Every brand and business thinking about selling their products on Amazon, one of the most dominant eCommerce platforms in the world, should ensure they have a strong marketing strategy. This is especially important when expanding to Amazon Europe markets due to local differences in language, culture and buyer behaviours.
Defining the goals for expanding your Amazon business
As beneficial as it may sound to expand to Amazon Europe markets, it’s important to carefully consider the expansion goals. Such goals may include making a company or brand available online, expanding the business scope internationally, or even improving a business or brand based on direct customer feedback.
With the expansion goals in mind, it is important for a seller to choose the main marketplace for their brand/business. Each marketplace has different tax and legal requirements, and it will be important to keep in mind that the time and energy required to achieve local market success will vary.
Choosing a local Amazon Europe marketplace
Amazon Europe consists of eight different markets. Businesses or brands may choose to sell in only one, some, or all of them. Even if a seller chooses to sell in one market, they should consider choosing a market that is accessible to other countries as well. For example, selling internationally from the UK might prove problematic due to customs requirements. In another example, launching an Amazon business in Spain requires consideration of shipping costs and times. Think about which marketplace would be the most effective for your company’s expansion goals.
Considering local tax and legal requirements
Deciding to expand a business or brand to an international market and creating an image of the business in each country may sound good. However, even if sales go well, profit margins may differ due to taxes and varying VAT rates in each country. This causes a few implications on different levels that must be researched. Each country also has its own laws regarding marketing and campaigns, including such issues as:
- Consumer rights
- Commercial invoice obligations
- Intellectual property rights
- Marketing and labelling laws
- Product compliance
- Environment, health and safety requirements
Noncompliance, even if it is unintended, can lead to unexpected fees and/or fines.
Understanding time and energy requirements
As we can see, each market has different languages, cultural values and buyer behaviour. Any decision to expand to Amazon Europe requires time and energy to achieve an effective local marketing strategy. Sellers need to be able to provide translations of marketing content from one language to another and to provide support and customer service in the respective languages and cultures. Being able to receive and understand the reviews left by customers in the local market is crucial for success.
Overall benefits of expanding your business to Amazon Europe markets
Amazon Europe is a great way to make a product or brand more accessible to consumers. The platform is still growing, and a successful entry of a company/brand onto Amazon Europe will benefit from this growth. As new markets are added to Amazon Europe, businesses will have valuable opportunities to enter the markets early on. This allows companies to take the lead in these markets, giving them a competitive advantage over other brands that choose to target only the established markets.
If you would like to know how we can improve your brand’s marketing strategy on Amazon, get in touch with us to schedule a consultation!
Image credit: Satellite View of Europe, Google Maps (2024)
