Amazon UK
Congratulations on making your own product, I always wanted to be able to make something myself.
I’m guessing you are also in the Amazon Handmade program, but if you are not I highly recommend applying for it.
If you are living in the US and want to sell in the UK there are a few things that you need to do and need to know.
Although I’m not an expert when it comes to the UK or even FBM, since the only FBM I ever did was in Canada.
The approval from Amazon, after you are able to fill the blanks on the application page is almost immediate, if I remember correctly.
And the approval unlocks all Europe, just like your US account unlocked Canada and Mexico too.
But here are some things:
You need to pay VAT Value added tax. I’m no expert when it comes to getting it because I’m a European citizen. I have dual, Canadian and Portuguese, and since I started a business in Europe in 1993 I already had Portuguese VAT which is 23% VS 20% in UK. But I know that if you are making more than 82k pounds in the UK you need to register your business for VAT #
- You will need a business, that you can start easily and with only 15 pounds. It’s a limited company, they don’t have LLC. The site is Gov.uk and search for a limited company
- You will need a UK bank account. This can take a while (Maybe up to a month) And I believe they will ask you for proof of address
The easiest way is to hire a company that will do all of this for you. And unfortunately, since I didn’t use one, I don’t want to recommend any.
There are things you need when importing from any country that is not EU, like EORI number. And you can get this on the same site Gov.uk
Actually, almost everything you need is there. And…Another important thing is to read all the laws.
United Kingdom Amazon UK
As for the prime delivery, Amazon UK has it and it’s a 1-day delivery or less!
But not all Europe has it, Spain, Italy, Germany, UK, yes. But they only have 31 warehouses across |Europe, and these are all in 7 countries. The rest of the countries doesn’t have warehouses so they don’t expect 2-day delivery.
And you had something else in your question… Oh yeah, the listings!
No, the listings are not the same ones from North America to Amazon UK. Although it’s hit or miss because sometimes you go to add the product and it shows up already. Then they give you the option to use the existing US listing or type it all up again.
I’m not sure how some products don’t show up in the catalog since the UPC is universal, but as for the listing, you should probably not use the US listing, because of different search terms are used in European English. Or at least change it up.
And since selling in Amazon UK will open you up to France, Italy, Spain Germany, you may even need to translate some of those if you want to sell there.
For example, in Japan, I hired a native Japanese speaker and he told me they have 2 different languages, and on top of that, a lot of buyers still search in English, because they love the American brands, so that is 3 languages you can use to add keywords!
I hope I covered the entirety of your question, and I wish you all the best.
Start grateful, stay positive and always be profitable!
Quin Amorim
Quin Amorim, Host of Amazon FBA Selling Online Podcast