Welcome Back!
As I covered in my previous Amazon UK FBA business update post for May, I have finally started selling my products on Amazon.com too, which is by far the world’s biggest Amazon marketplace! Many of you asked me afterwards for more details about how exactly to start selling in the United States because, while there are many online guides covering this topic, none of them truly give a complete and thorough overview of every step of the process from a seller’s perspective.
And that’s where I come in, right?! Today I want to give you a step-by-step walkthrough of how to start selling on Amazon.com using FBA! The principles will be applicable to sellers who already sell on Amazon UK (or any other Amazon European marketplace), but the same rules and steps will also apply to sellers who are just starting out. In this post, I will assume that you already have a product to sell and understand the basics of how Amazon FBA works.
Also, as you saw in my previous post, my US launch was actually much smaller than the UK launch I did in Autumn 2017. By that I mean, in my first month on Amazon UK, I broke £12k in sales. In my first month on the US platform, I made just $3k or so in sales.
This is quite important to understand: while Amazon.com is a much bigger marketplace with much greater demand in most product groups, it also has much more competition. You’re competing against much bigger players with a lot more resources!
So, unlike the UK platform where you compete with, say, 20 other sellers in your category, on the US site, you suddenly have to contend with 200 competing sellers! And it’s not easy, even for seasonal sellers like me.
I just wanted to point this out to remind you once again that my recommendation is to start with your local or CLOSEST marketplace if you’re based in the UK, Germany, Italy or other European countries. The competition in European marketplaces is much smaller, and it will be easier for you to get started, make sales and become profitable (VERY IMPORTANT!!!), so you have money to invest in your Amazon.com expansion.
With this business that I’m covering in my monthly blog post updates, I won’t be expanding to European marketplaces simply because the product itself has an English language element to it, which means it just won’t sell in other countries in Europe outside of the UK. I do plan—or at least hope—that the business takes off in the US, and maybe I will even expand to Canada and Australia later on if that is the case. If and when that happens, I will make sure to inform you about it on my blog! 🙂
Ok, I got side-tracked a bit, but you know that all my comments and recommendations are made on purpose because I want you to have all the information, so you can do the right thing. Let’s get started on the actual process of how to start selling on the Amazon.com (US) website using FBA!
Business Registration & Bank Account
First things first, you need to register a business in the United States to sell on Amazon.com, right? WRONG!
There’s no point in doing that! Amazon does not require us to have a US-based business presence, and it would only complicate the whole set-up process, and I’m not even talking about doing taxes in the US, etc.
If you have a Ltd. company registered in the UK (or any other European country), you can use that to sell on Amazon.com. The same applies for sole traders—you can sell as a UK-registered sole trader on the US website with no problems.
Bank account. I don’t know where this misleading information comes from on the Internet, but a lot of people suggest that you need to open a US bank account to sell on Amazon.com, but it’s simply not true! You can use your current bank account—any European IBAN bank account number—to receive payments from Amazon US, just like you would in Europe. So again, there’s no NEED or BENEFIT to opening a US-based bank account.
However, you may want to do it for practical reasons, like to get paid in USD and not GBP or EUR as you would with your current bank account. This is especially important if you import products from China and pay in USD (which is most of us) as it allows you to avoid going through a currency conversion TWO times and losing out through the unfair exchange rates that banks or Amazon offer. Instead, I recommend you open a Transferwise Borderless account.
For those of you who are not familiar with Transferwise—it’s essentially a service that allows us to do currency exchange at marketplace prices for very small and reasonable commissions. With the help of Transferwise, we can save tons of money on exchange rates and make quicker international money transfers too. Plus, they now offer borderless accounts, which basically means we can open virtual bank accounts around the world, not pay anything for them, and leverage currency exchange advantages.
Transferwise is a very reputable company that backed by the creators of Skype and other large investors, and it has maintained near-perfect reviews on Trustpilot.
Yes, same Trustpilot where PayPal gets rated 1.3 stars, lol!!!
Anyway, this step is optional, and you can do it any time you want. That said, I do recommend that you start with your own real/local bank account until your account gets verified since you will need to verify your bank account and I’m not sure how that works with Transferwise accounts. However, once your account is verified, you can then switch your bank account details to your Transferwise account, and you won’t have to verify it again.
If you don’t want to overcomplicate things, you can simply use your current bank account to sell on Amazon.com—that’s perfectly fine.
Amazon.com Seller Account
If you are already selling on Amazon UK or Amazon’s other European marketplaces, you will know that we have ONE account for selling in all European marketplaces. That means one account to sell on:
- Amazon UK
- Amazon DE
- Amazon FR
- Amazon IT
- Amazon ES
For selling on Amazon.com, you will have to open a new account because North American marketplaces are separate.
It’s not like this will be a totally new/unique account as it will still be linked to your current account, but still, we need to create a new account for N. America, which will cover these three regions:
- Amazon USA
- Amazon Canada
- Amazon Mexico
I hope that at some point in the future, Amazon will UNIFY the whole system (including Australia, for which you need another account), but for now, it is what it is. The main downsides of separate accounts for sellers are:
- We have to pay another monthly fee for a N. American account
- We have to go through the verification process again
The current Amazon.com account fee is $39.99 per month. Obviously, for any serious seller, this doesn’t make a difference as you will spend hundreds and thousands of $$$ every month on Sponsored Product ads, for example. But still, it is weird that we have to pay for the privilege to sell on Amazon and pay TWICE if we want to sell on the UK and US platforms.
Verification—we all hate verifications, right?! There’s always something that does not match up or a document that has expired two days ago or a scan that is not in pristine condition and so on! Much of the verification process comes down to LUCK and the individual who is reviewing your documents.
The good news is that if you’re already selling on Amazon UK and have verified profile, there’s an option on your Amazon.com seller profile to provide information on that account. Basically, you link your UK account, the verification process will go through much faster. I did this, and even though I had to provide some proof of ID and my company registration certificate, the whole process took just a few days. Then they did not ask for any further information from me. I guess they just looked at my UK account data and basically verified it based on that (which makes sense).
