no Canadian distribution at all. That is an opening. A Canadian company with a PST number and a Canadian address can offer a brand its first proper Amazon.ca presence. In the USA the competition is heavier, but the catalogue is far bigger and brand outreach at volume works if your paperwork is clean. I run both from one company, and the paperwork is the same idea in both countries: registered business, tax number for resale, a clear pricing promise.

One more thing on documents. The invoices you receive from the brand are the same invoices Amazon will ask for when you apply to sell in a restricted category. Amazon generally wants a real invoice from the manufacturer or an authorised distributor, dated within the last 180 days, showing your business name and address exactly as they appear on your seller account. If you want the detail on why Amazon rejects invoices, I wrote it up here: Why Does Amazon Keep Rejecting My Invoice?

Common questions

Do I need a business licence to buy wholesale? Yes. Every brand application I have seen in Canada and the USA asked for a registered business and a resale or sales tax number before opening an account.

Can I just buy from a distributor instead? You can, and it is a fair place to start, but distributor pricing has another margin built in and everyone else can buy the same products. Brand-direct is more work up front and more defensible after.

How many brands should I contact? Expect to contact dozens of brands to open your first few accounts. It is a numbers game done carefully, not a spray of templates.

What is a normal minimum first order? It varies by brand, from a few hundred dollars to several thousand. The brand's application will state it. Choose brands whose minimum fits the capital you actually have.

Do I need to be brand registered on Amazon to sell a brand? No. Brand Registry belongs to the brand owner. As an authorised reseller you sell on the brand's existing listings. The brand can, however, restrict who sells its products, which is exactly why the relationship matters.

Does this guarantee I will get approved? No. Brands decide, and some will say no for reasons that have nothing to do with you. The steps above raise your odds. Nothing removes the brand's choice.

The short version

Register the company, get the resale number, build a one page profile, pick brands with an Amazon problem you can fix, write to a person about that problem, follow up four times, then place a clean first order and reorder on time. That is the whole method. It is not complicated. It is just work most people skip.

If you want to see how I do the research and the outreach in practice, the free Vela K Starter Training walks through it with a real brand: start the free training here. And if you want me to build your first brand account with you, the programs are explained at academy.velakproducts.com/programs.

Ali Khoddami is the founder of Vela K Products Ltd., a distribution company registered in British Columbia, Canada, with operations in Coquitlam, BC and Blaine, WA. He teaches brand-direct Amazon wholesale through Vela K Academy. Vela K Products Ltd. is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Amazon.com, Inc. This article is educational and is not legal, tax, or financial advice.