In the following article we will cover:
Reviews Will Not Carry Over
Lastly, ensure that all business, legal, and financial requirements are met before beginning operations. Different countries have different rules regarding commerce and may require permits and the like. – Pat Petriello, Director, Amazon Strategy at Tinuiti
Example 3: “Our products or brands are truly unique and fill a void in the market for global buyers.”
For instance, you can ship your inventory to Amazon Fulfillment Center in the UK and any customers across Europe can have that product shipped directly to them. You can also use that pool of inventory to list the product on other European sites such as .de or .fr as long as you list that product in the native language of that region’s marketplace.”
A common practice is for sellers to pass most or all of these additional costs onto the buyer to keep margins profitable. However, you also want to do your market research to see where the competitor’s price points are landing before finalizing your pricing strategy.
– David Cooley, Sr. Marketplace Channel Analyst at Tinuiti
“Amazon’s European Fulfillment Network (EFN) is a powerful way to reach customers across Europe from a single marketplace account. Amazon will handle picking, packing, and shipping your products across Europe from a single pool of inventory without you having to worry about importing or customs for each nation within the EFN.”
- How to Approach International Expansion on Amazon
- How to Sell on Amazon in UK
- How to Sell on Amazon in Canada
- How to Sell on Amazon in India
- How to Sell on Amazon in Mexico
- How to Sell on Amazon in Australia
- Expert Advice on International Selling
How to Approach International Expansion on Amazon
Adjust Prices Accordingly
1. Understand the differences
Once you’re certain there is a demand for your product in the new market, consider language differences and how will affect your marketing and operations. Will you need to produce new advertising assets? Will you need to recruit staff who can speak the language? Do you need to repackage your product? National differences affect many things. Website language, customer support, and liaising with the regional Amazon office are just a few. But the most important differences are in customer buyer habits and product demand.
Example 2: “We’re looking at our options for driving traffic and conversions and feel like our domestic (US) growth is either insufficient or unsustainable to meet our targets.”
2. Leverage the Amazon brand
The best thing about selling on Amazon is that it already has a powerful brand. You don’t have to invest time, effort, and money in building up name recognition when you enter a new region–Amazon’s already opened the door for you.
Firstly, analyze if the products you currently have to offer are appropriate for the market you’re considering. Look at competitive data and see how well similar brands are performing–if they exist in that market at all.
Below are examples of factors involved in a decision for a company to expand globally.
Selling across international borders encounters additional costs associated with paying duties, taxes, and applicable customs brokerage fees. When evaluating your price point you will want to make sure you calculate all these fees and adjust your price point accordingly. Reviews are specific to the marketplace that product was sold in and will not transfer. So for any items or ASINs that are new to an international marketplace, you will be starting off with no reviews, regardless of your review history for that ASIN in the US marketplace.
The first thing you need to know is that each international market is special. Every entrepreneur knows this in the back of their heads, but few truly understand just how much things can diverge. In the beginning stages, most Amazon sellers will experience a combination of both excitement and fear when it comes to selling products internationally.
Amazon operates in 14 global sites spanning some of the largest eCommerce markets in the world, and each marketplace–each nation–carries their own unique differences.
Like any venture, international expansion on Amazon is full of both opportunities and risks. In order to maximize the benefits and minimize the costs, you need to follow certain best practices.
3. Handle each country individually
Below are some of the more common challenges we see sellers run into when expanding to other markets:
Much of what you know about the Amazon marketplace can and will carry over when you expand to an international market, but it’s still wise to tackle each country individually.
It also helps you get a leg up in your operations. Retailers entertaining the European market, for instance, can leverage Amazon’s European Fulfillment Network (EFN) to extend its operations.
Example 4: “We have a potential advantage or incentive in a certain market because of where our products are produced and should explore opening in that market.”
Example 5: “We’ve seen a lot of sustained success on the Amazon Marketplace (US) to date and see the logical next step as replicating this success on other Amazon platforms.”
Example 1: “We’re seeing a lot of traffic on our website from global buyers and are even getting product inquiries and questions from global buyers about our products, shipping policies and our payment options.”
International expansion presents sellers with sizable growth opportunities, especially if you can be an early mover in your category. However, like most things in life, with all new opportunities come challenges, and Amazon is no different.
The decision to go global is often driven by a combination of many factors, some financial and others marketing, merchandising, or operations related.
So not all is completely lost and while this section is less prominent and below the fold, it still does give customers access to your US reviews and also provides Amazon a reference point to use when evaluating products for a lightning deal and daily deal approvals.
Common concerns like credit-card fraud and shipping delays may seem overwhelming at first, but with the right guidance, sellers can avoid common mistakes and simplify their global expansion process.
However, with that said, there is a section at the bottom of the detail page that highlights reviews from other marketplaces.
“You can think of EFN as pooling all our inventory in one place to ship to any country in Europe (that has an Amazon Marketplace of course) as opposed to MCI (Multi Country Inventory) where you send in your products to the individual country’s Fulfillment center. EFN is easier on the seller but will take a little bit more time for a product to be shipped to the customer from the Fulfillment Center. MCI is a bit more difficult for the seller initially because they must send their products to individual countries but the shipping time from FC to the customer is shorter.”
