Selling in Europe advice - Some stock show and some not
Hi,
I am trying to expand my store across Europe and have signed up to Pan EU.
I have noticed some of my stock is showing as in stock even though I have not sent any stock to Europe (They are in stock in UK FBA) but other variants of the same items are not showing in stock (But are in stock in the UK)
Can anyone advise me why this is and what i need to do to get all my stock showing as in stock?
I hope the above made sense.
Selling in Europe advice - Some stock show and some not
Hi,
I am trying to expand my store across Europe and have signed up to Pan EU.
I have noticed some of my stock is showing as in stock even though I have not sent any stock to Europe (They are in stock in UK FBA) but other variants of the same items are not showing in stock (But are in stock in the UK)
Can anyone advise me why this is and what i need to do to get all my stock showing as in stock?
I hope the above made sense.
Seller_ae51e0CJoHqCX
ok the reason I ask is that you are wanting to expand into Europe saying you feel you have saturated the UK market and yet the sales I would say a relatively low to be thinking about doing that. I would honestly concentrate more on the UK than worrying about Europe.
Many seasoned sellers me included expanded into Europe well before Brexit and since Brexit, it is almost impossible. There is very heavy compliance and emerging co compliance before you can do this especially when it comes to storing stock over there.
The title of the thread is selling in Europe advice and my advice is at the moment I wouldn’t do it. Knowing what I know now and if I had to start again, I wouldn’t embark on the journey, you get bogged down with it and will take your eye off the ball in the UK.
25 replies
Seller_7VbclcPFFRTnc
if some offers are appearing in EU without you sending stock, that sounds like you have also enrolled in EFN
Just to check when you say you have enrolled in Pan EU - have you registered for VAT in your target countries ?
Seller_m6v5llsLC8zKj
No, we have being selling only 6 months so have not hit the threshold for needing to register yet.
Seller_BS5lg2keRs2QO
I can’t really determine much from your image since you were registered for both Pan-EU and EFN. All i would say is that EFN from the UK is on a gradual rollout, so it might be possible to have some ASINs live and others not.
Seller_ae51e0CJoHqCX
ok the reason I ask is that you are wanting to expand into Europe saying you feel you have saturated the UK market and yet the sales I would say a relatively low to be thinking about doing that. I would honestly concentrate more on the UK than worrying about Europe.
Many seasoned sellers me included expanded into Europe well before Brexit and since Brexit, it is almost impossible. There is very heavy compliance and emerging co compliance before you can do this especially when it comes to storing stock over there.
The title of the thread is selling in Europe advice and my advice is at the moment I wouldn’t do it. Knowing what I know now and if I had to start again, I wouldn’t embark on the journey, you get bogged down with it and will take your eye off the ball in the UK.
Seller_m6v5llsLC8zKj
Thank you for your honest review.
Our sales in the UK seem to have reached a consistent point ad it’s hard to see how they would grow by to much as our items are not seasonal items so it is not like we will have a boost at Christmas.
We have the stock to expand to EU or US but it has being causing me a right headache trying to get my head around it all.
I will take your advice and stay away from the EU for now and I really appreciate your honesty.
Would you say the US market is worth expanding to or is there as many hurdles as the EU market?
Thanks
Seller_ae51e0CJoHqCX
I have looked into the US market but don’t currently do anything with it. I dabbled with the Japan market and to be fair I did ok but you have the same issues with needing an importer of record to develop fba.
The US market used to have all sorts of barriers and the only worrying thing is that Amazon are pushing sellers in the UK towards exploring everything around Europe and offering support but I don’t see this being a thing trying to get UK sellers more in the US. This may change over time.
You know your products better than anyone else and everything is still about supply and demand. I don’t know whether there is a huge demand with nobody supplying it but the biggest thing that everyone underestimates when trying to supply outside of the UK is that compliance is incredibly difficult as well as stressful. Amazon will push you towards it but they won’t hold your hand nor offer much assistance when you come to challenges over compliance, in fact they are likely to suspend your account even if you inadvertently step out of line or bring in any heat from inland revenues.
Seller_7VbclcPFFRTnc
Just to readd the point I made further up the thread then as you want to continue with EFN - have you sorted your EPR ? As I believe you onky have a couple of weeks left
Seller_m6v5llsLC8zKj
Can I ask, if I was to use the amazon VAT registration service which says it charges a 1 off fee of £300 for registration in 6 countries and then a monthly fee of £142 would this take care of everything I need to do?
Do they submit the returns for you?
Seller_7VbclcPFFRTnc
Yes but just be mindful that places like Germany have a minimum sign up period of 2 years
I believe you also need to register for vat here in uk too which they won’t do for you as its your home marketplace
You will need an importer of record and fiscal representation in certain countries too
And you will also need to register for EPR - lots and lots of threads on this here atm as the deadline is looming
Seller_ae51e0CJoHqCX
Yes the returns from the VAT services are submitted for you and part of the service, however fiscal representation is required for Germany and France and this is different.
Some of the markets I wouldn’t actually be that bothered with as I can’t see you doing much trade there. Poland, Spain, Czech and Italy for me were pretty rubbish and I haven’t been able to get anything there since Brexit. Also when you register with Spain you have to pay an independent lawyer to notarise your documents.
The reason for having the registrations in Poland and Czech is that you benefit from reduced storage fees and lower fba costs. You would have to sell a lot to make these savings worthwhile to cover the extra fees for supply. You may just want to consider 1 or 2 Countries before going all in. The fees are charged per Country so you don’t get a benefit by doing more.
Also be wary that there are additional fees if you need to make changes to your registrations such as moving address, changing company status etc, you are not really informed of any of this prior to registration. You also have to pay if you decide it is not for you and wish to de-register.
Seller_m6v5llsLC8zKj
Hi JR, Thanks for this.
I have decided after reading everyone’s replies that we will not be expanding into EU for the foreseeable future.
Thank you for all the advice.
Seller_ae51e0CJoHqCX
Am i right in assuming you think that pan-eu still includes the UK.
You cannot use Pan-eu anymore as you have to be registered in Europe in order to store goods there, that is why the stock is not showing as available If is stored in the UK it is not available to Europe only if using the EFN which are quite a difference in fee structure.
Are you a UK based seller?
Seller_VVzK5JR1bXrZQ
Hi @REGN_LTD, I also have a similar problem. I have 1 product with 16 variations listed across Europe using EFN. When my EFN got activated a few weeks ago, it all worked and all 16 shows as active in EU. However, I made some changes to my SKUs last week and now only 15 of my 16 are active and 1 is Inactive (Out of stock) in EU even though it is Active in UK. The seller support team have told me I just need to wait and eventually it will go Active again, so I will see…
