Amazon recently announced that they are planning to re-open the European Fulfilment Network between the UK and the EU. This is great news for sellers as it makes inventory management much more cost-effective.

In a nutshell, how this works is the seller sends inventory to one country (say the UK) and then all orders for the UK and the EU can be fulfilled from that same inventory. This means that the seller can ship larger quantities to a single FC and therefore optimise their shipping costs but also with just one central inventory to manage, keeping items in stock becomes a whole lot easier.

Here is what they had to say in their announcement:

Starting March 2022, fulfilment between the UK and the EU will reopen via the European Fulfilment Network, subject to European Fulfilment Network Fees. Eligible offers will become live in phases until May 2022.

The European Fulfilment Network allows FBA sellers with an EU account to store their inventory in local fulfilment centres and fulfil orders from other EU stores, maximising inventory control and flexibility.

Requirements

To sell between the UK and the EU using the European Fulfilment Network, you must have the following:

Access to both the UK and the EU Seller Central accounts
FBA offers for your products in both the UK and the EU
Inventory for eligible offers stored in local fulfilment centres.
*Shipping programmes and export settings enabled. For EU to UK fulfilment, all EU stores must be enabled for export (Germany, Italy, France, Spain).*

If you have more than one EU account, each account must be managed separately.

How it works

*Request enrolment for your eligible offers.*

Starting March 2022, eligible international offers between the UK and EU will go live via the European Fulfilment Network. You will receive an email to confirm that your offer enrolment is complete.

Your Shipping programme and export settings may be automatically updated to enable cross-border fulfilment.

You can opt out at any time by deselecting countries from Enrol into EFN between the UK and the EU in your Cross-border fulfilment settings.

Important details:

You can create offers on Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.it and Amazon.es stores using the same process that you used to create offers on your domestic store. The same SKU must be provided for both of your offers in the UK and the EU.
We recommend the use of the Build International Listings tool to create offers in bulk. For more information, go to Build International Listings .
If you ship to both the UK and the EU, we will prioritise fulfilling from local inventory. Domestic fulfilment fees will then apply, where applicable.
If you use Pan-European FBA, your EU orders will be fulfilled with inventory in the UK if you don’t have inventory in the EU. European Fulfilment Network fees will then apply.
Ensure that your prices reflect European Fulfilment Network fees and VAT. We recommend using Build International Listings pricing rules to adjust prices automatically. ASINs that are listed through Build International Listings with the “Same as source marketplace” pricing rule will be automatically updated to the pricing rule “Same as source marketplace, adjusted for fees and taxes”. Alternatively, you can adjust your pricing manually or through your preferred APIs.

By using the European Fulfilment Network to fulfil your products across the UK-EU customs border, you authorise Amazon and its affiliates to export goods (including signing a commercial invoice) on your behalf, as required. This invoice itemises and describes the contents of your shipment and authorises brokers and other third parties to execute additional documents that are required for the export of your products.

Eligibility

The price of an eligible item must not exceed €135 in the EU or £122 in the UK. Once enrolled, you can check the eligibility of your offers through the European Fulfilment Network ASIN Eligibility report in Pan-European FBA Inventory Reports.

The European Fulfilment Network ASIN eligibility file can also be used to add or remove offers from the EFN cross-border programme at store level at any time.

The European Fulfilment Network is available only between the UK and Germany, France, Italy and Spain.

Fees

For a list of European Fulfilment Network fees per store, go to the FBA fee changes page and scroll down to the table under Standard FBA fulfilment fee (per unit, sold on Amazon).

Use the Build International Listings tool to create and update your offers from a single source store to one or more target stores. Use the Same as source marketplace, adjusted for fees and taxes pricing rule to account for exchange rates, fulfilment fees and VAT.

If you use the Build International Listings tool and have not updated the default pricing rule, “Same as the source marketplace”, all eligible offers will be active and the pricing rule will be updated to Same as source marketplace, adjusted for fees and taxes. Your UK and EU prices will be synchronised, adjusting for estimated fulfilment fees and VAT rate differences. Any Pan-European FBA offers won’t be changed.

Build International Listings won’t adjust your prices to synchronise with the source store if you do any of the following:

Use automated pricing rules outside of Build International Listings.
Set the price for each ASIN.
Update your prices via bulk upload.
Use Marketplace Web Services APIs.

VAT

You generally aren’t required to register for VAT in the destination store when fulfilling between the UK and the EU.

For business-to-consumer sales that do not exceed €150/£135, Amazon must account for VAT, which the customer pays at checkout. For such sales above €150/£135, and all business-to-business sales, the customer is the importer of record and pays any import VAT and duties. Amazon will collect an estimate of these import fees from the customer at checkout to remit these amounts on the customer’s behalf.

To learn more, go to the EU VAT on eCommerce legislation page or UK VAT on eCommerce legislation page.

Note: VAT information is provided for general reference only and is not tax advice. Consult your tax advisor for further information.

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