Start selling on Amazon Europe
Amazon is an ecommerce giant. It is a platform that offers colossal reach, and importantly, massive potential for selling on Amazon UK to reach a vast audience in Europe by utilising the opportunity to sell across six countries. Selling on Amazon Europe is big business.
You are probably already selling on amazon reinstatement UK so that should be your main ‘home’ marketplace from which you reach Amazon’s European marketplaces. Remember, there are seven others – Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Czech Republic and the Netherlands. You don’t have to sell in all six European marketplaces if you don’t want to, but if you choose the European Fulfilment Network route then you should. Otherwise, you can simply select the most lucrative.
Yet many UK Amazon reinstatement services sellers only sell on just one of the seven European marketplaces, namely Amazon UK, and are hesitant to expand their reach into other countries.
Perhaps you are one of the seller on Amazon?
Are you of the opinion that legalities, amazon damaged item, language barriers, currency issues and differing marketplace rules and regulations make selling internationally too challenging?
If so, you are not alone. Plenty of UK Amazon sellers are not currently taking advantage of selling on Amazon Europe. However, by only selling in the UK and ignoring the other seven you are missing out on sales and are not allowing your business to grow as successfully as it could.
What is the Benefits of Selling on Amazon Europe?
The biggest plus of selling on Amazon Europe is the potential audience you gain access to. Besides the UK, you get immediate access to five other lucrative marketplaces:
- Germany (Population: 83 million people)
- France (Population: 65 million people)
- Spain (Population: 46 million people)
- Italy (Population: 60 million people)
- Netherlands (Population: 17 million people)
That’s a potential ready-made audience of close to 271 million! Add to this your current UK audience of 68 million, and that makes a grand total of 339 million potential customers (plus all those other people who don’t reside in any of those countries but will order from Amazon anyway).
Quite honestly when it comes to a choice between FBA (Fulfilment by Amazon) and FBM (Fulfilment by Merchant), there is no contest. Are you really going to fulfil orders across Europe yourself? Probably not. Apart from it being time-consuming, the logistics involved could see you becoming quite frustrated.
Using FBA when selling on Amazon Europe will also ensure that your customer service is dealt with in the language of the marketplace. So, FBA wins hands down. Amazon will fulfil all your orders for you and deal with your returns, refunds and customer service. It’s a win-win.
The fear comes for most Amazon sellers when you start looking into selling on Amazon Europe, and you discover there is more than one way to do so, and all of these options, at first glance, appear complicated.
Pan-European Amazon FBA
When you open a Pan-European Amazon account, you will send all your stock to a central EU fulfilment centre. Amazon will then distribute your inventory to other fulfilment centres depending on where your stock is selling and in what quantities. So, this is a good option if you are unsure where to distribute your stock as you don’t know which market is best for your products.
However, in this case, you will need to register for a VAT number in each of the countries you wish to sell plus an EORI (Economic Operators Registration and Identification) number to be able to import into Europe (if you are not using FBA).
Initially, your UK VAT number will suffice, but if you intend to expand further in Europe, eventually you will need additional VAT numbers if you sell above the tax threshold of each country.
Multi-Country Inventory (MCI)
This method is similar to the Pan-European process. This is the FBA fulfilment method that gives you some control over the location of your inventory. You will have the option to decide which Amazon FBA marketplace you want your inventory to be sent to.
For example, if your main marketplace is Amazon UK and your other most lucrative marketplace is Germany, you can choose a percentage of your stock to be sent to a German FBA warehouse and the rest will remain in the UK.
European Fulfilment Network (EFN) in Amazon seller central
This is by far the easiest option and entry route into selling on Amazon Europe. With this method you will store all your stock in one EU location and use Amazon FBA to sell across all six European marketplaces, so you will only need to register for VAT and get an EORI number once.
Amazon Seller Central lets you access and manage your products on all your marketplaces from one single dashboard. Although this is the easiest method, you should be aware that it could, in some circumstances, involve longer shipping times.
Register for a VAT Number and EORI Number
You will need an EORI number to move your stock between the UK and Europe. If you don’t have one, you may encounter delays and extra costs if HMRC cannot clear your goods. You can apply for an EORI number online through the UK Government website, and it will be sent to you within one week.
Speak with us about registering for a VAT number or register online on the UK Government website.
