Focusing exclusively on one Amazon market can cause a brand to stagnate due to market fluctuations, relatively limited audience size, and countless other factors.
Amazon gives its sellers all the tools they need to expand their brands to new markets and ship products internationally. Still, becoming an international seller on Amazon isn’t as simple as opening a store in a new country and joining an FBA program.
Let’s look at the benefits and challenges brands face when expanding to a new Amazon marketplace.
Last Updated on September 30, 2024 by Zeljko Drazovic
Less isn’t always more.
In the hectic world of ecommerce, more is, well, more.
In other words, limiting a brand’s Amazon presence to a single market puts a ceiling on its growth opportunities.
Joining Amazon’s global ecommerce arena gives brands access to a larger customer base, potentially reduces their shipping costs, and helps them gain international recognition.
The fact that small and medium-sized businesses generate between 10% and 50% profit margins through Amazon’s international marketplaces illustrates how profitable cross-border selling on this platform can be for up-and-coming businesses.
Still, expanding to a new market is a major challenge for most SMBs, even with all the tools and assistance Amazon provides to its international sellers.
In this guide, we’ll share everything you need to know about becoming an international seller on Amazon and show you how to determine if your business is ready for expansion.
The path to your brand’s international stardom on Amazon isn’t necessarily smooth. After all, building a brand’s reputation, amassing positive reviews, and setting up an efficient fulfillment process takes time and considerable effort.
Here are some of the key advantages and challenges of cross-border selling on Amazon.
Amazon delivers products to over a hundred countries and intends to expand its presence to 21 local marketplaces by 2025.
With 1.1 million active sellers and 230 million customers, the US is currently Amazon’s largest marketplace.
Amazon also attracts millions of shoppers and sellers in Germany, Japan, the UK, and India, making it difficult for brands to determine which market offers the best growth opportunities.
The EU store transparency report Amazon published in October 2023 indicates that shops on markets like Austria, France, Belgium, Italy, and Spain have millions of monthly visitors.
In addition, several Amazon markets in the Asia Pacific region, like China, Singapore, and Australia, are booming in 2024. This trend is likely to continue in 2025, which makes these markets attractive to brands scouting for expansion opportunities.
The market’s size and total annual revenue indicate fertile ground for brand expansion.
However, these numbers also suggest tough competition, so placing a brand’s products on a thriving Amazon market doesn’t automatically guarantee a boost in sales.
In ecommerce, timing is everything.
Entering the international marketplace too soon can exhaust a business’s resources and make it difficult to keep up with the high demand for the products you sell globally. On the other hand, delaying brand expansion for too long can cause stagnation and a decline in sales.
Get our free eBook to learn more about AI tools that can streamline your brand’s international expansion.
So, when is the right time to open an Amazon store in a different country? There are several signs that could indicate your brand is ready for expansion.
Your Amazon seller account is your window into the world of global ecommerce.
Creating a store in a different country is surprisingly simple if you already have an active seller account and a professional Amazon Selling plan.
All you need to do is go to the Sell Globally dashboard in Amazon Seller Central and set up an Amazon selling account for another country or region.
You can create a unified account for European or North American markets or set up an account for a single country.
Remember that the registration requirements depend on the country. For instance, to set up an account you can use to sell across Europe, you’ll need:
It’s also worth noting that starting from December 2024, brands based outside the EU will need an EU-responsible person to place their products on the block’s market.
Creating a US store on Amazon involves an interview to determine if you must file taxes on a W9 or W-8BEN form. Additional documents such as bank statements, scanned copies of your national ID or passport, and credit card statements may also be required.
Once you complete the registration process, you must choose the fulfillment option and decide how you’ll receive payments. You can complete this task from your Seller Central account.
Amazon FBA is a convenient way to handle shipping and deliveries on a new market, but don’t forget to check the fees and other costs you’ll have to cover if you join one of the FBA programs.
