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Selling internationally through Amazon: Tips and Tricks

Have you started selling on Amazon and already thought about selling products abroad? An expansion can go a long way, and Amazon offers sellers several opportunities to get started selling internationally on Amazon.

There are a few things to consider when making the move to selling internationally through Amazon. After all, it is not always an easy process, but once it stands, it really stands & the growth can begin.

In this article, we’re going to explain to you in great detail what to look out for, what you need & how to go about it so you can start selling internationally on Amazon yourself.

Use Amazon to kickstart international sales

Amazon is an e-commerce platform that allows third-party sellers to sell products online. The company has managed to develop a tight logistics system that allows sellers to offer their products anywhere in the world. Today, as many as 5 million sellers offer their products on Amazon.

Setting up an international Amazon store is no easy task. It takes time and the necessary knowledge to know how it works and what to consider.

To help you understand exactly how it works and what to consider, we’re going to take you through the process and the specifics.

What do you need to consider?

If you want to start selling your products, in addition to the Netherlands, abroad through Amazon, you first need to consider a few things. After all, when selling products abroad, you also have to deal with foreign standards. Consider:

  • Local competition;
  • Local listing and conversion techniques;
  • Local tax obligations;
  • Local laws and regulations.

The above concerns require some knowledge. Therefore, it is important that you first read up on the specifics in the country where you want to sell your products.

What do you need to get started selling internationally through Amazon?

Before that you can actually start selling internationally through Amazon, you need a few things, such as a.

  1. Sales account on Amazon;
  2. Well laid out Seller Central (dashboard);
  3. Product catalog with listings;

Selling internationally on Amazon within Europe

The world is bigger than just the Netherlands, and for sellers it may someday be wise to expand abroad. Through Amazon, you can easily expand your potential customer channel within Europe. You can use the built-in “Build International Listings” tool for this.

You can then easily expand to foreign Marketplaces within Europe, such as:

Selling internationally via Fulfillment by Merchant or Fulfillment by Amazon?

If you start selling internationally through Amazon, you have the choice of choosing Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM) or Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA).

If you choose Fulfillment by Merchant, you as the merchant are responsible for packaging, shipping, returns and local customer service. For sales within the Netherlands, this is a fine choice, but if you take the step to sell internationally, it can take a lot of time at some point.

To motivate and support sellers in selling products abroad, Amazon has created the Fulfillment by Amazon program. The entire fulfillment process is then taken out of your hands and taken care of by Amazon.

You will ship your inventory to an Amazon fulfillment center (in Germany) where the entire order fulfillment process will take place. This includes order picking, packing and shipping products, as well as processing returns and providing local customer service.

Within Europe, a distinction is still made between Pan-European FBA and EFN (European Fulfilment Network). In the case of EFN, your stock is shipped from one fulfillment center (in Germany) to the European customer. With Pan-European FBA, your inventory is distributed from Germany to multiple fulfillment centers in different countries within Europe.

Take advantage of the ‘Build International Listings’ tool

Amazon’s “Build International Listings” tool makes it relatively easy for sellers to set up foreign sales channels.

This tool allows you to convert your “Default Marketplace” to “Target Marketplaces” for the countries in which you want to sell. This allows you to scale up abroad. We’ll explain exactly how it works below:

  1. Log in to your Amazon sales account and go to the Seller Central dashboard.
  2. Hover your mouse over “Inventory,” then click “Sell Globally.
  3. From there, select “Build International Listings.
  4. Select the “Source Marketplace” from where you are currently selling products. If you already have multiple Marketplaces, select the one with the most listings. Then you can choose which “Target Marketplaces” you want to add, or in other words, in which countries you want to sell.
  5. Per “Target Marketplace,” you can specify which products you want to offer. In fact, some products may sell well in one country but not in another. Therefore, always do good market research for each country to see which listings you want to offer where.
  6. It is possible to set a pricing strategy by country (Target Marketplace). Among other things, consider local competition and shipping costs by country. For example, you may have to use a lower selling price for a specific product to compete with local sellers. In addition, shipping costs may vary by country so you may want to have some price differentiation by country.
  7. Once you have everything carefully researched and set up per ‘Target Marketplace’ click ‘Save and Continue’. All changes are then listed one more time after which you can agree.
  8. International selling on Amazon can begin.
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Optimizing international listings

Once you have created one or more, new Target Marketplaces, listings will be available within 24 hours. All listings are automatically translated from the Source Marketplace. As a result, international listings may not be fully optimized.

We recommend that you always do good research on the keywords in the countries in which you will be selling your products. Based on this, you can optimize your listings so that you can also be found well in Amazon’s foreign marketplaces.

Selling internationally through Amazon outside of Europe

Do you want to scale up to countries outside Europe in addition to countries within Europe? Then there are several options for that. For this, you will also use the ‘Build International Listings’ tool to set up a Target Marketplace in countries outside of Europe.

In most countries outside Europe, you need to have a local party take care of various things for you. Think of things like local administrative obligations, such as taxes. Some Amazon marketplaces even require a local branch and company before you can start selling through Amazon in those countries. Also, you often need special Amazon barcodes for other countries, keep this in mind.

Selling internationally in the United States

Amazon’s largest marketplace is in the United States. In fact, through your the American platform, you can also sell to Canada and Mexico.

With as many as 150 million Amazon Prime members, you can be sure that your customer potential will get a big boost. But to start selling in the U.S., there are some things to consider.

To actually start selling products through Amazon in the United States, it is advisable to sell products through Fulfillment by Amazon. Delivery times can otherwise range from 2 to 6 weeks which can be costly in terms of conversion.

If you ship your inventory to an Amazon fulfillment center in the U.S., delivery times are significantly reduced, which means more people will buy your products.

Selling internationally in Australia

Amazon Australia is also a great marketplace to offer your listings on. This allows you to expand your sales to Pacific Asia.

The big advantage is that consumers in Australia, speak English which makes translating and optimizing listings not too complicated. Again, we recommend using FBA to avoid long delivery times.

Selling internationally in Japan

Selling internationally in Japan is not yet a very popular choice. Despite Amazon Japan being a large marketplace, it is also a difficult market at the same time.

Listing should be fully optimized to the local market, which can be a huge task. Should you still want to take the plunge, consider Fulfillment by Amazon to at least significantly reduce product delivery times.

Take advantage of e-tailize’s integrations

Selling internationally through Amazon can be time-consuming. Mainly to manage all the different marketplaces.

Our convenient platform allows you to centralize and automate product management, inventory management and order fulfillment for more than 100 integrations.

With our advertize and analyze modules, you create and manage ads for all your marketplaces from one place. This way you will receive useful insights to optimize your ads for better performance and lower ad spend.

This way, you have visibility into real-time products, inventory and ads from one place on different platforms, such as Amazon, Bol.com, Shopify and many more.

Integrate e-fulfillment services with our system to fully automate the order fulfillment process, so you can concern yourself with things that really matter.

Therefore, request a quote directly from e-tailize and receive a competitive offer within 24 hours. Specify exactly what you are looking for in a fulfillment service so we can find the best service for you.

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