Expanding your thriving Amazon FBA business can be an exciting and rewarding venture, but it can also be daunting and challenging. Greg Jones of FBAPrep UK offers tips for would be sellers in an article that first appeared in our latest E-Info magazine for online merchants.
Make sure you comply with local laws
When it comes to growing your Amazon FBA business into Europe, there’s enough red tape to tie you in knots. Complying with the local laws and regulations is a ‘must do’ on your checklist; the UK has a number of regulations and laws that you’ll need to know about and comply with.
VAT registration for all non UK based businesses using Amazon FBA in the UK HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) treat you as a Non Established Taxable Person (NETP) and you must register before you sell anything in the UK;tax evasion is a criminal offence in the UK. The onlyalternative is to set up a UK based limited company.
When you start importing products into the UK, you will need to obtain an Economic Operator Registration and Identification number (EORI), this number is assigned to importers and exporters by HMRC, and is used in the process of customs entry declarations and customs clearance.
Meeting Amazon’s 5 requirements
Amazon also has requirements that you need to meet to open your EU sellers account:
- Meet customer expectations; supply a UK based returns address.
- Adhere to all applicable local laws; never import goods in the name of Amazon or show Amazon as importer of record or consignee.
- It is a criminal offence to place on the market or supply in the UK an electrical appliance which is not fitted with either (i) a UK 3-pin plug, or (ii) a non-UK plug permanently fitted with a UK safety approved conversion plug.
- You must adhere to any local tax requirements.
- To be paid, you need to provide a bank account in a country supported by Amazon.co.uk
Once you have all the documentation and registrations you can head over and open your UK Amazon account – at the time of writing a UK Proseller account costs £25+VAT/month.
Why use Amazon’s European Fulfilment Network
Depending on your chosen business model, either ship your inventory to the UK, or source products in the UK via Online Arbitrage. Further expanding your sales and reach into Europe can be easily European Fulfilment Network (EFN), this service makes it easy for you to list and sell all your products on the other four EU Amazon marketplaces, while sending all your inventory to just the UK warehouses, it makes sense to use EFN to test each marketplace before committing time and money to stock and compliance for each country.
European Marketplace sellers sold over $3billion in 2015 and Amazon employed 10,000 new members of staff to cope with the anticipated growth in 2016. Make sure you become part of that growth.
Greg Jones is the Managing Director of FBAPrep UK Ltd, a UK based Amazon FBA seller support company which provides services which help FBA entrepreneurs grow their business.
Twitter: @FBAPrepUK
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