Expanding Your FBA Business Internationally: 11 Pro Tips to Get You Started

If you’re not internationally expanding your FBA business, you’re missing out on millions of new customers and explosive growth potential. Not only does Amazon operate in 180 countries around the globe, but they provide a ton of tools and features to help make your expansion as easy as possible. Plus, with the eCommerce industry in the middle of an unprecedented boom, revenue has nowhere to go but up! The time to think globally is right now.

Why, exactly, is it so beneficial to expand your horizons? Well, because: 

• Any out of season products in one market can be in season in another. For example, you can sell BBQs in Australia when it’s winter in the US, and vice versa.
• Underperforming inventory you own may be a better cultural fit elsewhere. Got some surplus that isn’t flying off the shelf? Try it out in a different market. 
• Europe is the second largest economy based on nominal GDP in the world. That’s a ton of revenue potential you can seize upon.
• The earlier you break in, the easier it is to rank up. Less competition!
  

What’s the best way to maximize your potential when breaking into a new market, though? After some extensive research, we’ve rounded up our 11 hottest tips to help make your big debut. Before we hop in, though, here are some commonly asked questions we get.

Can You do Amazon FBA From Another Country?

Absolutely! Since Amazon does most of the heavy lifting for you (storing your inventory in local warehouses, shipping/packaging, etc) you can run an FBA business anywhere in the world from the comfort of your home. They offer numerous services to help streamline the process. All you need to do is ensure your product meets marketplace requirements.

Is FBA Really Profitable?

Now more than ever! With COVID forcing so many people to shop from home, the eCommerce market is seeing an unprecedented boom. Specialists believe that at the current trend, it will grow 5x their original predicted amount. With the right budget, product, and optimization, you can successfully launch any product and get your slice of the pie. 

What is Amazon Global Selling? 

Amazon Global Selling (FBA global selling, specifically) is a program designed to make your expansion to any of their international marketplaces as seamless as possible. They offer a library of resources made specifically to help you overcome any cultural/language barriers and tools for managing multiple accounts in different regions. 

Which Countries Can I Sell to Through Amazon?

Amazon currently operates in 17 countries: USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Netherlands, Japan, Australia, Singapore, Sweden, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia and UAE. Any FBA seller has the opportunity to expand into any of these markets using Amazon’s platform.

What is The Build International Listings (BIL) tool?

BIL allows you to manage offers for multiple marketplaces all from one main marketplace. Once you make changes to your offers, BIL automatically scans for qualifying listings in other markets and updates them for you. It is designed to save you time and money, as you don’t need to update each individual market separately.

Now that we’ve got those questions answered, it’s time to move on to our tips for expanding your FBA business internationally the right way! Let’s go.

#1 Find an International Product to Sell

In order to find a product with sales potential, you need actionable data. Not only that; it needs to be specific to the market you’re researching. Our Niche Finder tool speeds things up by delivering you products that fit your needs along with detailed sales figures to back them up. There are numerous ways to run your search, with the 2 main categories being:

• Easy Mode, which uses three pre-made filters catering to businesses of different sizes. All you need to do is choose one and run a search.
• Advanced Mode, which gives you the power to set and save your own custom filters based on revenue potential, estimated initial budget, price per unit, and a lot more. 

Once you run a search, Niche Finder displays relevant niches along with critical metrics such as average PPC bid, average number of reviews, and the top 24 performers. 

After deciding on a product with potential, we recommend researching its sales using Sales Spy. This tool lets you analyze sales trends for any ASIN over a one year period. Thanks to its multi-market support, Sales Spy gives you the power to spot seasonality trends that you can capitalize on. Maybe you’re seeing a slump in Australia and a spike in the UK. Trying selling it in the UK!

When you decide upon a final candidate, it’s time to start crunching some numbers so you maximize your conversion rate. That means keywords. 

#2 Do Your Keyword Research

Different marketplaces come with their own unique cultural needs you need to be aware of. One set of keywords may convert in the US and not perform too well in the UK. Knowing what adjustments you need to make to your approach before you post your listing will maximize your visibility and connect you with a large, interested audience.

To do this, you need to conduct extensive research in the market you’re moving into to find the long-tail keywords that attract highly motivated buyers. Our field-tested Halo Effect Method helps you zero in on conversion grabbing keywords that you don’t have to fight over to own. 

