The 5 phases to listing your SaaS product in AWS Marketplace

AWS Marketplace is a curated digital catalog that makes it easy for customers to find, test, buy, and deploy third-party software, data products, and services that customers need. AWS Marketplace is also a valuable asset for software companies to expand their reach and enable a faster sale.

In The Partner Opportunity for AWS Marketplace ISVs, published by Forrester Consulting, AWS Marketplace sellers have reported 27% increase in win rates, 40% faster deal closure, and increased customer spend by 80%.

When trying to list software-as-a-service (SaaS) products in AWS Marketplace, sellers do not always have a clear view of the steps to take in listing their product To help with this, I have broken down the process into five phases for AWS Marketplace sellers to follow. I’ve also included a breakdown of the roles and functions needed to get started and helpful tips along the way.

Phase 1: Register as an AWS Marketplace seller

To register as an AWS Marketplace seller, you will need the support from the following individuals or roles within your company:

• AWS Marketplace administrator: To set up and manage your product listings. Find full permission details in the AWS Marketplace Buyer Guide.
• AWS administrator: To set up the AWS seller account and AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)
• Legal or executive: To accept AWS Marketplace terms and conditions.
• Finance: To provide you with tax and banking information.

There are three steps to registering as an AWS Marketplace seller.

Step 1: Create a new AWS account

Using AWS Organizations, your AWS administrator should create a new AWS account under your management account. This will isolate your AWS Marketplace account from your production environment to ensure both can operate independently.

The newly created account will be your AWS Marketplace seller of record.

Step 2: Create an IAM user for your AWS Marketplace administrator

Your AWS administrator will need to sign in to the newly created AWS Marketplace seller of record account and create an IAM user for the AWS Marketplace administrator. They should follow these instructions to add the AWSMarketplaceSellerFullAccess policy to the AWS Marketplace administrator.

Your AWS Marketplace administrator is responsible for creating and maintaining your listed products. Most commonly, we see product teams, marketing, or sales taking on the role of the AWS Marketplace administrator.

Step 3: Register as an AWS Marketplace seller

Next, the AWS Marketplace administrator should go to AWS Marketplace and select Register now.

TIP: Bookmark this page because it is the easiest way to return to the AWS Marketplace Management Portal.

TIP: Use the company’s legal name when registering your account. You can change the display name when you update the profile information.

After you have entered your basic company information, you will be presented with the AWS Marketplace terms and conditions. We recommend you copy and share this with your legal or executive team ahead of time for approval.

With the account now created, you will need to update the remaining profile information and provide banking and tax information. Banking information will allow AWS to pay you for your transactions, and the tax information will allow AWS to appropriately assess, report, and (where applicable) withhold taxes.

You will also need your company’s logo and description to set up the company profile.

Tip: Your company’s logo should be 300 pixels wide x 150 pixels high in .png format on a transparent background. The maximum file size is 500 Kb.

Tip: Watch this 5-minute video walkthrough of How to register as an AWS Marketplace seller

Phase 2: Create a product

There are two steps to creating a product.

Step 1: Upload your product logo and custom end user license agreement to a publicly accessible Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) bucket

Your AWS administrator will need to create a publicly accessible S3 bucket to store your product logo and custom end user license agreement.

Tip: Your product logo could be the same as your company logo. If your product has its own brand identity, upload your product logo to showcase the product brand.

AWS Marketplace developed the Standard Contract for AWS Marketplace (SCMP) in collaboration with buyer and seller communities. If your company would like to use its own custom end user license agreement, upload the document in PDF into the same S3 bucket as your logo.

Step 2: Create your SaaS product listing

Design your product page and determine pricing dimensions. AWS offers flexibility in pricing your product, including:

• SaaS contracts
• SaaS subscriptions
• SaaS contracts with consumption

Tip: Watch SaaS Pricing Options on AWS Marketplace for guidance on different pricing options.

If you have multiple SaaS solutions, each can be added as its own product. If your solution includes a base product with additional add-ons, those can appear on a single product listing.

Tip: If those add-ons could be sold independently, consider adding the add-ons as their own product for greater visibility.

Different licensing combinations give you flexibility in how you sell and manage transactions in AWS Marketplace.

Here are a few examples:

• Single product (multi SKU, flat rate per year): Civix
• Base product plus add-onon (multiyear): Rekor Command

TIP: Watch this 10-minute video for a walkthrough on how to Create a SaaS Product Listing in AWS Marketplace.

