How to Sell on Amazon UK in 2022
At Jungle Scout, we often talk about how to research, market, and sell products on the Amazon marketplace in the US, but how about doing the same thing across the pond?
Selling on Amazon UK is an excellent opportunity to reach another large audience with yours 261 million unique visitors per month!
Existing Amazon US sellers looking to expand and grow their business should consider venturing into the European market to reach millions of new potential customers.
Corresponding Jungle Scout vendor condition report, Amazon UK is among the top 3 most popular international third-party marketplaces; Additionally, 32% of sellers conduct their business on more than one Amazon marketplace.
Whether you are based in Europe and looking to sell products on Amazon, or an aspiring Amazon seller in the US looking to grow your current Amazon business, you’ve come to the right place!
In this article we go into:
- How to create a seller account on Amazon UK
- The differences between each sales plan
- What it costs to sell on Amazon UK
- VAT compliance
- Differences between selling on Amazon US and Amazon UK
- How to research products to sell on Amazon UK
How to create a seller account on Amazon UK
This section covers everything you need to know about creating an Amazon seller account in the UK.
To start, visit the Become an Amazon seller page from Amazon.de.
As with other Amazon marketplaces, Amazon UK has two selling plans to choose from: Individual and professional.
Individually:
The Individual plan is for sellers who are unsure of what to sell or don’t plan to sell a lot each month. This plan has no monthly fee, but you pay an additional £0.75 per item sold.
Choose the individual plan if:
- You sell less than 35 items per month (if you sell more than 35 items per month, the fees per sale will exceed the monthly fee for the professional selling plan)
- You’re still deciding what to sell or don’t have much inventory
- They do not intend to advertise or use any advanced selling tools that Amazon offers to professional sellers
Specialist:
The Professional plan is perfect for anyone who is serious about selling on Amazon and plans to sell more than 35 items per month on the platform. With this plan, you pay a flat fee of £25/month.
Choose the Professional plan if you:
- Plan to sell more than 35 items per month
- want to use Amazon Advertising
- Want access to advanced selling tools and reports
- Want access to the Buy Box
- You want to sell products in restricted categories
After you’ve decided which plan is best for you and your business, let’s begin the registration process.
What you need to sign up for an Amazon UK account
To complete registration with Amazon UK you will need:
- A business email address or an Amazon customer account
- A chargeable credit card (international cards are also accepted)
- A valid passport or ID card. Identity verification protects sellers and customers
- Company registration details, including VAT number (we discuss VAT in a later section)
On the Selling on Amazon page, click Register.
Enter the login or your customer account or create a new account with a new email.
Next, select where your business is located, what type of business it is, and what your name or company name is.
If you don’t have a registered business, select None, I’m an individual. Otherwise, click the option that best describes your business, then click Agree and Continue.
The following steps involve entering personal information, including:
- Country of Citizenship
- your physical address
- phone number
- Date of birth
- Billing and bank account information
- Business name and sales plan
Once you have entered all of this required information, Amazon will need to verify your account before approving your account for sale. Once approved, you’re good to go list items for sale!
Shipping methods for Amazon UK
Sellers on the European marketplaces can lever Fulfilled by Amazon (Fulfilled by Amazon) or you can take care of the packaging and shipping yourself Merchant Fulfillment (FBM).
Fulfilled by Amazon
FBA is used by most sellers because it saves time and increases convenience. With Fulfillment by Amazon, you ship your items to an Amazon fulfillment center, and Amazon employees pick, pack, and ship the orders for you once a customer makes a purchase. Amazon also handles customer service on your behalf for all FBA orders.
Another major advantage of using FBA over FBM is that all of your products are eligible for Prime shipping. Prime members are more likely to purchase Prime eligible products as they receive their package in just 1-2 days.
You can also use your FBA inventory to fulfill orders on all European marketplaces.