Amazon Currency Converter for Sellers (ACCS) makes it easy to handle payments in different currencies and eliminates the need to open a bank account in each country where you sell your brand’s products.
Remember to check the Amazon Global Selling fees. Doing so will help you estimate the costs you’ll have to cover once you start selling internationally.
The expansion into a new Amazon marketplace starts with creating a strategy.
Each Amazon market is a separate ecosystem, and understanding its unique laws and trends is paramount for brands trying to establish a foothold on that market.
One of the first steps in developing an expansion strategy is pinpointing the marketplaces that present the most growth opportunities for your brand.
For instance, brands that already have thriving stores on the US market commonly expand into Canada and Mexico.
However, if your brand’s values and products are better alligned with the European or Asia-Pacific markets, the logical next step would be to create a strategy for those markets.
Download our free eBook to build a bullet-proof brand expansion strategy.
Market size, consumer behavior, and demand for different product categories are among the parameters that can help you determine which of Amazon’s markets is the right fit for your brand.
Taking time to understand the cultural nuances makes it easier to choose the right way to approach a target marketplace. Starting small and gradually expanding your brand’s offer on a new market is advisable as it allows you to optimize your strategy as you go along.
Market research is the cornerstone of every successful brand expansion strategy. After all, the more you know about the Amazon market, the easier it gets to choose, localize, and advertise products on that market.
Let’s go through some aspects of market research to which you should pay special attention.
It’s hard to overstate the importance of studying your competition. Analyzing their pricing strategies, the quality of their products, and all other aspects of their operations will enable you to pinpoint their strengths and weaknesses.
Identifying the products your competitors sell the most makes it easier to choose products you’ll include in your catalog for a specific country.
Countless factors, ranging from the climate to seasonal trends, dictate which products are in demand on different Amazon markets.
Cultural preferences also play a large role in buying decisions shoppers make, so items that are popular in France won’t necessarily attract much interest on Amazon’s Mexico domain.
Moreover, research can help you capitalize on national holidays and other major online sales opportunities unique to the market you’re targeting.
Starting small and adding only a handful of products to a new Amazon store allows you to limit the financial commitment to a new market while testing which of your brand’s products attracts the most attention.
Assuming that products that perform well in your domestic Amazon market will also be popular on a new market can be a costly mistake. That’s why it’s essential to consider the cultural nuances, market trends, and other factors affecting the demand for different products.
Amazon’s Product Opportunity Explorer tool grants international sellers insight into market trends, allowing them to identify products with high customer demand.
Using this or similar tools will make it easier to choose products from your domestic store that you should offer on a new market.
Translating listings to the market’s language is an important step towards overcoming the cultural and language barriers, but the localization process doesn’t end there, as you must also ensure that all sizes are accurately converted to the market’s metric system.
All listings you add to a new store must be optimized for Amazon’s search engine and contain keywords in the language customers shopping on that marketplace use to search for products.
In addition, all Amazon A+ content, including photos and videos, you add to product listings should be translated into the local language.
Providing customer support in the market’s language significantly improves the shopping experience by enabling brands to respond to positive and negative reviews in the customer’s native tongue.
Hiring customer support agents who are fluent in the market’s language also makes handling returns easier and improves customer satisfaction.
Converting a product’s price from one currency to another often does not reflect its value in a different market.
Price localization is integral to the broader localization strategy Amazon sellers must use when entering new markets. Most brands utilize the geographical pricing method to adjust a product’s price to the local purchasing power and the competition.
Reducing a product’s price and offering discounts can boost its sales on a new market and increase your chances of establishing a long-term presence on that market.
Besides localizing prices, you must also choose a payment method that allows you to process payments in different currencies.
Amazon Pay and Amazon Currency Converter for Sellers are built-in payment processing solutions available in Seller Central that support 44 payout currencies in 19 Amazon marketplaces.
Additionally, Amazon supports Stripe, WorldFirst, and Wise Business integrations that allow you to manage and convert payments in different currencies at favorable rates.
