THE SIMPLEST WAY to START selling on Amazon FBA Sweden!

Welcome back!

Amazon has added yet another marketplace to its network: Sweden! This means that there are currently seven active marketplaces in Europe:

• United Kingdom
• France
• Germany
• Italy
• Spain
• Netherlands
• Sweden

That’s seven opportunities to expand your business and reach more customers! Do not underestimate how important this Amazon expansion into other European countries is. Remember, there are 66 million people in the UK, but 741 million in Europe (including Russia).

I have been following eCommerce trends since the early 2000s. I have seen the growth of Amazon and eBay with my own eyes. It all started in the US, then it expanded to the UK, Canada and Australia (the main English-speaking countries), and then, slowly, it moved into other regions.

Europe is actually a VERY interesting market for Amazon as it’s very fragmented. There are no large players that dominate these regions. Yes, there are some leaders in specific niches in specific countries, but there’s no real competitor that is doing what Amazon does.

Sure, eBay is still very popular and sites like AliExpress also do mass-scale business in Europe, but I still believe that Amazon has massive potential to grow their revenue in European countries.

Once Amazon starts offering free/Prime delivery in all EU countries AND cheap/simplified returns, the game is over. Amazon will eat any other competitors alive and the growth numbers will be spectacular.

Why am I telling you all this? Because it’s important to understand what you’re missing out on if you’re not already selling on Amazon’s European marketplaces (besides the UK). You want to get on these regional platforms as soon as possible, while your competitors haven’t made the leap yet.

And now, with the Brexit situation, it will be even more lucrative as many UK sellers simply won’t bother with the new regulations and will stick to the UK and maybe US marketplaces. Those who put in the extra work will win. There’s no doubt about that.

Currently, more than 70% of my income comes from sales from Amazon’s EU marketplaces. And I expect that number to rise in 2021 when I fully translate my catalogue for Sweden and the Netherlands. Furthermore, it’s very likely that Amazon will launch into new countries next year, too! So, we’ll soon be dealing with 10+ additional marketplaces and with hundreds of millions of new customers.

“OK, sounds good, Andrew. But what’s the easiest way to start selling on Amazon Sweden?” Let’s find out!

HASSLE-FREE way to start
selling with Amazon FBA
in SWEDEN!

Ok, you now understand the importance of expanding your Amazon business and want to sell on Amazon Sweden. What is the best way to do this? What tax implications do you need to be aware of? How does the shipping process work, and can Amazon distribute your stock for you? All this and more will be covered in the following paragraphs.

And just so we’re on the same page: I’m writing this with the assumption that you already sell on Amazon UK (or US or any other marketplace for that matter) and want to EXPAND your business to Sweden. This is not about starting a brand-new Amazon account in Sweden.

Speaking of accounts, you don’t need to open a new account to sell in Sweden. The unified European Amazon account includes access to ALL marketplaces. In your Seller Central dashboard, simply select “SWEDEN” from the drop-down menu and you’ll instantly be transferred to the local marketplace.

You can select the language option “English” (if it hasn’t been selected already) and the account will basically look exactly the same as it does in the UK. The only difference is that you won’t find many of the menus and settings you’re used to. This is simply because they haven’t been launched yet in Sweden. For example, the PPC console is absent altogether as paid ads have not been launched yet.

But the listing creation module is pretty much the same in all marketplaces, and that’s exactly where you need to start. Go to Inventory > Add a Product.

Before you start the process, make sure you have copied the EAN or ASIN and SKU code from your existing listing on the UK site as you will need this information in a moment.

Next – simply enter your ASIN or EAN code to find the product in the Amazon’s catalogue:

On the next page, select NEW and click on “Sell this product”.

On the next page, enter the SKU number, which will be the SKU code you used for your listing in the UK:

Put in the price. This price will be in Swedish krona, so use a website like xe.com to do the maths. I would still recommend you use common sense and your marketing mind when setting your prices on Amazon.se. For example, I sell my product for €9.99 on other EU marketplaces and that translates to 102 Krones.

Instead of 102 Krones, I set my price to 99 Krones, just so it has that magic look! 🙂 Or, I could go with 109 Krones or 119 Krones as well.

Be sure to round up the price and don’t use weird numbers—they don’t look very attractive and they always look like some automated algorithm created them!

IMPORTANT!!! Make sure to use a comma to separate the last two digits in your price on the Amazon.se website. If you use a decimal point instead, you will be setting a crazy high price and not the correct amount that you want to charge.

Once you hit the “Save & Finish” button, your listing will go live. It can take five to ten minutes for that to happen, but generally, it happens almost instantly. And if you’re already using the Pan-EU programme, your item will be available for sale!

