Hi, anyone here a Canadian seller or sell through FBA Canada?
I’m curious what the status is for Amazon collecting and remitting local taxes to the Provinces/cities in Canada? I know there was talk of making the rules similar to the USA marketplaces where they (Amazon, Ebay, etc) had to collect and remit it. I remember seeing something about changing the rules but that was a few years ago when I was looking into it back then.
I ask because Canada FBA keeps calling me to put inventory into Canadian FBA. I think it would be a good idea as I could sell products lower cost and faster delivery than remote fulfillment program. Getting the goods to Canadian FC’s and paying the VAT isn’t an issue. I just don’t see doing all the paperwork involved for individual provinces and from my understanding certain cities to charge, track, remit HST. The guy that keeps calling me from Amazon has no idea about any of it. Apparently his job is just to make noise.
Oddly enough, I just got another call about this from Amazon 2 days ago. This associate was more informed than the last. I raised the local tax collection issues and he said he would get back to me. The last one never did so I’m not going to hold my breathe.
Apparently, Canada still doesn’t have a marketplace facilitator law forcing them to do it like in the US. He suggested that they have “partners” that could do this for me. Of course I would have to pay them to do it and give them access to my Amazon account. We’ve all seen how giving access to vendors has worked out for others in the past.
They told me that I could expect a 5-10x increase in sales volume using Canada FBA due to shorter delivery window and less complicated pricing for buyers. Maybe, maybe not. They obviously are collecting/remitting for their own sales in Canada, why not offer it to foreign sellers as well to get that 5-10x bump in referral/FBA fees they are looking for?
We looked at Canada FBA, by your flag I assume you are in the US.
We did sell FBus (FBM) in Canada. We saw 2-4% of the sales we saw in the US. Still, we enjoyed it, our state has a small boarder with Canada.
In the US, when we added FBA we saw a 4-5X lift in sales. Not a 10X lift, I would be concerned about a sales person telling me we would get 10X more sales. Sort of like, you can trust me, if you have to say that, I know I can’t.
Our issue with importing into Canada was the inbound costs. We talked with UPS, we talked with a local broker/shipping company. In the end, not worth the hassle.
We did continue to do FBus to Canada, until COVID. Canada Post could not deliver, and we took the beating for that. Done, we walked away.
For us we have no tax in our state. It is a “Live Free or Die” thing. Not something I want to get involved in in our country or other countries.
If you use US FBA, why not do FBA remote fulfillment to Canada? Basically, you list on Amazon.CA and orders are pulled from your US FBA stock and shipped to the customer. They take care of shipping, taxes, etc. and you get paid to your US account in USD just as your US sales (in a different disbursement).
I’m not trying to sell you the program, I just haven’t had any issues with it. It takes a little time to figure out how it works but it pretty much just runs in the background.
I fully agree that a 5-10x volume increase is unrealistic. As with everything else Amazons people tell you, you have to take it for what it’s worth.