Broaden your horizons and increase your Amazon profits…

By Sharon Fussell, February 17, 2012

Are you debating whether it is worth your while sending your Amazon orders abroad?

Posting your Amazon Orders Abroad

If so there are a few things you should take into consideration because, as an Amazon Merchant Seller, you must always check that you will be in profit AFTER postage should your book sell to an overseas buyer.

These include:

1) Downloading an up-to-date weight/postage rate charges from Royal Mail.com. Have this on hand as you list, you can then make the decision to opt for overseas posting either Europe or rest of the world on a book-by-book basis.

2) Watching the weight of books/products you opt to send abroad. You do not want to be out of profit by opting to post items abroad that are costly to send via airmail or indeed surface mail. If you are canny you could make profit from the extra postage credit Amazon take from the customer to pass to you.

3) As well as being aware of current postage charges, make sure you know how much postage credit you will receive should your item be sold to an overseas buyer.

“Postage Credit

When you sell your item at Amazon.co.uk Marketplace, your buyer is charged a fixed delivery charge. Amazon.co.uk takes an administration fee and passes the balance of the postage charged to your buyer on to you to help cover your delivery costs.

All sellers are required to offer standard delivery; sellers may also elect to include priority postal services. You must cover the postage costs even if the postage credit does not cover all delivery costs. Such discrepancies should be accounted for in the price you set.”

“Countries Covered

So far, Marketplace items can only be purchased by buyers in these countries:

• UK: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales
• Europe: Austria, Bulgaria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guernsey, Hungary, the Republic of Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Jersey, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey
• US: including US protectorates
• Rest of World: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, French Polynesia, Greenland, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Israel, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa”

If you sell using FBA (Fulfilment by Amazon) your experience will be slightly different Amazon take care of the posting. Buyers are charged a standard rate of postage for overseas, and it does not make a difference to you how heavy the item is.

To take advantage of this fact you need to opt to sell your items overseas, not on a book-by-book basis but collectively via your current inventory. Simply agree to the terms and your inventory will be available for sale in 26 countries.

“FBA Export

Fulfilment by Amazon allows most products to be exported to 9 or 26 EU countries, or Media products world-wide through FBA Export for EU.

Note: There are no additional fees for FBA Export orders on Amazon.co.uk. For Multi-Channel Fulfilment orders to international addresses, refer to FBA Export Fees.

To begin exporting your FBA products to these 9 or 26 EU countries or your Media products world-wide, you must first sign up for FBA Export for EU.
You can choose to discontinue exporting your FBA products at any time by disabling the FBA Export for EU programme.

Frequently Asked Questions about FBA Export

Q: How does registering for FBA Export for EU change the FBA fees?

A: Currently, you incur no additional cost when your FBA products are exported within the EU.
Q: Can I define which of my FBA products can be exported?

A: No. You can only elect to have all of your FBA products enabled for export to the 9 EU countries or 26 EU countries we’ve specified or waive participation in FBA Export for EU.
Q: Can I define which country/countries I want to dispatch my products to?

A: No. you can only elect to have all of your FBA products enabled for export to the 9 EU countries or 26 EU countries we’ve specified or or to have Media products enabled for export world-wide.”

This week I signed up to include other worldwide destinations. This involved sending a signature to Amazon so they could include it on paperwork when sending items to countries such as the USA.

To do this take a photograph of your signature and, making sure it is the right size using photo manager, send the image to Amazon.

“New! Option to export your Media products world-wide with FBA
20 Jan 2012

We’re pleased to announce that Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) now offers a new fulfilment option for Media products. In addition to exporting all your products to either 9 or 26 EU countries with FBA, you can now opt to export your Media products world-wide. To begin exporting your FBA Media products, you must first sign up for FBA Export to EU.

Note: Sellers who are registered for FBA do not incur additional charges for using this service.”

Bottom line, is it worth the effort to sign up to send orders abroad?

• Yes, because it takes little effort on your part.
• Yes, because you can make extra income by exposing your stock to a wider audience of buyers.
• Yes, because you can increase your market share.

Take today’s orders as an example: (16th Feb 2012)

Alongside my usual UK sales today I have at least 6 sales that I would not have made if I had not opted to send to Europe:

• 1 x order to Monaco
• 2 x orders to France
• 1 x order Sweden
• 1 x order to Denmark
• 1 x order to Germany

Now, just yesterday I signed up to send to extra countries including the US.

Imagine my delight when I noted this sale sent to New Jersey USA:

Ministry of Morale: Home Front Morale and the Ministry of Information in World War II:
– £59.00

The buyer paid Amazon an extra £6.94 to send the book to them. My guess is that it would have cost far more than this to post via airmail using Royal Mail if I had done so myself. Of course if the buyer had wanted this book before I signed up to send my items to the USA, then he may not have been able to purchase it, unless a merchant seller had been prepared to opt to send it.

In fact despite my copy costing £15+ more than other copies available (including other copies available for sale in the US) the buyer chose my copy. This could be due to the superior condition of my books, or perhaps my feedback rating.

It is worth noting that, despite cheaper copies of the title being available, my book was the only FBA edition available, which could demonstrate that buyers prefer to order from FBA sellers.

So, I am sure you will agree that it was definitely worth me signing up to send to worldwide destinations – especially when you consider it took no more effort on my part to send it as Amazon did all the work!!