Amazon’s Direct Fulfilment programme, also known as Remote Fulfilment, allows suppliers using Seller Central and Fulfilled by Amazon to deliver to consumers in the EU without the need to store stock outside of the UK or the need to register for EU VAT as long as the value of the product is under £135 (or €150). It’s a re-brand of the European Fulfilment Network and, as the old name implies, it’s only available for the EU. Unfortunately suppliers cannot sell products to the US, Canada, Japan etc via this programme.
How it works
It’s a relatively straightforward process; once stock is in a UK fulfilment centre the “enable the Remote Fulfilment” option in Seller Central can be activated. Amazon will then handle the delivery, customs and VAT.
Amazon will despatch the stock directly to the EU consumer, who will be the Importer Of Record. They will also collect, and disburse, the correct amount of tax for the relevant marketplace and product. You can set the price as your UK price, but in the local currency, and increased to cover the increased delivery costs and taxes. This ensures that you receive the same level of revenue as if you had sold the product in your domestic market.
As a supplier, you will be responsible for ensuring you declare and pay the right tax on the products you ship into the EU. This is the same process as for your existing Seller FBA business, with the same requirement to pay the correct taxes from your disbursements.
Creating listings in European Markets
You can tick “Automatic listing expansion” when you first enrol in the program. Alternatively, you can use the “Build International Listing (BIL)” tool to expand your listings. In this case, check your product exclusions list as some products synced through BIL might disconnect from the pricing connection. You’ll be able to reconnect them by removing them from the exclusions list.
Alternatively, you can create your listings in the destination store using the same process that you used to create offers in your domestic store. If you choose this option, make sure that you use the same SKU.
We would always recommend checking your international listings with a native speaker of each language to make sure that you haven’t made any unfortunate errors in translation.
Which countries are covered by Amazon’s Direct Fulfilment?
Ireland is now included in this program since the launch of amazon.ie, so the full list of countries included is:
- Ireland
- France
- Spain
- Germany
- Italy
- Sweden
- Netherlands
Adjacent countries may also be able to receive direct deliveries via this method.
Conclusions
The delivery promise to shoppers outside your domestic market will be slower than for locally supplied products. This isn’t ideal, and is likely to inhibit sales growth over the longer term. However, Amazon’s Direct EU Fulfilment program could be an effective way to trial entry into new markets and look at potential growth and ROI models before making a commitment to a full export model.