Your listing will be automatically translated into Swedish (by Amazon), so, technically, you could just leave it as it is. But we all know how terrible these translations can sometimes be, so the next task on your list is to outsource the translation of your listing title and description. You can find plenty of such services on websites like Fiverr.com and JungleMarket.com

Lastly, if you’re Brand Registered, you will want to create an A+ Content page for your listing WHEN that feature is available on Amazon.se. Currently, it’s not active, but I hope they will roll it out very soon, just like they did a few months after the launch of Amazon.nl for the Netherlands.

And that’s all there is really. This is how SIMPLE it is to start selling on Amazon Sweden if you’re already using the Pan-EU programme. It literally took me just five minutes to set this listing up, so there are NO EXCUSES to not do it!

But what about people who don’t use the Pan-EU programme? Can they still sell on Amazon Sweden?

HOW to sell on Amazon Sweden
WITHOUT the Pan-EU programme!

Yes, you can still sell on Amazon Sweden without the Pan-EU programme, and there are several ways to achieve this:

1) Simply continue selling on Amazon UK and make sure to have Sweden enabled in your FBA Export settings. With this programme, people from Sweden can shop on Amazon UK and get their orders delivered by Amazon. Obviously, now that Amazon has a local website in Sweden, very few people will continue to shop on Amazon UK, so this is really not the best way to go.

2) Use the seller-fulfilled method and simply dispatch orders on your own (from the UK to Sweden). Yes, this is still possible and will be possible even after Brexit on the 1st of January 2021. Depending on how small or big your items are, how much Royal Mail charges for shipping, and whether the value is under the VAT/import duty in Sweden, this may work for some people. But for the most part, it’s a lot of hassle for very little return.

Remember, the beauty of running an FBA business is in the fact that Amazon takes care of the shipping and returns process so that you don’t have to deal with all of that stress.

3) Send stock to the Amazon FBA warehouse in Sweden. This is the best way to reach Swedish customers. You can offer them the cheapest and fastest shipping while paying the lowest Amazon fees possible.

4) Alternatively, if you already have an active VAT number in any other country where Amazon operates warehouses, you can send your stock to that warehouse and sell on the Swedish site using the European Fulfilment Network programme. Yes, this will be more expensive in terms of Amazon fees for each sale, but it won’t require you to register for VAT in Sweden.

As you can see, you can still sell on Amazon Sweden without using the Pan-EU programme. If you currently sell just on Amazon UK and want to expand to Sweden specifically, you should probably send stock directly to Sweden.

Usually, though, Sweden won’t be the number one country to expand to after the UK, so you probably will want to start with France or Germany, or you could simply register for the whole Pan-EU programme so you can list your products on all seven active European marketplaces without any restrictions. And this is what I recommend most people do.

What about VAT Registration
in Sweden?

I’m not VAT registered in Sweden and I don’t plan on doing the registration until Amazon requires it. Right now, there are no extra fees to fulfil Swedish orders from the EU inventory pool if you’re using the Pan-EU programme!

So, I don’t have any reason to do the Swedish VAT registration just yet.

I haven’t activated the FBA location in Sweden yet either, so this should also mean that returns are not kept at a Swedish warehouse (which, in theory, can trigger VAT registration requirements).

REMINDER: As soon as you start storing your stock in any EU country (Amazon warehouse), you trigger the VAT registration requirement.

Another scenario in which you would need to register for VAT in Sweden is when your distance sales reach 320k SEK (Swedish Krona), which is approximately £28,000. So, once I reach this level of sales in Sweden (per year), I will have to register for VAT there, even if I fulfil my orders from Amazon warehouses in other countries.

Hopefully, this all makes sense. 🙂 If not, please leave your comments below this post and I will do my best to help you out. I’m not an accountant, so I may not be able to solve complex VAT mysteries, but I understand the basic stuff pretty well.

Also, I’m still hoping that the EU will introduce the new VAT system for eCommerce in 2021, which will completely eliminate the multi-country VAT registration process and simplify the way small businesses sell across Europe. Fingers crossed it will happen soon, but I haven’t heard about any exact dates for the launch of this yet.

Ok, that’s about it. The Swedish platform is very new, so sales will probably stay on the lower side for a while, but you do have to look at this from a long-term perspective! My sales on Amazon Spain and Italy were super-low in the first year, too, but in 2020, I have sold thousands upon thousands of units there.

Take the first-mover advantage and expand your Amazon FBA business to Sweden as soon as possible so that you can start aggregating local reviews and seller feedback before your competitors realise the opportunity they’re missing out on!

If you need help with your Amazon journey, take a look at my Amazon Sharks video course. In more than 20+ hours of step-by-step videos, I will show you EXACTLY how to do what I do! I will even share my real-life business details with you—nothing is left out!

I’m also very happy to hear from my followers! If you have a question, you can contact me directly via my help desk here OR leave it below the post in the comments block. I usually reply within 24 hours, Monday to Friday.