Are you ready for international marketplace expansion? Industry leaders from AVASK Accounting, eComEngine, Global e-Commerce Experts, Payoneer, and YLT Translations discuss the opportunity of expanding to the EU in this webinar.
Watch the webinar recording to learn:
Are you ready for international marketplace expansion? It’s an important question, especially if you’re trying to grow your global presence. eComEngine hosted several industry leaders in a webinar to discuss the opportunity of expanding to the EU. Panelists included Tom Meek and Melanie Shabangu from AVASK Accounting, Andy Hooper of Global e-Commerce Experts, TJ Hyland from Payoneer, and Jana Krekic of YLT Translations.
Selling on the Amazon marketplace in the United States might already have you working around the clock, so before you jump into Europe, you might be wondering if it’s worth the effort. According to Tom Meek, there are three main aspects to consider — market opportunities, market size and stats, and population zone.
“If you compare Europe and the US from a population point of view and you group all of those countries within Europe, you're looking at 750 million people, compared to the US at 330 million,” Meek said. “The opportunity is absolutely massive in Europe as a whole, as a territory in comparison to the US...it’s definitely worth getting into.”
Meek went on to explain that with Amazon EU, you’ll have the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain, and the Netherlands, which is a newer marketplace, as well as the soon-to-be-added Swedish marketplace. “You could dive into each market and look at even the holiday periods, for example...open yourselves up to those larger sales periods where you could drive more sales,” he said.
With a better understanding of how much your Amazon business could grow in the European marketplace, you might already be wondering about how expanding could impact tax obligations. This could be particularly important to consider in light of how Brexit is affecting everything.
Shabangu expects that selling thresholds will change by December 31, 2020. As a result, if you’re holding inventory in the UK, it will only be taxable in the UK. “We're going to be deemed as a third country,” she said. “So ensure that you've got a VAT number in the country where you're going to be storing your product in Europe, because that will be triggering the VAT.”
“There will also be distance selling thresholds if you've got inventory in countries like Germany or France and you're selling in between European countries,” Shabangu warned. “So those distance selling thresholds, they will still be available.”
Even if you’re very familiar with the rules and regulations in the United States, you could end up violating the ones in place for Amazon EU. It’s very important to take the time to ensure that your products and processes are compliant to avoid suspension — or worse.
Andy Hooper said that product compliance is “one of the things that a lot of people get suspended for.” He explained that Amazon has become more strict about this in recently months.
Overall, there are three things you’ll need to keep in mind — what regulations the product falls under, the ingredients of the product itself, and whether the product is actually compliant with EU regulations. Hooper warned against just sending US products and hoping for the best. Make sure the product label is compliant before you even start expanding.
When moving into the Amazon EU marketplace, you’ll need to think about localization. What this means, essentially, is that your products need to be appropriate and usable for local customers. You’ll have to put real effort into translating product listings and ensuring that you’re respecting cultural differences.
As Jana Krekic explained, “People do speak English in Europe, but it is more efficient to have your listings translated before you start selling on international marketplaces.” This is because your keywords will rank higher and be more searchable in the native language. The most effective product listing may even contain a “mixture of both English and the target language.”
It’s not enough to use Google Translate or similar tools, however. It’s best to hire a local, native-speaker who is experienced at writing Amazon product listings. You’ll be better able to reach your customers and avoid any unnecessary confusion.
Another very important factor to weigh when considering whether to expand into Amazon’s European marketplace is money, of course. Is there a way that sellers can ensure that they are getting the most favorable exchange rate when doing business internationally?
TJ Hyland explained, “When you’re selling on a marketplace internationally, you are going to get paid in whatever currency that is. Whether that’s pounds, euros, Canadian dollars, Mexican pesos...one of the easy solutions to that is to have an alternative such as Payoneer to help bring your funds that you earn in foreign currency, back to US dollars.”
Hyland stressed the importance of making sure you pay your VAT obligations. Using the right service can take the guesswork out of the process. Payoneer, for example, allows sellers to make a VAT payment, supplier payment, or a payment to a vendor by giving them the flexibility to use their funds as needed.
This recap has covered a lot, but the Going Global webinar tackles so much more. Here are some of the topics you’ll want to learn more about:
Don’t miss this opportunity to explore the possibility of growing your business by expanding to the Amazon EU marketplace!
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