Phase 3: SaaS quick start integration

The AWS Marketplace Serverless SaaS Integration on AWS fulfills the core capabilities to integrate a SaaS solution, including accepting new customer registrations, granting and revoking customer access, updating customer entitlements, and reporting metered usage.

There is only one step in this phase.

Step 1: Launch the quick start guide

Your AWS administrator will need to follow the steps documented in AWS Marketplace Serverless SaaS Integration on the AWS Cloud Quick Start Reference Deployment. When launching the stack, be sure to use the AWS Marketplace seller of record account and not your AWS management account. Also, be sure to copy and paste the Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) topic Amazon Resource Numbers (ARNs) from the product details page.

Tip: Watch this 6-minute video walkthrough of the for AWS Quick Start for AWS Marketplace Serverless SaaS Integration.

Tip: Here is a helpful AWS Quick Start lab that you can reference.

Don’t forget to complete the post-deployment steps and send the registration URL back to the AWS Marketplace administrator.

Phase 4: Update product visibility to public and test

There are three steps to publishing and testing your product.

Step 1: Update your product listing with the registration URL

In the fulfillment section of the product listing page, your AWS Marketplace administrator will need to update the fulfillment URL with the registration page URL your AWS administrator provided from Phase 3.

Step 2: Update product visibility to public to initiate AWS Marketplace Catalog Operations team support request

In this step, you will be prompted to update your pricing information before you can update your product visibility to public. Updating your product visibility does not publish your listing immediately. This initiates a request to the AWS Marketplace Catalog Operations (MCO) team, and a support engineer will reach out and work with you to test, review, and publish your listing.

Tip: The MCO will try to respond to your request within 10 business days. However, it can be longer during peak times.

Step 3: Test your customer flow

Once you sign in to the AWS Marketplace seller of record account, you will be asked to visit your limited listing and subscribe to your listing.

Tip: Read this article for more information about Successfully testing your SaaS listing in AWS Marketplace.

Ensure that you received both sets of confirmation emails:

1. Confirmation of purchase as the buyer
2. Purchase notification as the seller

AWS will also test your buyer flow to confirm functionality. After AWS has verified the buyer flow, AWS will remove the test entitlement and publish your product listing.

Phase 5: Promote

Companies will have different strategies for how and when to use AWS Marketplace in their sales cycle. While some companies sell through the AWS Marketplace only when a customer requests to, we are seeing more sellers adopt the approach of using AWS Marketplace first because it aligns to AWS internal and seller-created incentives.

Here are a few ideas to increase awareness of your AWS Marketplace listing:

1. Issue a press release announcing your listing’s availability.
2. Create a landing page highlighting your AWS Marketplace listing.
3. Include the available in AWS Marketplace logo to your marketing collateral.
4. Include a slide in your sales presentation highlighting the value of buying in AWS Marketplace.
5. Email your customers and prospects.
6. Promote the availability announcement on social media. Be sure to follow the guidelines in theAWS Marketplace Seller Go-To-Market Program Guide for reposting AWS content on social media, and don’t forget to tag AWS.
   

With your product listing now live, your team can transact in AWS Marketplace and co-sell with AWS Account Managers.

Tip: Be sure to mention your product is available in AWS Marketplace when speaking to AWS account managers and others at AWS that help you co-sell.

Conclusion

This blog provides a holistic roadmap of the process for SaaS companies to get their products listed in AWS Marketplace. Including all aspects, from initial seller registration to product creation, integration, testing, publishing, and promotion, with a breakdown of the roles, functions, and tips for each phase. By following the 5 phases and helpful tips listed in this blog, SaaS companies can efficiently list their solution in a few weeks. The Marketplace Catalog Operations team is here to support you throughout the process. Once your account is set up and you have access to the AWS Marketplace Management Platform, you can log a ticket here for support or reach out to your AWS Partner Development Manager.

AWS Marketplace is a valuable sales channel for new customer acquisition, renewals, and to expand into new markets, as a compliment to the AWS Partner Network. For best practices on how to build a successful co-selling strategy with AWS, visit this blog.

About the author

Annie Bustos is a partner development manager on the Worldwide Public Sector Partner Acceleration Team at Amazon Web Services (AWS) based in Toronto, Canada. She helps accelerates business growth for strategic partners that are interested in building or currently working with public sector customers.