The Halo Effect utilizes our flagship keyword research tool, Keywords on Fire, to harness all the data you need to make the smartest decision for your business. Simply enter up to 25 ASINs and Keywords on Fire returns a de-duped list of keywords along with important data points such as:

• Search Volume straight from Amazon’s Brand Analytics API to help you determine how in-demand the product is.
• Where products rank and where they don’t. This customized view lets you find opportunities by spotting keywords your competition isn’t ranked for.
• Average PPC bid gives you an idea of how much the keyword will cost to insert into your Sponsored Product PPC ad campaigns. 
• Monthly revenue gives you a precise estimate on how much cash each keyword pulls in.
• Our ZG score tabulates all of the data and gives you a rating you can use to judge a keyword at a glance with. 
  

This is a small portion of everything Keywords on Fire has to offer. To find out more, sign up for our 7-day free trial.

Now that you’ve decided on what to sell, it’s time to find a product supplier capable of manufacturing to your requirements.

#3 Find a Product Supplier With Knowledge of The Market You’re Expanding Into

Every market has its own special needs when it comes to product manufacturing. On top of that, different suppliers have different understandings of local packing/product requirements. That means you need to find a reliable product supplier capable of manufacturing to your specific requirements. 

Easy Source provides you with a curated list of Alibaba.com-verified suppliers ready to do business with you. Its filtering options provide ways to sort out results based on supplier type (manufacturer or sourcing agent), years they’ve been in business, and rating. 

All you need to do is type in a keyword phrase, set your filters, and you’ll quickly have a list of sources and links to contact them directly with. 

#4 Head Off Cultural Misunderstandings And Increase Sales by Hiring a Local

After locking down a deal with a product supplier, it’s time to start crafting your listing. No matter how well-written your copy is, however, there’s a good chance that it won’t hit the same way in a new marketplace due to language and cultural barriers. In order to solve this, it’s recommended you hire someone from the area to edit your listings and ensure they clearly get your message out. A freelancer can even help you identify unique cultural pain points you didn’t think of. Websites like Upwork and Fiverr are perfect for this. 

Our Virtual Assistant functionality lets you grant freelancers to specific parts of your ZonGuru account so they only see what you want them to. Listing Optimizer helps them craft a listing that’s guaranteed to convert.

Listing Optimizer allows you to import a list of keywords and tells you where to place them for the maximum amount of conversions possible. It also lets you add up to 8 competing listings so you can see how you stack up and check if they’re using some keywords you didn’t think of. Once you’ve filled all of your allotted listing space up, quickly send any unused keywords to your backend search terms to grab some unexpected customers. 

#5 Apply For New Patents

You may need to apply for new patents when selling in a new marketplace. Patents only apply to the country they were filed in. That means finding out the timeline and fees involved so you get things moving fast. 

Subscribe to our podcast for our interview with Anita Mar, founder of Patent Angel. Mar specializes in helping Amazon businesses navigate through the whole process. In it, she discusses how long the approval process takes, dues and fees you’ll owe, and what Amazon tools are available to help you out.

#6 Manage Your Account With Single Sign-On (SSO)

It’s easy to get tangled up with numerous seller accounts spread over different regions. SSO eliminates that problem by providing you with one spot to sign-on, using only one username/password. From there, you can choose which marketplace you want to look at. 

SSO currently supports the following markets: North America, Europe, Japan and India. In order to do this, you must:

1. Sign into your Seller Central account.
2. Link your seller accounts by going to the Inventory tab, and clicking on “Sell Globally.”
3. If you have an eligible seller account, it will appear here along with a “Link Accounts” button. Select which account you want to connect, and click it.
4. If you do not have any eligible seller accounts, Amazon will give you the option of creating one and then linking it.
   

Here is a flowchart spelling out the whole process.

On top of a convenient log-in area, SSO allows users to take advantage of the BLI tool. You’ll also gain access to your global business’ health with all of your metrics combined into one sales graph. 

#7 Utilize BLI to Manage Your Seller Listings in One Spot

Like we mentioned above, BLI lets you manage multiple listings from one marketplace. All you need to do is link the parent (i.e., where you’re currently selling) to the child (i.e., where you want to sell). BIL will then go and automatically edit the child listings for you, as long as they actually exist. 

