20 Ene Pan-European Programme: Amazon’s service to save logistics costs when selling in Europe

● Sellers who sign up for the Pan-European programme will let Amazon store and distribute their products in the European logistics centres of their choice.
● The goal is to save costs by storing inventory close to the customer for fast delivery and domestic logistics rates.

Amazon offers the Pan-European programme to sellers who want to sell their products in Europe as easily and cheaply as possible. This is a service for FBA (Fulfillment By Amazon) where the US company itself receives the items and is responsible for storing them in the countries of its European logistics network that sellers choose and distributing them at no additional cost..

What are the benefits of Amazon’s Pan-European programme?

The Pan-European programme allows brands wishing to sell their products in Amazon’s European shops to increase sales and expand their market. It does this by bringing inventory closer to customers in different EU countries to offer them faster delivery times to improve their level of satisfaction.

In addition, for products participating in this programme, Amazon applies the domestic logistics management fees, rather than the international one, for the country in which the inventory location service is enabled. In this way, retailers who choose this type of flexible storage can save up to 53% in logistics management fees.

In terms of taxation, selling in Europe requires a cross-border VAT number and a number of requirements depending on the country in which the goods are to be stored. In order to facilitate this task for brands joining this programme, Amazon provides its own tax services to manage VAT in Europe through its platform.

How does this service work for Amazon Sellers?

To benefit from all the advantages offered by the Pan-European programme, you must first have a seller account on the marketplace with items managed by Amazon’s own logistics. Then, the eligible products must be published in the necessary European Amazon shops and the countries in which Amazon will stock them must be enabled. Finally, the entire inventory has to be sent to the assigned logistics centre so that they can start distributing it according to customer demand.

Recently, Jeff Bezos’ company has expanded this programme to include three additional shops in the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden. However, due to Brexit, its handling of orders across the UK-EU border has been limited, so sellers will have to send their inventory directly to the logistics centres affected by the customs border.
If you are thinking of selling your products in other countries, we explain how to internationalise your business on Amazon.