Any Amazon FBA sellers here (selling on European markets)?

[Aquarius909]

My business sells on Amazon and historically we have always shipped stock to their UK warehouse from where it was fulfilled to customers across Europe via our listings on Amazon.de/.fr/.it/.es/.nl/.se. As I now understand things, we can no longer do this and we need to ship to an EU location from where the EU markets will be fulfilled. Is anyone else doing this as I'd love to compare notes and see if we're doing it right? My understanding of what we now need to do is:

- Ship stock to an EU location (e.g. Amazon in Dortmund seems to be favoured)
- In so doing we need to complete both export and import paperwork (haven't done this yet)
- We also need to register for German VAT and as long as we don't sell more than about €35k in other EU countries then that one VAT registration covers us for all the EU (the business has a total turnover of about £750k with probably less than €50k in total across all Amazon's European markets so that threshold won't be an issue for some time)
- In registering for German VAT - which apparently takes 3 months - we then need to do either monthly or quarterly VAT returns based on our turnover (again, our turnover is currently so low that we'll probably be quarterly). We're thinking of using a firm called HelloTax for this - anyone heard of them?

As I say, if there are any other Amazon FBA sellers out there then I'd love to hear from them. Not just for this but it would be good to have a connection to someone doing the same as we are just to be able to discuss best practice on ashy issues from time to time. I hope someone can help. Thank you.

[Aquarius909]

Hmmm.... I cannot believe that among this illustrious group I'm the only one running a business that sells across Europe on Amazon so I'm going to give this post a little bump.

It would be good to connect with someone who runs a similar business and has the same issues.

[VEX]

Flag for DSLiverpool

[loafer123]

Aquarius909 said:

Hmmm.... I cannot believe that among this illustrious group I'm the only one running a business that sells across Europe on Amazon so I'm going to give this post a little bump.

It would be good to connect with someone who runs a similar business and has the same issues.

We do Amazon across Europe, but not FBA. For many retailers it is easy for Amazon to disintermediate your business if their products sell well, but in our case, product is prepared to order, so wouldn’t work.

We are currently shut to European orders whilst we sort out DDP, but should be up and running in a week or so.

[Ian-5t9az]

Hi

Yes we are helping a number of clients do this.

Your pretty much spot on in terms of registering for DE VAT and using that as your 'hub' - Amazon are offering free VAT registration currently + 1 years free VAT accounting too.

Happy to discuss further if you'd like?

[thewharftrader]

We used to do EU FBA via EFN but sadly that stopped for obvious reasons. Am hoping that Amazon bring back something simple again once everything settles down and we all know the rules etc. Our product only reason sells into Spain so am looking to do some FBA straight into Spain but now checking if I need a Spanish VAT number before I can do that - our turnover there is less than £10k so not much point going to the hassle of registering for VAT and doing the filing if we do as the profits would get eaten by the admin expenses running it.

We have witnessed most of our competitors disappearing as well so if you can get your head around the new rules quickly, then no doubt there must be a decent opportunity there for the first movers.

[Aquarius909]

Ian-5t9az said:

Hi

Yes we are helping a number of clients do this.

Your pretty much spot on in terms of registering for DE VAT and using that as your 'hub' - Amazon are offering free VAT registration currently + 1 years free VAT accounting too.

Happy to discuss further if you'd like?

Hi Ian, yes I would like to speak to you about this but you've set your profile up so I cannot message you. Would you message me with your contact details please?

[BGARK]

Bump, we have started selling FBA in the UK and now want to move into the EU with stock held in each relevant country.

Not huge amounts to start with, just a pallet here and there to test how it goes.

Then also the USA..

Appreciate any assistance or advice, thanks.

[DSLiverpool]

BGARK said:

Bump, we have started selling FBA in the UK and now want to move into the EU with stock held in each relevant country.

Not huge amounts to start with, just a pallet here and there to test how it goes.

Then also the USA..

Appreciate any assistance or advice, thanks.

Use Avalara for tax compliance
Are you on 360 ? If so it’s much easier
Use Amazon freight if you can they will collect and distributed.
Beware overstocking FBA in other countries
You’ll need EPR compliance I can help with
You’ll need a responsible person in each country - use Amazon.

[22s]

BGARK said:

Bump, we have started selling FBA in the UK and now want to move into the EU with stock held in each relevant country.

Not huge amounts to start with, just a pallet here and there to test how it goes.

Then also the USA..

Appreciate any assistance or advice, thanks.

We're in the process of setting up expansion into DE and US. Happy to swap notes. Feel free to drop me a PM.

[BGARK]

How is everyone doing, my colleague is setting things up in the background, he must have opened 50 plus support tickets and spoken to numerous support people.

We are now trying to setup for USA, the entire thing is a complete ball ache, has anyone found it smooth sailing or is this how it is?

[Chamon_Lee]

BGARK said:

How is everyone doing, my colleague is setting things up in the background, he must have opened 50 plus support tickets and spoken to numerous support people.

We are now trying to setup for USA, the entire thing is a complete ball ache, has anyone found it smooth sailing or is this how it is?

That’s how it is even for simple things let alone anything as complicated as cross border set ups and maintenance.

[DSLiverpool]

BGARK said:

How is everyone doing, my colleague is setting things up in the background, he must have opened 50 plus support tickets and spoken to numerous support people.

We are now trying to setup for USA, the entire thing is a complete ball ache, has anyone found it smooth sailing or is this how it is?

I’m just doing a brand now, using AVASK for legals / tax. I use a service based in Seattle to do the Amazon stuff.

[BGARK]

DSLiverpool said:

I’m just doing a brand now, using AVASK for legals / tax. I use a service based in Seattle to do the Amazon stuff.

Interesting, maybe we could have a chat at some point?

[BGARK]

Any suggestions on transport, UK to USA door to door to Amazon, approx. 1 full pallet every couple of weeks.

Prices from £600 to £1500 but they are all flaky and slow to respond.

Any recommendations?

Thanks

[DSLiverpool]

BGARK said:

Any suggestions on transport, UK to USA door to door to Amazon, approx. 1 full pallet every couple of weeks.

Prices from £600 to £1500 but they are all flaky and slow to respond.

Any recommendations?

Thanks

Sorry just seen this, try Transglobal Express and if you can find anyone in the UK office try JD Logistics (Chinese shipper)

[BGARK]

Ref USA Amazon, we are receiving zero help from shipping companies, questions such as:

"If you have found an importer of record/buyer in the US we can assist if not then no we can not assist."

We are trying to stock our own products in Amazon USA, thus they are not yet sold and we have no customer as such, does anyone have a company or broker that handles such matters for them?

Thank you.

[22s]

You need a an importer of record number and a customs bond.

We use Amazon Global Logistics so they do it all for us.

This might help: https://www.flexport.com/help/176-foreign-importer...

PS - I received your PM and replied.