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As it continues its international push, with marketplace sites now in Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Canada, China, and Japan, Amazon.com recently launched a free Global Selling with Amazon guide, in PDF or Kindle format.

The manual is a general outline of the various considerations sellers need to take into account when deciding to branch out by listing their inventory on Amazon's international marketplaces, and the benefits of expanding their customer base to outside their home country. "The prospect of selling internationally can be intimidating, especially with the presumed time and monetary investment needed to expand," acknowledges the manual.

Sprinkled throughout are quotes from various successful international sellers, such as Marga Trias, CEO of Barcelona-based wristwatch company Clicktime: "The U.S. is our biggest marketplace," she says, where sales account for half her total Amazon revenues.

Some reasons sellers may want to consider expanding globally is to find a new audience for "stagnant" or seasonal inventory, or to give their business an edge over the competition, according to the guide.

First, sellers should research to see if there is demand for their product in other marketplaces, and which ones. They should also check out their competition in those marketplaces and note pricing and shipping that is successful there, bearing in mind things like "heavier items may be too expensive to ship from one country to another and might be better candidates for selling through the FBA service in your target country."

Among the international issues sellers need to deal with include customs, taxation, intellectual property rights, parallel importation (where a non-counterfeit product is imported from another country without the permission of the intellectual property owner, according to Wikipedia), export controls, markings and labels, and more.

There are also regulations covering product compliance and safety for all kinds of goods, including electronics/plugs and voltage, toys, medical devices, pharmaceuticals/cosmetics and food.

In terms of selling in the European Union, when you sign up to sell on any of the Amazon EU Marketplaces, your seller account is automatically enabled to allow you to sell on the other EU marketplaces, if you want.

Sellers can choose to fulfill customers' orders themselves, or they can use Fulfillment by Amazon. If they do their own fulfillment, they need to keep in mind "the orders you ship to another country may be subject to import taxes, customs duties, and fees charged by the destination country." But there are various benefits to using Fulfillment By Amazon to ship internationally, such as "being able to reach our most loyal customer base in US, EU and Japan," according to the manual, and also to have the customer service provided by Amazon in the local language of that marketplace where you are selling.

FBA Export is another option, and the guide lists an overview of the steps you need to take to export products from a source country to the destination country. (The guide suggests "it is often much easier to hire a logistics provider such as a customs broker or freight forwarder to handle" the process).

The manual provides many links to where sellers can get more information about such issues as the Value Added Tax (VAT), which may be assessed to goods in the EU. But as Amazon points out in the beginning, the guide does not replace subject matter experts, "such as tax, legal, and other service advisors."

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About the Author
Julia Wilkinson is the author of "The eBay Price Guide" (No Starch Press, 2006) and "eBay Top 100 Simplified Tips & Tricks" (Wiley, 2004-6). Her free "Yard Salers" newsletter is at available at YardSalers.net where you will also find her latest ebook, Flip It Again.

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About the author:

Julia Wilkinson is the author of "The eBay Price Guide" (No Starch Press, 2006) and "eBay Top 100 Simplified Tips & Tricks" (Wiley, 2004-6). Her free "Yard Salers" newsletter is at available at YardSalers.net where you will also find her latest ebook, Flip It Again.

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