Managing sales obtained on Amazon sites outside your home country is much the same on all Amazon sites, however there are some additional factors to consider:
Customer service
Customer service should be in the native language of the site. There are companies to whom it is possible to outsource international customer service, however from experience, it is possible to get away with using Google translate.
Returns
Amazon expects sellers to have a local return address, or alternatively refund order without a return.
There are several companies providing a return address service internationally. These include
- EZI returns
- ZigZag international
Delivery
Shipping internationally takes longer than domestically and it is best to under promise and over deliver i.e. set delivery times on the generous side to allow for delays. Delivery times can be set when creating delivery zones on shipping templates.
Accepting payments
Payments on international Amazon sites are in the local currency i.e. Amazon.com in USD, Amazon.fr in Euros etc. Amazon will remit the payment into a bank account of your choice, but the bank account must be in the currency of the country in which the account is based i.e. a bank account based in UK can only be in GBP, France in Euros etc.
If you are a UK company making sales in Amazon.fr you have two choices.
- Allow Amazon to convert the funds into GBP and transfer into your UK GBP account
- Pay in Euros into a bank account based in the Eurozone.
You cannot transfer Euros into a bank account based in the UK.
Amazon’s conversion rate is not very good, so it pays to use the service of a currency international payment provider. Payoneer, for example, can provide sellers with a foreign bank account for the purposes of accepting foreign currency payments. They will then convert the funds at a more favourable rate and deposit in your bank account.
