Selling on Amazon Europe: A Complete Guide

We have been selling successfully on Amazon Europe for more than 9 years.

There are still huge opportunities in Germany, France, Italy, and Spain with high demand and limited supply.

In our guide, we will show you how to sell on Amazon Europe and reap the rewards.

If you are based in the USA, you will need a separate Amazon selling account in the UK Marketplace. From this single UK account, you can then sell to over 700 million new Amazon customers in Europe.

If you are a UK FBA seller, then you simply send your products to the UK Amazon warehouse and Amazon will take care of the rest.

When sourcing new products, you can buy specifically for one or more EU markets or just buy a deal for the UK, but still list it on Amazon Europe to get extra sales.

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How to Get Your Products Live on Amazon Europe

1. You need to enable EFN (European Fulfilment Network) in your Amazon Seller Central account.

2. Create your listing as you would do normally with Manage Inventory>Add Product.

3. Send your products to the Amazon FBA warehouse in the UK.

4. While you are waiting for the stock to get to the Amazon warehouse, view the product in ‘Manage Inventory’ and click on ‘EDIT’.

Then you can input your European pricing at the bottom of the page. Remember, this is the price in euros and not in Pounds Sterling.

5. Your listings will automatically go live in all 5 countries once your stock has been processed at the warehouse. This normally takes from 2 to 14 days.

6. You can now treat any orders just like you would UK orders except you will be paid in euros.

If you are keeping a record of your sales in a spreadsheet, remember that you will only know the exact amount you are paid when Amazon transfers your funds. This happens every two weeks and it is converted to Pounds Sterling.

7. Remember that some products may not be suitable for the EU markets. For example, if it has an integrated UK plug or it is a toy that only speaks in English. If you sell these, you are risking negative feedback, as the customer will expect a product designed for their country and language.

Pro Tip: You can reach even more customers by making your products available to all 26 EU countries. Just view your FBA Settings and then ‘Export Settings’ to enable this in all 5 marketplaces.

Calculating Prices in Euros to Make a Profit?

You should be pricing per Amazon Europe seller marketplace, as margins can vary massively between markets.

Setting blanket prices or a set percentage can mean missing out on extra sales and profits. You can manually check competitors’ pricing in each country and then decide on your price.

“…more potential profits when you sell on Amazon Europe than on Amazon UK.”

It is best to think about all countries as completely separate Amazon markets, and then set prices against your direct competition in each country to maximize profits.

There are probably more potential profits when you sell on Amazon Europe than on Amazon UK. This means pricing competitively for Amazon Europe should be a priority.

Calculating Your Selling Price in Euros

As a very rough guide, you need to multiply your UK price by the current exchange rate paid out by Amazon. For example, if the official exchange rate is currently 1.16 Euros to the Pound, you normally will actually get about 1.18 after the currency exchange.

Then add about 2 Euros for additional EFN (European Fulfilment Network) fees for standard size items and 3 Euros for oversize items. This should now mean you will make a similar profit as you would if you sold on Amazon UK.

Example Price Calculation: Products UK listed price is £15. The Exchange Rate is 1.16. So 15 x 1.16 = 17.4 Euros. 17.4 + 2 Euros for EFN Fees = 19.4 Euros price on the European Marketplace.

Below is an example of the additional fulfillment fees for shipping a standard size toy to Europe. Amazon is charging about £1.30 or 1.60 euros more than if it was shipped to a customer in the UK.

Looking at this example, we can see that the fees do increase when sending oversize products. Amazon are now charging £2.20 or 1.83 Euros extra to ship this to customers in Europe.

If you are selling on Amazon Europe, you will need to keep checking the exchange rate, as any major movements can have a big impact on the profits you make.

When selling in the EU, we tend to aim for a minimum of £15 profit per item. This offers some protection from fluctuations in the exchange rate.

We recommend you use Currencies Direct as the bank to receive your payments from the Amazon European marketplaces. The exchange rate is much better than you get directly from Amazon. Simply set up an account with them and add the new banking information in Seller Central for Germany, France, Italy, and Spain.

Should You Sign up for Amazon Pan-EU or Amazon EFN?