Merchant Fulfillment
FBM means the seller manages their own warehousing, fulfillment and customer service. Some sellers prefer to use FBM because avoiding it can save them money FBA Fees and incoming shipping costs. Many FBM vendors use a Third Party Fulfillment Service providers to store and ship their products instead of using Amazon.
For a more in-depth comparison of these fulfillment methods, please visit our Comparison Guide Amazon FBA vs. FBM.
If you are an international seller from the US, you are probably using the FBA method.
How much does it cost to sell on Amazon UK?
You know what it costs for each selling plan, but let’s go through all the other fees you’ll encounter as an Amazon UK seller.
agency fees
The referral fee is the “commission” you pay to Amazon after each item you sell. The referral fee depends on the category you are selling in and is usually between 8% and 15%.
This fee is paid by all Amazon sellers regardless of their fulfillment method.
Amazon collects its referral fees automatically after each sale on the marketplace. You will receive the sales price of the item minus the 15% commission (and any shipping costs if sold by FBM or fulfillment fees above Fulfilled by Amazon).
Here is the current fee structure for Amazon UK:
FBA Fulfillment Fees
If you choose to use FBA to fulfill your Amazon orders, you will be charged additional fees to cover warehousing, picking, packing, and shipping costs. This is a flat fee based on the size and weight of the products sold.
To find out what the FBA fees would be for your specific product, please visit The Amazon Europe fee card.
To determine your potential FBA fees, you can also use Amazon’s free one Earnings Calculator.
storage fees
In addition to fulfillment fees, FBA sellers must also incur monthly storage fees based on daily average volume (measured in cubic feet) for the space your inventory occupies in Amazon fulfillment centers.
VAT compliance as an Amazon UK seller
If you sell on Amazon UK or any other European marketplace, you will need to register for a VAT number in each European country where you sell.
VAT stands for Value Added Tax and is a tax that sellers add to the price of their products and pass on to national tax authorities.
Amazon states that it is the seller’s responsibility to ensure they are VAT compliant in each European country where products are sold.
What are the VAT rates for each country?
If you are a non-EU seller, you may need to have one Tax representation Register for VAT in certain European countries.
If you are unsure about the VAT registration process, you can use Amazon VAT Services Registration required in each country.
Visit Amazon’s helpful VAT Resources page to learn more about VAT compliance.
Use one seller account for all European marketplaces
Once you’ve signed up as a seller on Amazon UK, Amazon makes it very easy for you to list your products on all five European marketplaces. With a single Europe account, you can sell on Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.fr, Amazon.de, Amazon.it and Amazon.es.
The best part is that you can fulfill orders for all five marketplaces from just one country. If your home country is the UK, any FBA orders you receive on another marketplace will be filled with this inventory.
Amazon also offers free listing translation tools to ensure your listings are in the correct language for each country.
Visit Amazon for more information on listing across Europe Sell across Europe resource page.
How to research products to sell on Amazon UK
Now that you’re ready to start selling on Amazon UK, how do you figure out what to sell? Well, if you’re an existing brand owner expanding your business, you’ve got that covered. For the new sellers, you can use Jungle Scout Extensive keyword to do and product research to find the perfect product to launch.
That’s correct! Jungle Scout works on Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon Italy, Amazon Spain and Amazon France.
Our powerful and accurate research tools will help you find the needle in the haystack: renewal, product database, opportunity finder, keyword scout, Category Trendsand rank Tracker.
We have an incredible Product research video series where we go through different categories and show you step by step how to find a profitable product to sell on Amazon – no matter which marketplace.
Check out the first episode!
Need product inspiration? Check out our list 1,000 best selling products from Amazon UK.
Ready to sell on Amazon UK?
We hope this article answers all of your questions about starting your business on Amazon UK. Anyone can easily start their Amazon business in Europe, whether you are a local or an international seller from the US.
Do you have any questions, let us know in the comments!
Want to learn more about how to start, grow and run your Amazon business with Jungle Scout? Click the Learn More button below!