But even if that doesn’t work for you OR Amazon.com is the first platform you’re selling on, make sure you’re providing them with ACCURATE and UP-TO-DATE information! Do not try to hide anything or use information that is not legitimate. If you play by the book, you will always be able to get any extra documents they are asking for.
You will have to open/apply for a Brand Registry account on Amazon.com separately! As I explained on my blog, you DON’T need to register a trademark in the US to do this! No, Amazon accepts your UK trademark and it’s actually very easy to open a Brand Registry account on the US site. You just provide your logo image, product images, trademark information, and your account will be opened within just a few days.
It gets even easier if you already have a Brand Registry account in the UK! In that case, you simply add the US account as an additional user to your existing account! No need to open a new Brand Registry account in the US! You can find more information on this process in my blog post here.
Creating Listings
Once your Amazon seller account is opened in the US, you can create your product listings just like you would on the UK platform. The interface is very similar and, basically, it’s exactly the same features and options apart from a few extras that only US sellers get (like the Early Reviews Program, for example, which we’ll cover separately in future blog posts).
Amazon also offers a feature that allows us to IMPORT our UK listings automatically. I tried to use that feature, but, for some reason, it didn’t work for me. Some kind of error came up every time I tried the importing wizard.
As I only had five product variations to create and images/texts ready to copy, I just created these listings from scratch. It took me less than an hour, so if you have only one or two products to sell, you can definitely do it manually! Another advantage of doing it manually is that you can review descriptions and features to make sure they’re optimised for the US marketplace (for example, if you have sizes mentioned, then change them from centimetres to inches and so on).
But even if you do create your listings from scratch, Amazon still offers to link them with your UK listings and, specifically, they offer to link the price of the item! In the beginning, I did not realise what was happening as, each day, my price on the .com platform changed based on the currency exchange rates. Obviously, I did not want this because I need a fixed and specific price for my Amazon US listings, so I disabled this function. However, I’m just mentioning it so that you know there’s an option to automatically change prices on Amazon.com based on the currency exchange rate and prices you set in your Amazon UK account.
Once you have created your first listing on Amazon.com, you can arrange to send your stock to Amazon warehouse! And this is the part of the process that confuses most people.
Sending stock to Amazon FBA in the US!
How can you send goods to the Amazon warehouse in the United States? Is it possible to simply send stock directly from China to Amazon? What is the easiest way to handle this whole process?
First things first, you CAN’T simply send the stock to Amazon US warehouses from outside the US! Amazon can’t and WON’T act as an importer.
They won’t do customs clearance for you in the US, just like they won’t do it in the UK or any other EU country. (Note: This could change in future, though, as Amazon could start offering some kind of service for this process. That said, it comes with lots of legal aspects/problems, so this is probably not something Amazon is working on right now.)
So, what you need to do is use a third-party service/company that can handle the whole shipping process, including the customs clearance process in the US and delivering goods to Amazon’s warehouse. It is basically the same thing as importing from China directly to Amazon UK, so most freight forwarders will be able to help you out with this process, including the company I have been recommending for years, Woodland Group.
Many other shipping companies can also do this for you; you just have to ask them! Personally, I use DHL for sending stock to Amazon US as I needed a fast Air Express service (not sea freight) and, after getting some quotes (from DHL, TNT, UPS, etc.), DHL came out cheapest—after some negotiating.
They offered me full-service on DDP terms (Delivered Duty Paid) and what I liked most is that they took care of everything, including my registration for Importer of Record in the US. All I had to do is send them a Power of Attorney, so they can take care of everything on my behalf.
You can, of course, find information online on how to get that Importer of Record number on your own, but I just thought “why complicate things when the shipping company can take care of everything?”
Keep things simple!
You can organise this shipping process from the UK or directly from China. If you do it directly from China, make sure you do a full pre-shipment inspection, so you’re 100% confident in the quality of the goods you’re sending to Amazon. Make sure your supplier also properly labels the pallets for Amazon OR you can ask the shipping company/freight forwarder to do this for you. However, you will probably already know how best to handle this since you are already selling on Amazon UK or other European marketplaces.
All in all, there’s nothing too complicated in this process!
Cost-wise, it often costs about the same to send goods from China to the US as it costs to send them to the UK. It can be even cheaper sometimes, depending on which Amazon warehouse your goods need to be delivered to.
There’s no VAT to be paid on imports in the US, which is a huge advantage!
There’s no such thing as VAT in the US! You only pay Import Duty, which varies based on the goods but is generally around the 3% mark. You can look up for these tariffs online or use this calculator.
Your shipping company will typically inform you about any duties you need to pay and simply invoice you for them.
The second biggest problem/fear that people face when thinking about expanding to Amazon US is TAXES! How do we handle the tax situation in the US? Let’s find out!
Taxes
The good news is that the UK (and other European countries) and the US have an agreement in place for double-taxation, which means that we DON’T have to pay any income tax in the US!
When setting up an Amazon US account, Amazon will ask you to fill out a quick interview/questionnaire for a W-8 form, which basically means that you will state that you have no active presence in the US and you will instead be taxed in your country of residence.
To put it simply, you don’t have to worry about paying income tax in the US on US sales. You will pay the normal UK taxes, just like you would do on the UK sales.
There’s one big BUT, though: Sales Tax.
I already said that there’s no VAT in the US, but what they do have is something similar: sales tax, which is paid on the value of the goods. The rates vary based on the STATE and can be as low as 0% in some states and as high as 9% and more in others:
So, the rate for each state in the US is different.
Wait! It gets even more “funny”. You charge the sales tax on your sale of goods for the state your CUSTOMER lives in—but not always. Some states ask you to charge your local state sales tax instead. So, the rules you follow vary depending on where you’re based and where your target customer is based.
Want some more? 🙂
As we’re using Amazon FBA and Amazon warehouses, we don’t know where exactly our goods are stored (in which state), and with Amazon having dozens of warehouses across the US and since they move goods freely at any given time across those warehouses, we have to register for sales tax in every state.
You read that right—we have to register for sales tax in every single state!
