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Reasons to Investigate Selling Internationally on Amazon –

The opportunity – intro
Amazon stats

2019 Amazon GMV 2019 worldwide was 280.5  Billion USD

All of Amazon outside USA: Was 87B USD GMV in 2019 (31% of total)

Amazon International selling summit:

Global Empires Summit – Hosted by Kevin Sanderson

My presentation for Summit:

Overview of some lessons from the British Empire
– the 4 horsemen –
– and the “Merchant Mindset” BASH
– and Merchant Skills that you need….

Why consider Amazon selling internationally?

Reason 1: Additional Revenue

– USA is about ⅔ of total
– So even on average, you could add another ⅓ or so to sales by being fully diversified

Reason 2: one of the easiest ways to expand

– Identifying a market is hard
– Getting a quality, differentiated product is really hard
– Doing so profitably even harder!
– Expanding once you’ve done all that EVEN in an era of more bureacracy is easier
– Mostly because you can outsource the bureaucracy (tactical) but you CAN’T really outsource great sourcing (strategic)

Reason 3: Profits/low competition

– Fewer competitors in some places. Barriers to entry.
– Inertia
– Language barrier. EU Japan
– Cultural barrier. Japan
– VAT/Sales tax etc. barriers. EU. Japan etc
– Strong currency EUR/DE
– Wealthy consumers (EUR/DE)

Reason for Amazon Selling Internationally: Diversifying Risk

Reason 4: Currency risk – Diversifying risk 1

– Fluctuations
– GBP to USD
– Currency being punished
– GBP!
– EUR to USD tight range last few years

Reason 5: COVID Risk Diversification –  Diversifying risk 2

– Demand shock
– US helicopter money coming to end
– UK furlough coming to end
– UK GDP sank 20% in Q2 2020!
– USA only 10%
– Supply shock
– Fr. And IT FCs shutdown height of COVID spring 2020
– US FC
– US FC shutdowns to come?

Reason 6: Amazon Suspension Risk – Diversifying Risk 3

– Reduce single-Amazon marketplace dependence
– Individual countries can change regulations and lead to suspended listings
– Eg Hazmat in Germany for client account
– In USA, same exact product selling, no issues
– An entire marketplace Amazon account can be suspended while others remain open

Reason 7: Cashflow/Working Capital trick

– MOQs – profit per unit
– Stock turn (cashflow)
– WC – function of profit and stock turn

Cost-Benefit analysis

 Upside (Benefit) assessment
– Possible upside
– Probability

– Downside assessment (Cost)
– How bad it could be
– Possibility

3 Amazon overseas expansion opportunities – low hanging fruit

Canada for US based sellers

– Physically close so can affordably send stock
– Straightforward. Helpful customs agents in Govt.
– Speak English

For UK sellers: Germany is a huge market

Bigger than say Italy
But similar costs/time to comply with VAT registration
– All things being equal, better value
Etc etc

For all sellers – Japan

– About same size as U.K. market GMV
– 2 weeks shipping time to China. This is huge for cashflow!!
– Only 10% sales tax on import cf 20% VAT into U.K. or EU
– no research tools. Most sellers stay out. Again huge.

Next steps

Get informed about international Amazon

Global Empires Summit – Hosted by Kevin Sanderson

My presentation for Summit:

Overview of some lessons from the British Empire
– the 4 horsemen –
– and the “Merchant Mindset” BASH
– and Merchant Skills that you need….

Upcoming Interviews on 10K Collective podcast about Amazon International Selling

• Simply VAT about VAT in general, EU in particular and Brexit on 10K Collective
• Brexit – selling into OR from inside the UK
• Sales Tax update (selling in USA)

Get expert help to start selling on Amazon abroad

– Tax specialists
– Freight forwarder (internationally)
– Cultural expert (Esp for Japan)
– General strategic guidance (coach)