Each product you want to place on a new Amazon market must meet a number of compliance requirements.
You can easily check the compliance requirements for each product from The Manage Your Compliance dashboard in Seller Central. Here’s an overview of the information you can see on this dashboard:
However, Amazon doesn’t provide tax, regulatory, or compliance guidance to international sellers. So, before you can start selling on a new market, you must check the following information:
Please note that the list of tax and regulatory requirements varies by country and product category, so the list above doesn’t include all the requirements you must meet to start selling on Amazon’s European, North American, or Asia-Pacific markets.
The Amazon Service Provider Network can help you find experts approved by Amazon who can guide you through all aspects of selling on international markets, including tax obligations and compliance.
As noted earlier, becoming an FBA seller is the fastest and easiest way to place your products on an international market and get the Amazon Prime badge.
Amazon offers several FBA programs to eligible sellers, including the Pan-European FBA, FBA Export, and Remote Fulfillment with FBA, which simplify the shipping process.
Which of these programs works best for your business depends on your geographic location and where in the world you want to sell your products from an Amazon store.
If you want to sell your products in the EU and UK markets, you can choose from the Pan-European FBA, European Fulfillment Network, and Central Europe programs.
Opting for the Remote Fulfillment with FBA program can be an excellent option for US-based sellers interested in expanding their operations into Canada, Brazil, and Mexico.
FBA sellers that offer their products through several sales channels can benefit from using Amazon’s multi-channel fulfillment to deliver products to their clients.
Regardless of the program you choose, you’ll still be responsible for delivering your products to an Amazon fulfillment center and managing the FBA inventory according to Amazon’s standards.
What’s more, you’ll have to cover the monthly storage and fulfillment fees and pay additional fees whenever a customer returns a product or if you keep an item in one of Amazon’s fulfillment centers for more than 181 days.
Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM) enables brands to retain control of their fulfillment process or choose a third-party logistic provider they’ll use to deliver their products to customers in a new country.
The logistics solution you pick should be cost-effective whether you opt to utilize the Amazon fulfillment network or decide to manage the fulfillment process independently or with a third-party service provider.
Items you add to a new Amazon store will not necessarily be featured in the Buy Box, even if they have raving reviews in your domestic market.
Winning the Buy Box takes time and a considerable amount of five-star reviews from your store’s global customers. Hence, you must devise a plan to attract customers in a new country and win their loyalty.
Creating a multi-country advertising strategy before launching a store in a new country makes this goal less daunting.
Investing in Sponsored Brands and Pay-per-Click (PPC) campaigns or using different keyword match types are some of the most effective advertising strategies on Amazon that can help you raise brand awareness in a new market and attract shoppers to your store’s listings.
Connecting with influencers and building partnerships with local brands can facilitate the growth of your Amazon store. Your brand’s advertising strategy should also consider the market’s cultural nuances.
So, rather than looking for a uniform solution, you should focus your resources on developing a strategy that will assist you in establishing a brand presence on the market you’re targeting.
The cross-border ecommerce market is rapidly growing, and its size should exceed $2 trillion by 2025. As the market’s undisputed leader, Amazon offers immense opportunities to merchants looking to expand their operations to new countries.
Although starting a new Amazon store doesn’t take much effort, selling products on different continents requires substantial planning and resources.
Most importantly, before you start setting up a new store, you must ensure that your brand is ready to face the challenges of cross-border sales on Amazon.
Are you considering starting an Amazon store on a new market?
Get in touch to find out how Webinterpret can assist you in becoming an international seller on Amazon.
About Webinterpret
Webinterpret supports merchants selling on big, international ecommerce platforms, such as eBay and Amazon.
Our AI-based solution enables more effective selling through automated listing localization, advertising, and logistics (shipping and returns).
By giving your international customers a full, end-to-end local shopping experience, Webinterpret improves your conversion and helps establish your business globally.
Webinterpret enables online retailers and marketplace sellers on eBay and Amazon to instantly expand worldwide and boost their online sales.
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