What it means in real-world terms is the situation is totally f***ed up! There’s no way a small seller can fully comply with these regulations. You have to understand that each and every state in the US is like a separate country. You would have to register for a sales tax number in each state and then do tax returns to each state separately and pay them too!
Lucky for us, there’s a company that helps with this process, and they do have lots of valuable content/material on their blog about this problem: Taxjar.com
However, they are more geared towards people who are already living in the US and businesses that sell via their own online shops (where they know they have stock located in one place/state at all times). But they do offer support for Amazon FBA sellers too, so if you want to stay 100% fully tax compliant, using Taxjar is probably the only way to can do it right now.
And it actually gets even more complicated than this! There is currently a massive debate going about whether we, as Amazon Marketplace sellers, are responsible for charging sales tax OR if Amazon is responsible for this. There are no clear answers to this as of yet, so many people will just wait out and see how it all progresses.
The main discussion/question is whether stock being held in an Amazon warehouse triggers NEXUS in a state or not! Nexus simply means that there are enough grounds for you to be legally responsible for paying sales tax in that state. There’s no definite answer to this right now. There have been some court cases related to this, but they are all currently still in process.
And don’t think that this problem is only affecting sellers based outside the US! Far from it! In fact, I don’t think that the IRS actively looks at the foreign seller problem at all yet because, right now, they need to focus on fixing the domestic issue with this. By that, I mean that the vast majority of US-based sellers/companies are NOT paying sales tax in every state. Most pay it in just one state—usually their home state—and many don’t pay anything at all. So, it’s a massive issue and something that will keep the pressure on Amazon until a solution is found.
My own prediction is that Amazon will have to sort this mess out and will have to take care of charging sales tax on our behalf.
They actually ALREADY do it for two states:
- Pennsylvania
- Washington
For these two states, Amazon charges sales tax on our behalf since January 2018, and I can’t see any reason why they could not do the same thing for the rest of the states. I really hope they will introduce this by the end of 2018 or in sometime in 2019 at the latest because, right now, there is simply no way for small-time sellers to stay on top of this issue and register for sales tax and do tax returns/payments in dozens of states at once.
Conclusion
OK, that’s about it! I have tried to cover the most important information on how you can expand your Amazon business to the US! There’s nothing too complicated about this process until we hit that sales tax issue. Obviously, I can’t recommend anything other than to be fully compliant, but the reality is that 99% of sellers are simply waiting it out to see how it will develop.
Another strategy would be to register for sales tax in at least in one state and simply pay the tax based on that state’s rules. This way, you’re at least doing something and paying this tax per the laws of one state (that one state could be the one you send your stock to, or at least the address of the warehouse that Amazon gives you).
I will continue providing information and updates on this process. As soon as there are some major developments, I will inform you on my Facebook page! I really hope Amazon rolls out other states in 2018 and starts charging the sales tax on our behalf, so this issue is fixed once and for all!
If you have any questions about this process or if you would like to share your story/experience with selling on Amazon US, please leave your comments below the post! I’m always happy to hear from my blog readers and I personally reply to all comments within 24 hours, Mon-Fri.
Hi Andrew, very useful post. We are just to about to attempt to get stock into Amazon USA’s FBA as we do in the UK already.
Had a chat with a SA company called Zee who suggest they offer a service from UK collection directly into the destination FBA facility in the USA for a small fee.
I am beginning to understand that I will need an ‘Importer of Record’ which they they, Zee, have asked me to let them act as.
I don’t understand if this makes the them my sole Importer of Record and therefore binds me to use their services.
Also, I believe that Amazon USA do not accept parcels from just anybody and that they need to be booked in? This may just be the case with pallets?
If this is the case then does DHL, for example, do this? Ideally we want to make up some cartons of product, get FBA paperwork done and once we know where it is going get the likes of DHL to come pick them up and take them there.
Things change a lot.
We have always used Amazon UK’s default (UPS) option for sending cartons to UK FBA.
Hi Matt,
No the Importer of Record is for each individual shipment so you won’t be tied into using their services going forward.
And yes, pallet deliveries need to be booked in with Amazon for specific times.
Where would you want DHL to collect from? If it’s in the UK then you won’t be able to ship directly to Amazon’s fulfilment centres as I don’t think they offer that.
Hello I would like to ask how much i need for PL in US ?
I am doing OA in UK
Br Matej
Hi Matej,
I just did a post covering exactly what it costs to launch a private label product here: https://andrewminalto.com/how-much-money-do-you-need-to-launch-a-new-amazon-fba-business-in-2022/
I would assume fairly similar numbers for the US as UK.
Thanks,
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
I am based in France but it seems to be the same situation as UK. I am interested in starting to sell on Amazon US. I am wondering if there is a third option besides FBA (terrible past experience of ruining or losing products — I sell handmade, delicate products) and sending orders directly from France (slow and expensive). Is it ok to use a smaller fulfilment center in the US for FBM? Or does that require me to open a US company?
Thanks
Franci
Hi Franci,
I definitely wouldn’t rule out FBA – that’s the main selling point of Amazon after all!
But another option is to find a fulfilment company in the US who can offer seller fulfilled prime shipping. That’s something of a middle ground between FBA and FBM.
Hi Andrew,
Thanks so much for your reply. I’m sure FBA is a great option for a lot of companies, but for a tiny company selling delicate, handmade products that need to be handled with care, ironed before shipped out, etc. it just doesn’t work — we tried and it was a disaster!
My question was basically, if as a non-US company I can use a different US-based fulfilment center other than FBA. I do not want to create a separate US company if that’s not necessary. It seems this possible, right?
By the way, it seems that Amazon now collects sales tax for all states so that issue seems to be resolved.
Thanks!
Hi Franci,
Yes that’s definitely possible. It’s called Seller Fulfilled Prime and it will allow you to offer Prime delivery while shipping products yourself (or via a fulfilment centre in your case) but there are some requirements and a trial period that you have to go through first before Amazon will let you advertise as Prime delivery.
Hope this helps!
All the best,
Andrew
Excellent blog, really helpful article. Thank you!