What is Amazon EFN?

If you have just started selling on Amazon Europe, then it is best to select EFN (European Fulfilment Network). EFN is when your inventory is stored in the UK and then shipped by Amazon to customers in Europe.

With EFN, you pay one or two Euros more in fulfillment fees than with Pan-EU. Your offer will still appear as Prime, but the customer may be told it will take 2-4 days to arrive rather than the next working day. This can have a small impact on sales.

What is Amazon Pan-EU?

With Amazon Pan-EU you have to register for VAT in the 6 EU countries, which can be expensive and time-consuming. With Amazon Pan-EU you are allowing Amazon to move your inventory to Germany and other countries to be nearer your customers. This makes the fulfillment charges lower and delivery faster.

We would recommend that you move to Pan-EU when you reach the VAT thresholds in one of the EU countries as you will have to register for VAT at this point anyway.

The money you save on fulfillment fees will go some way to covering the costs of getting the VAT filed in the 6 countries.

There are six countries because Amazon makes you sign up for VAT in every country the goods are stored and they have warehouses in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, and the Czech Republic.

You can opt not to hold stock in Poland or the Czech Republic, but you will pay slightly higher fulfillment fees.

Amazon VAT Thresholds

Current VAT Thresholds (total value of sales in a 12-month period)
Germany – €100,000 per annum
France – €35,000 per annum
Italy – €35,000 per annum
Spain – €35,000 per annum

Top Tip: To avoid going over the thresholds, focus on lower value products with high margins.

Some Amazon sellers will temporarily stop selling in one particular country if they are getting close to the threshold to avoid having to register.

Getting a letter in German from the German VAT office demanding you register and pay backdated VAT charges is not a nice way to start the day. Be careful and constantly monitor your total sales volume.

Remember, if you are VAT registered and selling to other VAT registered businesses in Europe, these transactions are VAT free and are not included when calculating the total sales for the threshold.

The Future of Amazon Selling in Europe

There are still great opportunities to sell on Amazon Europe. However, it is getting more competitive as companies realize they can sell their brands directly in the EU themselves.

There is also more software available to help people source and sell in the EU, like BuyBotPro.

We cannot ignore the implications of Brexit. At the time of writing, it is looking like Britain is still moving forward with what is effectively a ‘Hard Brexit’, which means an end to tariff-free trade. Customers in Germany, France, Italy, and Spain might have to start paying import duties on items ordered from the UK.

This could have a hugely detrimental effect on sales and could effectively kill off selling in the EU as a viable option. At the moment, we are not sure how Amazon will handle this and what the outcome of negotiations will be.

Amazon has invested so heavily in the European Fulfilment Network market that they will probably be trying to figure out a way of keeping the current system working. It may be that you would need to send more of your stock to the European warehouses, for example, or register for Pan-EU.

We are constantly monitoring this situation and will offer more information when it is available in our Facebook Group. As with other threats to your Amazon business, it again highlights the need to diversify.

Selling on Amazon Europe Summary

I hope this information will help you start selling on Amazon Europe. Please let us know if you have any questions in the comments below and sign up for our newsletter to be kept informed of all developments with Amazon FBA Europe.

You are also very welcome to join our friendly and supportive Amazon Facebook Groups;

Amazon Selling for Beginners – for those starting their Amazon selling journey.

Amazon FBA Masters – for more experienced sellers and those looking at starting in Private Label selling.

Need Products to Sell on Amazon Europe?

We use Tactical Arbitrage to find profitable products to sell on Amazon Europe. You can scan over 1000 online retail stores for the best deals.

It helps you find products for retail arbitrage, online arbitrage, Amazon flips, and wholesale. 😍

Good Luck & Happy Selling

James 🙂

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Article By James Percival

Founder and Lead Editor of The Selling Guys

James is an experienced ecommerce entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience selling online. He has a wealth of knowledge in selling on Amazon, eBay, and building ecommerce websites.
Despite running a successful business, James has decided to share his expertise with others by offering guidance through his website, “The Selling Guys,” and his “Amazon Selling for Beginners” Facebook group.
James now has three children, two dogs, and a cat.