Brief Guide to Get Started Selling on Amazon Europe
Amazon Europe consists of 5 different marketplaces which are connected. This means that, like in North America, you can manage all 5 different selling accounts from just one hub. However, in Europe you can also enjoy FBA between those 5 countries (and soon the Netherlands), leveraging the free trade agreements of the European Union. You could have all of your inventory stored in a warehouse in the UK (until 31st December 2020 due to Brexit), for example, and if you sell a product on Amazon Germany, that product would be shipped from the UK warehouse straight to the Germany address provided and it would all be handled by Amazon.
Therefore, you can get access to hundreds of millions of new customers, just from one inventory hub.*
Before you even sign up for your new Amazon EU account, you need to think about where you will set up your source marketplace. We would recommend you to look at the advantages and disadvantages of these two marketplaces: United Kingdom and Germany.
Sharing the same language with the United Kingdom makes everything a lot easier. In addition, this country has very straightforward regulations for trading, aimed at promoting company formation and business in general.
Why Germany? Germany is the second largest Amazon (and maybe e-commerce in general) market in the world. Thus you may want to offer the shortest shipping times to your German customers.
If you plan on using your American legal entity to sell your products in Europe, you would have to get VAT registered. On the other hand, you may not need to get VAT registered if you set up a company in the UK and get a revenue that is below the allowed threshold.** Setting up a company in the UK is a very easy and quick process.
This may sound daunting but it’s in fact very straightforward and there are a lot of companies and individuals who can guide you through the process. It’s important to bear in mind that if you are not a UK registered business – you are selling through your US business – and set up your inventory hub in the UK, you MUST get VAT registered.
Once you have figured out the legal aspects and have signed in to your Amazon Europe account (we recommend you use a different email address than that of your US account) you are ready to get started. From this point everything works almost exactly the same as in the US. You have to ship your inventory to the designated Amazon warehouse, list your products (Amazon can take your US offers) and start selling!
The following step would be to get your listings translated to the language of the other EU marketplaces you want to sell to. Then simply create offers for your products in those marketplaces (seller central platform is available in English for each Amazon EU marketplace).
Done!
Well, you as a seller know that there is a little bit more to get done before you can say that, but these words are just a brief overview of the essentials to get started selling on Amazon Europe.
Any questions? Just ask! We are here to help you succeed. Email us at info@transamazingli.com
*If you want to and decide to, you can have your inventory stored across Europe, in different warehouses and different countries. This would reduce the shipping time for your products, making them more attractive to your customers, but it would also incur in additional taxes, and management fees to be paid. We recommend you to get started with the UK and from there, figure out how you want to grow.
**DISCLAIMER: Transamazingli, or any of its representatives, is not a legal advisor and we don’t pretend to be one. You should always check with a registered tax, and/or legal advisor before attempting to enter a new market or setting up a business.