Just have a question. It’s currently 2021 and Amazon seems to sort the things out with a sales tax. Many states have been added to the list and Amazon will now be responsible to calculate, collect, remit, and refund state sales tax on sales sold by third party sellers.
Am I right?
Thank you
Hi Andrew
I appreciate this post is 2-3 yrs old now, but wondered if you’d have any guidance for me.
I’m wondering do I need a US address to put on my packaging? I’m thinking just a virtual address, like what we need in the UK/EU. Do you know if this applies in the US?
Thanks
Charlie
Andrew, what an article. You’re a legend man. As a UK seller this is exactly what i was looking for. Big ups.
Thanks! 🙂
I must say this is a very articulately written blog with simple to understand and very useful information. Great job Sir!
Thanks & you’re welcome! 🙂
Andrew
Are there any developments about the sales taxes in 2020?? Thanks for the informative video.
Hi Murat,
No, sorry, I haven’t looked into this recently, so don’t know the latest news.
Andrew
Thank you Andrew, hope you going well.
Hi, Andrew
Your article is very helpful for people who want to work on Amazon.
I have a permanent residence in France, and I have private limited company registered in France. Can I open an seller account on Amazon in the UK and US?
Thanks
Hi Eric,
Yes, absolutely. You can sell on Amazon UK/EU and Amazon US using a company registered in France.
Thanks,
Andrew
Hi Andrew, how are you?
I loved your text and it really is very instructive.
Do the rules for merging accounts still prevail in this way according to your information?
Hi William,
Yes, as far as I’m aware, it still works the same way.
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
Thanks for this great blog.
I would like to understand better how did you approach the shipping companies, reached out in UK, US or country where the goods came from?
Thanks,
Patricia
Hi Patricia,
You want to contact local offices, in the country you live in to organise such exports.
Thanks,
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
Thanks for spending so much time on this article. It was really helpful to me.
I got a question about invoicing. Here in the UK, Amazon.co.uk have a tool which calculates VAT and sends a invoice to the customer. So it is easy to manage the sales and taxes for the company. What about the invoicing for the US customers? if you send goods to FBA US from UK limited company, how you do invoicing for the US FBA sales as a UK limited company. Do you send a invoice to every single customer who buy from FBA. Also it wont be a VAT invoice. What kind of invoice we must be preparing for the US FBA sales.
Thanks in advance
Best regards
Hi Hakan,
Thanks for your comment.
I’m sorry, but I won’t be able to help with this, I don’t sell on Amazon US anymore.
At the time I was selling, I did not send any invoices to Amazon customers – they did not ask for them.
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
I currently live in the UK and have an LTD company registered here but I sell on Amazon in the US.
I have received the following message from amazon:
“Please provide the following updated documents and confirm there is a valid credit card on file:
–Utility bill with name and address visible
–Business license
–If you have active listings, include copies of invoices, receipts, contracts or delivery orders from your supplier issued in the last 90 days.”
I can provide a utility bill but I’m not sure about the business licence?
Hi Lewis,
Thanks for your comment.
There’s no such thing as business licence in the UK – it’s taken from the US.
You can send them your company registration certificate, that should be good enough!
Thanks,
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
That is a great article, very informative.
I am UK based and want to develop in the US as it is a bigger market. I have a registered company in the UK.
Do I need to a US address when registering to the IRS for my EIN? Or can I just use my UK address? Will I need a US address at any point during the process?
How do you get one? I heard about getting a virtual address but it is quite expensive for a small business like me.
Thanks for any answer you can give out to me.
Hi Maud,
Thanks for your comment.
Sorry, I won’t be able to help you with this as I don’t sell in the US anymore. When I was doing this back in 2018, DHL handled my EIN registration process – I just gave them POA and they did it all for me. No, I did not set-up a virtual address in the US, but I don’t know whatever they used my UK address or maybe their own address in the US? I don’t know, sorry.
Thanks,
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
I am a UK based company trying to sell in US market, my strategy is sourcing from wholesaler in USA. Does the tax situation you have described would still apply? How does getting a resellers permit would work in this scenario? Appreciate your help on this matter.
Cheers
Hi Tara,
I don’t really know how this would work, sorry…
I’m not an expert on the US side of Amazon – I’m working in the UK/EU.
Andrew
Hello there Andrew
very helpful info thank you. I have registered for an EIN number as i saw it being a need for foreign companies selling in the U.S.A. However, how often exactly should i file the taxes with the IRS as a foreign company, and is the form i need to fill in “FORM 1120-F”?
Thanks , i would really appreciate your help
Hi George,
I’m sorry, but I won’t be able to help you with this as I don’t sell in the US anymore.
Andrew
A great article for the beginners in Amazon business!
I have a few questions:
I am under a process of setting up a business with Amazon in Europe or in particular, Germany and am facing certain confusions and issues with that.
My brother and friends are working in Germany with full-time jobs and have permanent resident permits.
I have setup a Ltd company in London but have not created Amazon UK account yet because my primary focus is towards Germany.
1. Can you please guide me if my brother or friend sign up an Amazon seller account in Germany, and I upgrade that with my UK company because my brother and friend are not yet allowed to do business simultaneously while working full time in Germany. Although they have applied for German Nationality. What would be the implications in this case? Or would that work fine with my company in terms of VAT or other regulations?
2. Isn’t AliBaba suppliers with DDP transport goods to Amazon warehouses directly? So then how DAP is different?
3. I have TransferWise debit card as charge method, but for refunds I would also need PayPal. Can I use my friend’s or business partner’s PayPal for refunds?
3. After setup in UK, Can I shift my account or business to Germany using migrate AMZ account option because if I go for PAN European option, I would need VAT certificates from Germany and other states as well. I want to shift my main business to Germany!
4. Do I need to pay customs department separately after registering for VAT before clearance of goods or is it handled by DHL freight forwarder ?
Many Thanks
Hi Rauf,
Thanks for your comment.
1) No, you can’t do that. As the owner of the company, YOU have to open the seller account in Germany, with your UK company details. And yes, you will need to register for VAT in Germany to do this.
