Amazon Global Store - has anyone tried it?

Fulfillment by Amazon
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I was approached today about this. When I immediately declined (thought of just leaving it unresponded, but went the polite way), the lady asked me if I wouldn’t mind sharing why I declined, to which I responded “Had problems with missing product from shipments, stranded inventory, removal orders, etc. etc., plus don’t want more complexity in my operation”, and then she said:

Thanks for the info! It sounds like you used NARF, which just to be clear, is a different program.

This program just allows amazon to purchase items from you. They pay the same rate as any other customer, there’s no specialty rates or agreements, and no returns are possible through the program, once amazon buys the item it’s out of your hands.

Understood if it’s not a fit at the moment, but it takes maybe 5 minutes to set up and it’s no additional work to run.

Of course, like most folks here, I’m always in high alert when Amazon wants to sell me something, but I still asked my SAS manager about this. He looked up some info and sent me the following:

By opting in, sellers allow Amazon to purchase their products at the regular consumer price and resell them in other global markets, acting as the seller and importer of record. Sellers can choose whichmarketplaces to include. It’s not a vendor agreement, and typically drives an additional 2-5% of US sales volume with no extra work.

I’m still not convinced, but have a call with both tomorrow and will decide after that. I was indeed part of the NARF program in the past, but it ended up being too much of a hassle. Not sure how much better this one is.

Has anyone tried it?

2

I have not, and am not likely to do it. About 2/3 of my brands restrict me to selling ONLY in the US. A couple go so far as specifically NOT allowing the eBay global shipping program where I would be delivering to a US address.

I suspect I would be at risk of losing access to multiple brands if I ever used their program, and am not close enough to shutting down to take that risk.

3

Well the Amazonian knowing any history and then applying it accurately to your experience suggests she at least is a competent representative–a step ahead of most Amazon program staff! :smiley:

It honestly sounds pretty good, considering your SAS rep’s added insight, but I have no personal experience to share.

4

I’m in the program now and have been for some time. I think how well it works really depends on what you sell. I really don’t see much impact but there is literally zero effort. As they told you, Amazon lists your products on different sites, buys it from you with the same margins as any other sale and ships to the customer. If there are returns, you don’t eat them, Amazon does.

The volume really doesn’t mean anything for me but if I don’t have to do anything, why not? At the least, it’s giving me international exposure if I ever wanted to expand to different marketplaces. I sell only my own brand goods so I don’t have to worry about any market agreements.

5

I agree w/ our friend @TJB that the goods being sold should dictate whether or not the Global Selling Program is a good fit.

Our friend @ASV_Vites, whose marketspace is subject to various regulations, isn’t the only seller who’s mentioned running into problems with allowing Amazon to do this (although it’s my understanding that his exposure came @ the hands of this program’s long-extant precursor, the “Allow Amazon to buy my products to sell globally” (link, ‘Edit’ Dashboard) setting), apparently primarily because if/when foreign regulations are violated via such sales, Amazon appears rather reluctant to fulfill the program’s promise found in this quote from the SHC’s “Allow Amazon to buy my products to sell globally” (link) (emphasis mine):

These United States is not the only nation that has specific labeling requirements for goods, so were I to inquire about participation, I’d be inclined to ask how that aspect (among others) is handled via this program.

6

Thanks everyone for the feedback! Call has been postponed to next week, so I’ll make sure to ask about all of this before committing to anything.

7

It was / is FBA Export.

We are still doing it after carefully vetting each country’s regulatory policy for what we sell.

Juice has been worth the squeeze for sure. We get several sales per day from the handful of countries we have marked eligible.

There was 2 or 3 days back in Sept of 25 where one of our listings went viral in Australia, and we did almost $3K to Australia during those 3 days. Reorders continue to come in.

8

I should also add to this when it comes to excluding a country…

It’s all or nothing unfortunately. Can’t be done by ASIN.

So let’s say you sell XYZ and 500 other things. If XYZ is a regulatory issue that needs to have a country or several excluded, your entire catalog has to be excluded from said country.

IDK if Amazon has changed this because I haven’t looked in a year or more but it would behoove Amazon to do the work to be able to get down to the ASIN level. Will only make them more $ and sellers. But they only care about them…