There are a few requirements you have to check off before you can work with BLI. You must:

• Have a Professional Seller account in good standing.
• Operate linked accounts between regions.
• Run a North American and/or European Unified account if you intend on selling in either places.
  

If you fulfill all of these requirements you can remove or add listings, edit existing ones, and synchronize all of them from one spot (they even ensure you get the best conversion rate, too!). 

There’s a few caveats that you need to consider, however:

• Your inventory levels will not sync up between marketplaces. This means having to track multiple sources at the same time.
• You’re on the hook for ensuring that your products meet all local packaging/safety guidelines. A missed detail can end up getting you suspended or hit with fees.
• If you want to remove an offer, you have to go and remove it manually from each listing even if it’s already deactivated on the parent market. 
  

BLI simplifies things by doing a lot of the work for you. If you prefer having more control, consider EOI.

#8 Bulk Upload All Your Products With EOI

Amazon’s Expand Offers Internationally (EOI) tool lets you apply offers you have in other marketplaces to ones you’re expanding into. All you need to get started is what’s called a Loader Feed File. This file contains 4 pieces of information you need to fill out:

• Offers in your current marketplace.
• Pricing options.
• Offers you want to make in the target marketplace.
• Product categories.
  

EOI gives you total control over the pricing of your products in each individual marketplace. The tradeoff, however, is that you have to:

• Download a new listing report every time you make any changes. 
• Add or remove the necessary SKUs from an Excel file, which can create a ton of extra work.
• Re-configure and re-upload the Loader Feed File. 
  

Also, an important thing to take note is this: for EOI to work properly, the listing needs to already exist in the target marketplace. 

No matter which system you choose, you still need to determine the best fulfillment method for your business.

#9 Determine Which Kind of Fulfillment You’ll be Using

For selling Amazon products from the USA to the UK, you have to take a deep look at your business’ needs. There are multiple ways to sell within the EU market. Here are the options:

• European Fulfillment Network (EFN) is tailored towards less experienced sellers. In this type, Amazon covers all of your logistical needs. You ship all your items to one warehouse, and Amazon takes care of shipping them across borders in exchange for a fee.
• Pan-European Fulfillment (PEF) is for sellers who deal with large volumes of products. You ship everything to Amazon and they store it in a warehouse closest to where they predict the most customers will buy it. You do not pay any fees for shipping across borders.
• Multi Country Inventory (MCI) lets sellers choose which country they want to ship their product to. They can divide things up as they see fit, with a maximum of 5 countries allowed. 
  

What if you’d like to stick to the western hemisphere, though?

#10 Consider a North America Unified Account

For those who don’t want to conduct FBA overseas sales, a North America Unified Account provides the freedom to seamlessly conduct business in Canada, Mexico, and the US. It lets you manage and share inventories between all 3 regions for one monthly fee. This account is designed to:

• Track orders across multiple channels within Manage Orders or under one combined Order Report.
• Update all of your account information in one central spot.
• Get payments sent to a bank of your choosing in the local currency, adjusted for current exchange rates.

Global vs Market-Specific SKUs

There are two different types of SKUs: global and market-specific. Global specific SKUs are an umbrella SKU that span all 3 regions. For example, if you have 200 units in the US, Amazon Seller Central will say you have 200 units in Canada and Mexico as well. This is recommended for products you plan on selling across all 3 regions.

Market-specific SKUs are exactly what they sound like. Each SKU is specific to each market, meaning inventory is not shared. This is ideal for selling regional-specific products. 

You can find more information about the North American Unified Account program here.

#11 Sell Internationally From One Spot With FBA Export

Keeping all of your stock in one warehouse while still selling internationally is also an option. This program is called FBA Export. Under this option, Amazon stores everything in one US warehouse and ships products to international buyers for you. 

The benefit of FBA Export is that anyone, anywhere who has access to Amazon can buy from you. With over 60 countries all purchasing from your market, there’s a lot of growth potential. 

Closing Thoughts

Phew, that was a lot of ground to cover. It definitely is worth the time, though! Expanding your FBA business gives you the opportunity to become a worldwide brand with hundreds of millions potential customers spanning the globe. 

No matter what your goals are, ZonGuru’s got you covered with an all-in-one tool set that minimizes your costs and maximizes your sales. Sign up now for a free 7-day trial to see for yourself!