2) No, DDP from China in 99% of cases is a pure scam. See this post for more details:
https://andrewminalto.com/delivered-duty-paid-ddp-scam/
3) You don’t need PayPal account to sell on Amazon. Amazon does not accept PayPal at all.
4) No, you can’t do that. You would have to set-up a new Ltd. company in Germany.
5) If you use DHL, they will invoice you for VAT and import duty on imports, yes.
Thanks,
Andrew
Hi Andrew, thanks for sharing such an informative blog. I am from Canada. If I want to cover UK marketplace. Do I have to make account on amazon.ca or amazon.uk.co ? Otherthing I wanna ask that in this case also i have to pay income tax only once or in both countries canada and Uk. Thank you.
Hi Naina,
Thanks for your comment.
1) To sell on Amazon UK, you need to sign up for Amazon EU account (can do it on Amazon.co.uk), which will cover all European marketplaces (UK, Germany, Francy, Italy, Spain & Netherlands).
2) Income tax you will pay in Canada, where your business is registered. But you will have to register for VAT in the UK, if you plan on using FBA program in the UK.
Thanks,
Andrew
I am based in the UK and sell products on Amazon.co.uk that come to me from different suppliers in different countries and then i co-mingle products then send to fba in the UK. How can I have products sent direct to the US and have them co-mingle to sell on Amazon.com. Is their a way for it to be done on seller central?
Hi Dan,
Thanks for your comment.
You will probably want to use an FBA Prep company in the US, who can organise this on your behalf.
Search on Google for such companies.
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
Thank you for the useful information!
I am wondering if the situation with US sales tax has changed for UK sellers now when we are in 2020?
Best regards,
Szvitlana
Hi Szvitlana,
I don’t sell in the US, so don’t know really what is the latest…
But I’m sure Amazon is now handling sales tax on seller behalf in even more states. So you may want to find/check that information online.
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
in the article you write that you sell in the US.
However, in one of the comments you replied that you don’t sell there?
What is true?
Pascal
Hi Pascal,
Thanks for your comment.
I did sell on Amazon.com for a while (at the time of writing this article), but then, few months later I quit.
Sorry for the mix-up! 😉
Andrew
Dear Andrew,
Hello.
Many thanks for another, very detailed explanation.
I have one question just to be clear:
If i selling on com as FBM – should i care about US taxes too?
Many thanks, Thomas
If you ship from outside the US, then, no.
Hi Andrew,
We have just been linked to a US contact to send our stock and begin to set up US FBA. I would like to ask if you have any knowledge of using amazon to fulfill not only amazon.com orders but also act as a distributor for selling via our own web-site for US sales, as well as acting as a drop-shipping agent as well. Would this be possible, or do you have any knowledge on this?
Hi Gregory,
Thanks for your comment.
Yes, that is possible and very easy to do. In short, from your seller account/inventory, you can send items to any address you want – even if the order didn’t come through Amazon.
Amazon’s pricing is not very good, but to get started, this is a great/easy/quick way to start selling outside Amazon, but keeping distribution at the same place.
Thanks,
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
I am looking for advice on the sales tax issue of selling in the USA from the UK, via amazon. Is tax-jar the only company that can help or can you point me in the direction of anyone else? What does your company do about this issue? Do you file tax returns for each state that doesn’t have Marketplace Facilitator Legislation?
Thanks for your great article and help!
Vee
Hi Vee,
I don’t sell on Amazon.com anymore. Basically I did quite because of competition AND the whole Sales Tax issue.
I don’t really have anyone to recommend apart from Tax Jar.
Thanks,
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
I don’t understand why you’ve quitted selling on Amazon.com because of Sales Tax situation. We’re going to expand internationally to USA and the tax situation looks perfect there – Amazon pays our Sales Taxes automatically in most of states. Or is there any issue and the situation doesn’t look so well? Could you help please?
Best regards
Hi Bruno,
Thanks for your comment.
The competition was the main reason why I quit selling on Amazon.com
As for the Sales Tax – at the time I was selling, Amazon collected Sales Tax in only 6 or 7 states. If they do it now for almost EVERY state, then I guess this problem has been fixed now.
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
I am in the same pickle as many people here who have asked about utility bills as proof of address.
If the registered address of your Ltd is with your accountant, and this basically means that you don’t have utility bills in your company’s name – does that mean you can’t verify your account with Amazon? Or should I put it this way – do you definitely need to have utility bills in your company’s name in the registration process or are the bank statement and certificate of incorporation enough?
Thanks
Hi Andrea,
Thanks for your comment.
You should contact Amazon seller support and ask them what alternatives they accept – maybe a letter from HMRC or something else can be used.
Thanks,
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
I’ve been sourcing through your blog, trying to find an answer to my questions. Unfortunately, no luck, and thought I should contact you through here. So here goes:
I am from Europe, wanting to sell on the US market. Now, I know about shipping from China, using a freight forwarder and their warehouse et cetera.
But what about manufacturing in the US itself? Since the stock can’t be shipped to me, where do I have to send my order to?
Hope you know the answer.
Leonie
Hi Leonie,
Thanks for your comment.
IF you source goods from the US and want to sell them on Amazon.com (US), you can simply send from your supplier directly to Amazon, as there’s no importing procedure involved. You will have to send instructions to your supplier on how to properly label items/boxes/pallet, but apart from that, there’s no need to use any extra/3rd party.
Thanks,
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
I want to ask that if we plan on selling in the US market using FBA, Is it better to open a UK LTD Company or a US LLC? I belong to a country which is not allowed to sell on amazon so I have to register a company in partnership with my relative in US. Since my relatives are based in both US and UK, both options are there.
Is there a additional VAT charge on using UK LTD company selling in US market?
Hi Umnair,
Thanks for your comment.
I’m sorry, but I really wouldn’t know which one is better for you. YOu would have to compare all the tax issues/benefits/advantages for each location to make the right decision.
BUT most likely, IF you plan on selling in the US, you will be better off by setting up the company there – ideally in a low tax state (Delaware etc.), which will further benefit your tax savings.
Thanks,
Andrew
Thank you for your reply Andrew.
