Food and Beverage not eligible for Pan-EU, but EFN price hike liquidating our company. What to do?
Hi all,
Just to explain for starters, we know the Amazon system inside and out, and have frequented the forums in the past with replies here and there trying to help out fellow sellers with a few tricks that we have learned. But this time, it seems that there is nothing left up our sleeve. We are a company that deals with Food and Beverage products, which is probably the only category that is not eligible for Pan Europe fba. Most of our products are in the range of 20 pounds/euros, and the EFN price hike just bumped our crossborder shipping rates from 3 pounds to 9.20 per product. We understand that Amazon wants to force sellers into Pan EU fba so that they can be more effective in terms of warehouse management and customer satisfaction. That is all nice, and we would love to play along, but we cant. Our products have multilanguage labels, comply to all standards, so shipping them to customers via all the EU markets is not a problem. But, we cannot do so, as Amazon does not allow Food and Beverage products to enroll.
The EFN fees are killing us. Seriously. We are working with a loss now on every purchase, and pricing upwards is not really an option as there is a standardized price range for all our products, and moving up 5+ pounds or euros per item is just not an option, at least not on 20 pound products.
To be honest, we know that we are probably running a dead end, because we have really tried to think of everything and anything that would resolve this. But still giving it a try - what can be done? Is there anything anyone knows that could help? Is there an option to get an exemption for food and beverage for paneu fba, or an exception for fees for products in the Food category that cannot participate in PAN EU fba? (this would require an official policy from Amazon, so probably no chance, but overall would be the smartest thing to do).
We have done years on Amazon, but for the first time we are really backed into a corner. Jobs, families, everything directly influenced by our (un)success. Really not a nice place to be in, cannot even describe the nerves and daily sense of helplessness. If we could go back ten years and tell our younger versions one thing, it would probably be do not build a business on someone elses platform. Do not put yourself in a position where you have to rely on the decision and acts of someone else for you to be successfull. Lesson learned. But what to do now? Before we pull the plug, just wanted to see if there is anyone out there in this community that would have any idea that could turn this around.
Thank you all
Food and Beverage not eligible for Pan-EU, but EFN price hike liquidating our company. What to do?
Hi all,
Just to explain for starters, we know the Amazon system inside and out, and have frequented the forums in the past with replies here and there trying to help out fellow sellers with a few tricks that we have learned. But this time, it seems that there is nothing left up our sleeve. We are a company that deals with Food and Beverage products, which is probably the only category that is not eligible for Pan Europe fba. Most of our products are in the range of 20 pounds/euros, and the EFN price hike just bumped our crossborder shipping rates from 3 pounds to 9.20 per product. We understand that Amazon wants to force sellers into Pan EU fba so that they can be more effective in terms of warehouse management and customer satisfaction. That is all nice, and we would love to play along, but we cant. Our products have multilanguage labels, comply to all standards, so shipping them to customers via all the EU markets is not a problem. But, we cannot do so, as Amazon does not allow Food and Beverage products to enroll.
The EFN fees are killing us. Seriously. We are working with a loss now on every purchase, and pricing upwards is not really an option as there is a standardized price range for all our products, and moving up 5+ pounds or euros per item is just not an option, at least not on 20 pound products.
To be honest, we know that we are probably running a dead end, because we have really tried to think of everything and anything that would resolve this. But still giving it a try - what can be done? Is there anything anyone knows that could help? Is there an option to get an exemption for food and beverage for paneu fba, or an exception for fees for products in the Food category that cannot participate in PAN EU fba? (this would require an official policy from Amazon, so probably no chance, but overall would be the smartest thing to do).
We have done years on Amazon, but for the first time we are really backed into a corner. Jobs, families, everything directly influenced by our (un)success. Really not a nice place to be in, cannot even describe the nerves and daily sense of helplessness. If we could go back ten years and tell our younger versions one thing, it would probably be do not build a business on someone elses platform. Do not put yourself in a position where you have to rely on the decision and acts of someone else for you to be successfull. Lesson learned. But what to do now? Before we pull the plug, just wanted to see if there is anyone out there in this community that would have any idea that could turn this around.
Thank you all
7 replies
Seller_EHYOwAkoZV3Hb
Sorry to hear this.
Obvious question but have you tried to fulfil yourselves or is that not an option at all?
Seller_IrrT3qqjFRDov
Yes there is a solution to this. For what you wish to sell in a foreign market, just send it straight to the relevant country’ FBA warehouse which will avoid EFN fees.
ie if you wish to sell it on Amazon.de, go into the UK site and create an FBA shipment as normal. Choose Germany as your delivery country and it will allocate you a warehouse in Germany. Use UPS the partner carrier to send it there, it works out at costing hardly any more if you ship 3 or more boxes together.
That way you avoid all EFN fees, since sales on Amazon.de will be fulfilled from German warehouses.
It would mean you would need to manage stock for 5 countries, but is way cheaper than EFN fees. You dont need pan-Euro to do this.
Seller_xsrgXB9SyT6WI
I hope this doesn’t sound too harsh, but when I read posts like this I wonder why sellers feel that it is their right to be automatically profitable in another marketplace, in comparison to local sellers?
Surely there is always going to be increased costs if it is not main marketplace and other sellers locally have an advantage both locally in terms of postage, but also taxes and easier processes.
It sounds like your product might be around 4kg or so? i know Amazon have increased prices, but have you seen how much it costs to fulfil a product yourself for that amount? Not to mention stock control across borders and self fulfillment time. I would imagine it’s slightly more than Amazon charge, unless you have serious volume.
I don’t know whether you are selling your own branded product, or someone elees (hence local competition issues)? If it’s your own, could you partner with a local company and you wholesale to them and they do the selling instead if the product is still viable?
