Cannot upgrade personal account to business — Edit option missing for Ukraine seller | New to selling on eBay

Cannot upgrade personal account to business — Edit option missing for Ukraine seller

Hello eBay community and mentors,

I need help with a roadblock that prevents me from upgrading my personal account to a Business account (Sole Proprietor type).

My situation:
- eBay user ID: davydsh
- Country: Ukraine
- Email: verified
- Phone: verified
- Account in good standing

The issue:
On the Personal Info page (accountsettings.ebay.com), every field has an "Edit" option (Username, Email, Phone, Personal info) — except Account type. The "Edit" button is not present next to "Account type: Individual", so I cannot self-serve the upgrade to Business.

What I tried:
- Looked through Account Settings, Selling preferences, and Payment Information — no upgrade option anywhere
- Direct registration URLs don't work for my existing account
- Creating a new business account fails because SMS verification codes don't reach Ukrainian numbers (a known issue for international phone numbers)

My business status:
I am a registered Ukrainian sole proprietor, equivalent to Sole Proprietor or self-employed in the US. I have all required documents ready: passport, sole proprietor registration extract, tax ID, and proof of address.

My questions:
1. Is there a way to enable "Switch to Business Account" for accounts registered in Ukraine?
2. Can a community manager or eBay employee help process this conversion manually?
3. Is there an alternative path I might be missing?

Thank you for any guidance!

davydsh

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Posted 5 months ago·Last reply 5 months ago

2 comments

jonathanbrightlight

·5 months ago

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I assume your payouts go to a Payoneer account, since I believe that's how it works for Ukrainian accounts. If so, the instructions are here: https://export.ebay.com/en/first-steps/how-use-ebay-seller-account/how-to-change-your-seller-account-type/

If your payouts go to a Payoneer account

Reach eBay Customer Service to inform them you would need to change your account type on eBay and provide your business documents requested.
Since eBay and Payoneer data and accounts type should match, also reach Payoneer customer support to inform them you need your account type to be changed and provide your business documents requested.
After the review, your account type will be changed from individual to business both on eBay and Payoneer.

Also, the sellers on this board are mostly US-based, so I suggest you check the relatively new eBay Export Community for help: https://export-community.ebay.com/

davydsh

OP5 months ago

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Thank you so much, jonathanbrightlight! This is exactly the guidance I needed.

To confirm — yes, my payouts are configured to go to a Payoneer account (Individual type currently, with a business bank account as the withdrawal destination).

I will:
1. Contact eBay Customer Service to request the account type change and provide business documents
2. Contact Payoneer support to align the account types and submit business documents on their side
3. Also explore the eBay Export Community as you suggested — thank you for the link!

Really appreciate your help. I'll update this thread once the conversion is processed in case it helps other Ukrainian sellers facing the same issue.