My relative is based in Dallas and we want to use this LLC for the sole purpose of doing business on Amazon. Does it really matter which state we register our LLC ? Like we are planning on registering in Texas as the relative lives there and it would be easier to open a bank account and file taxes there.
I don’t know in detail the tax differences between States in the US – your relative can probably help you more with this.
Andrew
hello andrew, hope you are in the best of health! i am actually planning to start up on amazon living in the uk, so i think uk market is best for me ( as mentioned in your blog) just wanted to ask while setting up a seller central account, is it necessary to have a company ? by that i mean do you really need to have a registered company in the uk, can you not sell as a sole trader? i was informed if you are looking to sell in the US, only then you can do it as a sole trader and not while getting into the uk market, that has slowed the whole process for me and i am kind of terrified now. Setting up a whole company at the age of 23 with a new born to look after seems like a task, but of what i have found out so far is that this is a major requirement , your help will mean the world, look forward to hearing back
Hi Roma,
Thanks for your comment.
No, you don’t need a company to sell on Amazon UK – Sole Trader status is fine. Just make sure you have your UTR number ready when opening account as Amazon asks for it.
Thanks,
Andrew
Awesome article, step by step, crystal clear, and also I was thinking about the exact same things that I need a company in the US, need a bank account, etc. So I was not planning to sell there in the coming future. So really thanks for all the information and your time to put all of it together like this. My question is, the date of the post is 2018. Things are changing quite fast nowadays, so I was wondering if whatever written above still valid or there are changes that we need to watch out?
Cheers
Hi Han,
Thanks for your comment.
To be honest, I don’t know what the latest is as I don’t sell in the US anymore. You still don’t need a company or bank account in the US, that’s for sure. But you should do some research on what’s the latest regarding the Sales Tax situation as that is the BIGGEST problem of all, for anyone planning to sell on Amazon US platform.
Thanks,
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
what exactly were the sales tax problems that made you quit selling in the us?
Pascal
Hi Pascal,
By law, you need to register for sales tax in dozens of states in the US, do monthly returns and pay that tax.
It’s a very expensive and complex process which I didn’t want to get involved with.
Thanks,
Andrew
Hello, Thanks for the advice.
As a new seller based in the UK, I have now opened a USA account and linked them as you mentioned. So I have stock in AMamzon’s UK warehouses.
Is it possible to sell to US customers from FBA stock based in the UK? I understand they will pay something on the postage. This would avoid sending stock for FBA USA which currently seems complicated and expensive. In the Amazon Seller Central Shipping options, it allows you to select USA shipping, hence my confusion.
Thanks in advance
Did you experience any issues transfering/sharing UK listings with the USA marketplace. I have listings with some reviews which i would like to transfer over. Im having no help from amazon support implementing this. How did you do this?
Hi Tim,
No, unfortunately, it is not possible o sell on the Amazon.com using UK FBA stock.
You can use the FBM method to do this and send orders directly from the UK to the US-based customers, BUT:
1) Shipping costs will be very high;
2) On Amazon.com, it will show super long delivery times, like 2 to 4 weeks, which will put off many buyers.
So, the only way to properly sell on Amazon.com is to use FBA in the US.
Thanks,
Andrew
Someone in US is teaching me about FBA and they are asking me to get a reseller certificate. What is this and how do I get it?
Hi Robbie,
You should probably ask the person who is teaching you that stuff 🙂
But in general, a reseller certificate is something that BRANDS could issue to their re-sellers. If you have your own brand, this is not something you really need to worry about.
Andrew
Hey Andy, I was wondering if the same tax obligations regarding income tax applied to selling in Canada? do you know anything about it? thank you mate!
Hi Mike,
Thanks for your comment.
I don’t talk about income tax here, but the Sales Tax. No, sorry – I don’t know what is the situation with this in Canada. But as far as I know, there’s a federal tax of 5% in Canada on most goods and services and then some regions have extra local sales tax on top of that. But I haven’t researched this properly.
Thanks,
Andrew
thank you so much Andy!
You’re welcome Mike! 🙂
Hi Andrew,
Do you use Woodland Group for your freight forwarding from china to the UK ?
If you could recommend any good UK companies that would be great.
Cheers
Lois
Yes, and I recommend them to my customers too.
Hi,
Do you have other advisory blogs on on how to start up on Amazon FBA please ?
Many thanks
Lois
Hi Lois,
I have a 20+ hour-long video course on how to start a successful Amazon FBA business:
https://www.amazonsharks.com
Thanks,
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
Thanks for the swift response do you also know if Amazon US now pay for the multiple state tax ?
Many thanks
Lois
Hi Andrew,
I have enjoyed reading some of the comments on your blog. I am a seasoned seller on Amazon.com…………..or so I thought. When it comes to import duty do you know if we should be declaring the price we paid for the product for or the price we will be selling the item for. I have had two opposing responses from two different reliable sources.
Hi Jim,
Thanks for your comment.
One thing is for sure – one of the advisors you have is NOT reliable! 🙂
Import duty is calculated on the SOURCING price of course, not the price you will be selling item for. No one at Customs cares about what you will sell your items for – they only need a commercial invoice to see at what price you bought the item, how much you paid for shipping and insurance.
Hope this helps Jim!
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
Thank you so much for the article and for sharing lots of really useful information. I am exactly in the same situation as you were – UK resident with LTD company registered in the UK and now I want to launch in the US as well. I wanted to ask you one question- did you have to apply for US EIN number in order to be able to start selling in the US and import products without any issues?
Thanks a lot!
Hi Paloma,
Thanks for your comment.
Yes, I did have to get the EIN number. My shipping company (DHL) arranged this on behalf of me, I just send them a POA and some completed form.
Thanks,
Andrew
As a UK seller, I am using Currencies Direct for receiving money from Amazon.de, I have just launched my Amazon.com account and I am confused with the money transfer. There are 4 options
1) Amazon ( I want to keep the money as their original currencies, to avoid exchange rates loss because I send money in GBP, Euro and USD. it is easy to use Amazon exchange but it costs me around %5-%6 receiving Euro convert GBP send again Euro or USD)
2) Currencies Direct : I can only transfer money to my bank account, it has also lost
3) Tranferwise:
4) Payoneer:
Do you have any comparison for these. I know you suggest Transferwise but is it still your favorite one currently?
Thanks
Hi Zeki,
Thanks for your comment.
Yes, Transferwise – I still use it and recommend to others. I don’t really see point in looking for alternatives as it does the job as it is. I don’t think you need to over-complicate things here.
Thanks,
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
Thank you for your quick response. I’ve just applied to Transferwise.
Bests
Good stuff! 🙂
Hi Andrew,
We have been trying to open an account in US Amazon.However we keep receiving this message.
“Please provide the following updated documents and confirm there is a valid credit card on file:
–Utility bill with name and address visible
–Business license
–If you have active listings, include copies of invoices, receipts, contracts or delivery orders from your supplier issued in the last 90 days.”
I am not sure what is business license, can I sent to them my LTD documents like Certificate of incorporation ?. my utility bill need to be on business address which is UK, or on register company address ? Thanks in avance.
Hi Kevin,
Thanks for your comment.
Yes, you should send the Certificate of incorporation.
Utility bill address should match the address in your company registration documents, in the UK, yes.
Thanks,
Andrew
Hi,
Did you have to take out indemnity insurance to sell on Amazon.com?
I read somewhere that it was a prerequisite.
Thanks
Matt.
Hi Matt,
Sorry, haven’t heard about it…. but I don’t sell on Amazon.com anymore, so don’t know the latest news/requirements there.
Thanks,
Andrew
Andrew
Can I ask why you no longer sell on Amazon.com?
Hi Gordon,
The competition for my product on Amazon.com was simply too high – I could not advertise it properly due to super high click costs.
Thanks,
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
Thanks a lot for the invaluable info, this post saved me months of search regarding selling on amazon USA marketplace from europe.
One question, do you have any updated data regarding how much will be the total tax (and other similar costs by US government) on imported items from Belgium ?in particular Books, this will be very helpful in the creation of business model for me as a beginner.
Many Thanks in advance,
Mousa
Hi Mousa,
Thanks for your comment.
I don’t know what the import duty for books is in the US, but you should be able to find that number online, doing a Google search! 🙂
Andrew
Hi Andrew 🙂 as a Belgian citizen, awesome information, super handy!
I have an additional question.
If I want to ship my goods to a US FBA warehouse, which warehouse should I chose?
Hi Bruno,
Thanks for your comment.
By default, you can’t choose which warehouse to send goods to – Amazon will automatically assign a warehouse to each and every shipment you create in your seller account.
Alternatively, you can pay extra and pick which warehouse you want to send goods to. More information you will find here:
https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/external/200735910
Thanks,
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
I understand the FBA Inventory Placement Service will allow you to ship your inventory to one warehouse only. Amazon will then distribute the inventory to other warehouses as they wish.
Is there any way to ask Amazon to keep all of your inventory in one FBA warehouse only? Ideally a warehouse of your choice?
Many thanks, G.
Hi Geoff,
No, unfortunately that is not possible.
It would be great of course as then the whole Sales Tax situation becomes much easier to manage, but no, there’s no such option.
Thanks,
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
super kind of you to have replied to me that fast.
But to which US FBA warehouse should I ship my whole stock?
(I understand that Amazon picks/packs/send it to their appropriate warehouse)
But if I’m using FBA, I should sent my whole stock to a certain US FBA warehouse….
Hi Bruno,
I have a question to you regarding selling on amazon USA, did you succeed in opening a seller account, I have some difficulties in doing so (I also live in Belgium) and would appreciate if you can share with me some hints
Amazon will give you the address of the warehouse when you create the Shipment plan in your account.
Thanks,
Andrew
Hi Andrew, thanks for the helpful article. My question is – is it possible to use one’s UK FBA stock for Amazon to fulfill orders placed on Amazon.com?
I notice the odd FBA shipment going to the States (having been ordered on Amazon.co.uk), so surely if I create and upload my entire inventory to Amazon.com and share the same SKUs, the items will become available on Amazon.com (with the appropriate shipping charge and lead time?)
Thanks!
Hi William,
No, it doesn’t work like that…. you can only fulfil EU orders from Amazon.co.uk
To sell on Amazon.com, you either have to send stock to the US OR fulfil orders on your own (ship them on your own).
Thanks,
Andrew
Hi Again Andrew,
Sorry for another question as i couldn’t see in the blog (maybe i missed it) Whats the best recommended way to pay the suppliers in china/Alibaba or similar ? see different opinions on paypal or escrow. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Adam
Hi Adam,
Depends on the order size, but IF supplier accepts PayPal, I usually go with that. PayPal has it’s own protection and scammers in general don’t take PayPal (as PayPal will side with the buyer if things go wrong).
Next option is payment using credit card via the Alibaba (Trade Assurance order).
And the last on the list would be normal wire transfer directly to supplier (there’s no protection whatsoever).
Thanks,
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
Has there been any update on this topic since the article was written?
I’d love to expand to use FBA on Amazon.com, it just appears impossible to do so due to the need to register and manage the sales tax.
Is there an option that would provide a way to service the Canadian market perhaps?
Hi Geoff,
Thanks for stopping by.
Not much of an update, no. Amazon now handles State Tax in almost 10 States now (the last number I saw), but many States are still left out of that list.
Sorry, don’t know much about the situation in Canada…
For the latest news on the US Sales Tax issue, you should regularly check this website:
https://blog.taxjar.com
Thanks,
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
We are from the UK and and have a US LLC/EIN setup and looking to start our journey on the US market. What would the process be if we want to do the same as this article but flipped as we are starting in the US but with the chance to look at UK/EU in the future. Would we need to have a LTD in the UK as well when we create the UK account ?
Thanks
Adam
Hi Adam,
No, you won’t need a UK company to sell in the UK (your US company will be ok). Just like you didn’t need a US company to sell in the US – you could simply set-up a UK based Ltd. company and use that on all Amazon marketplaces.
Thanks,
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
Great article!
Is the process the same for selling in the US? Keywords, select a product, ppc…
Thanks!
Hi Alex,
Yes, the formula is basically same for any Amazon marketplace.
You will have to adapt best PPC strategies though based on the competition you deal with.
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
If your a non US person like myself in the UK, how do you purchase the items you wish to send in the prep centres etc.. as i have seen a number of people who cant purchase from US suppliers from international grounds etc with cancelled orders etc.. is there a way this can be done ? i would like to try out FBA in the US using OA mainly being in the UK and maybe wholesale but worried about making purchases in the US.
Thanks
Adam
Hi Adam,
Thanks for your comment.
I’m sorry, but I don’t have any experience with RA in the US so can’t really help with that…
Thanks,
Andrew
Thanks Andrew, Do you not purchase from the US suppliers for FBA there ? thats all i meant as in general i believe its difficult to purchase as an international.
Thanks again
Adam
Hi Adam,
No, I don’t. I don’t do RA so don’t deal with US suppliers.
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
Thanks for some great advice on your blog!
Me and my friend are starting to sell beauty products on Amazon US FBA and we have a question. We are from Slovenia and would start selling as an independent traders or individual persons, not VAT registered at first. If everything goes well and our product starts making profit, we would register for VAT and as a company.
Do you think this the correct way to start? Or should we register for VAT in Slovenia at once we start selling Amazon FBA in the US?
Many thanks for your reply!
Hi Mia,
Thanks for your comment.
You don’t need to be VAT registered to start selling on Amazon US, no. But you could do that anyways and take advantage of it – you won’t have to charge VAT on sales (as those sales are outside the EU market), BUT you will be able to claim back VAT paid on expenses. Yes, it will require more accounting resources, but the monetary benefits are definitely there.
Thanks,
Andrew
Hi,
had to tell this is one of the best threads/articles on net for selling on Amazon.com from Europe!
Now questions:
1. We are registered VAT company from Slovenia we will ship directly from Slovenia to US customers BUT we would like not to use any amazon warhouse or anything. Is that ok ? Slovenia is liable to sell on Amazon.com we are in the process of creating account verification. For shipping we are using DHL Express services.
2. Does we need to apply to any Sales Tax in US. Or we need just to take care of tax threshold for every US country that they set it. We are at the process of W8 form verification, have some problems there, hope we will managed it in some way.
Hope for some answers.
Hi Danijel,
Thanks for your comment.
1) Yes, that is ok and you can do that.
2) No, you don’t need to register for Sales Tax until you reach distance selling threshold for States.
Andrew
Thank you for your reply!
Do I need to set anything special on behalf of Amazon Seller Central?
Andrew, found this post researching FBA amazon selling and I couldn’t have been more impressed! Thank you so much for all this info. It’s allowed me to build a checklist.
I do have a question(s) that might not be purely within your expertise but it’s worth a shot! If you would be able to have a read and share some thoughts I’d be super grateful.
Here’s my situation:
1. I am based in UK, not yet registered as a business or as Amazon seller.
2. Together with a friend, based in Australia, we have a product and want to partner up selling it on Amazon US and, in time on UK and Australian markets.
3. The reason for starting with US, although I am aware from your replies to some comments that you recommend tackling local markets first, is that, even though we’re not US-based, we both have a very solid social media following with vast majority of our audience based in US.
3. My friend’s already set up the LLC in Australia and an Aussie Amazon Seller’s account (I am a little later to the party and initially he intended to go it alone). That’s, however, still a flexible status, depending on what we decide to do.
I am looking for advice on how I can form the company with him in the most cost-efficient way.
The main questions for me are around the company set-up:
1. Should we set up an LLC or even an LLP in the US as one main company/partnership?
2. (or) Since we’re both planning to sell on our local markets in the future (and it might, as you mention here turn out to be an easier target) – do we need to set up an LLC or LLP each in our own country of residence (COMPANY UK & COMPANY AU), make each other 50% share partners and deal with profit loss accounts separately splitting the profits from UK and AU?
3. Would we be better off setting up LLP companies each in our own country of residence (as above) but setting a “COMPANY US” as a holding company?
I would be grateful or any answers and thoughts you might share!
All the best!
Hi Filip,
Thanks for your comment.
Yeah, sorry – this is too much for me! 🙂 I’m not a tax advisor or accountant and def. can’t consult on such complex company set-up schemes.
But in a nutshell it all comes down top cost – BEST/SAFEST way would be to set-up three companies in all 3 countries where you each own 50%, that’s it. But this set-up also means doing books in 3 countries!!! That can get expensive real fast.
A much cheaper way to do this would be to set-up the company/partnership just in one country (say UK) and use that for all 3 marketplaces. Then all your books stays in same place. Or do it in the US or Australia if you have “better connections” there.
You would also need to research laws in the US, UK and Australia on non-residents setting up a partnership company, maybe there are rules that prohibit you from doing it.
Amazon won’t care really whatever you use just one company or three different companies, as long as you have all the paperwork, proof of address etc.
Hope this helps!
Thanks,
Andrew
Thanks, Andrew!
Haha – I know, I’ve offloaded all my troubles there! Sorry!
Thank you for taking the time – much appreciated and definitely steered me in the right direction.
Best,
Filip
Hi Andrew great feedback,
I have just begun my FBA journey and using Hellium10 for my product research along with other techniques I have been struggling to find anything making decent money or have no competition, personally it seams harder than US to find a product. I have been told to concentrate on the uk market as its not as saturated, however I am REALLY struggling to find a product. Having looked at the us market I may have found 2 or 3 products with potential but clueless where to start. Any advice for a complete novice, to date I have started a Ltd company and created a brand and logo.
Hi Paul,
Thanks for your comment.
Unfortunately I can’t tell you what to do in a comment reply like this, as it’s not that simple. You need to LEARN how all of this works.
Strat watching tutorials on YouTube, read blogs, join seller forums etc etc. and simply get educated. I’m afraid there’s no way around it as you will be competing with very knowledgable people so you need to keep your game up! If you don’t have time to do it all DIY style, check out by step by step training program here:
https://www.amazonsharks.com
Thanks,
Andrew