Selling on Amazon as a Swede

As a Swedish company or individual, entering the Amazon marketplace can be enticing. However, selling on Amazon from Sweden is not a straightforward path from idea to sale.

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Many questions need to be answered and many problems need to be solved before the first sale can be made.

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In the Facebook group I run, questions often arise about selling on Amazon as a Swedish company or individual. So, I thought I would answer the most common questions (and a few more) in this blog post.

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How do you start selling on Amazon.se?

Amazon.se will be part of Amazon Europe when Amazon Sweden goes live. Therefore, you and your company can already register on Amazon's European platform. When Amazon goes live, you can easily open up in Sweden. Registration can take some time, and you can read more about the information Amazon requires here. Once registration is complete, you can start uploading product data, texts, images, setting up shipping terms, and possibly integrating your existing business system or webshop with Amazon's API.

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How do you prepare for Amazon's launch in Sweden?

Amazon's launch in Sweden means that many Swedish companies have taken notice of Amazon and realize that it's beneficial to be early. Hence, many wonder how to prepare and what they can do now and what they have to wait for.

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What you can and should do now:

• Register on Amazon Europe.
• Develop a strategy for the launch and beyond.
• Ensure how and who will handle SEO, advertising, support, and logistics.

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You can already prepare all product pages, images, etc., and wait for the launch to quickly upload all the data.

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What you should do but have to wait for:

• Set up shipping terms.
• Upload product data.
• Set up ads.

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Do you need a company to sell on Amazon?

When answering this question, it's important to understand what you're responding to, as there are two different perspectives on this. Is it about what Amazon allows or what is legal?

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First and foremost, what is legal? Conducting business (which selling for profit is) in Sweden means you must have a company. The type of company does not matter to Amazon. Sole proprietorship, partnership, and limited company all work well.

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When it comes to Amazon and what they allow, it works to sell without a company. However, this can create some problems when Amazon requests documents during registration. If you also sell in the EU, there are additional legal requirements that can make it difficult (illegal) to sell without a company. The USA is simpler.

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In short, Amazon does not require you to have a registered company. But according to Swedish law, you must have a company when conducting business for profit.

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This applies when you are resident in Sweden, regardless of where you ship and sell your products. Read more at verksamt.se.

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Should you register a company in Sweden or the USA?

For some reason, this question often comes up, and unless you are a huge company (in which case you probably ask your lawyer and not me, SellWave, or any other e-retailer), it is always better and easier to start a company in Sweden.

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Running a business in the USA while you are resident in Sweden is messy, and since you live here and the business is also operated from here, you won't avoid the taxes you might hope to. That's often why people consider starting the business in the USA, to reduce taxes.

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How does shipping work on Amazon?

When selling on Amazon, you can ship products to the end customer in two different ways. Either directly to the end customer with each order or by sending products to Amazon's warehouse, which then ships them to the end customer with each order.

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These two methods are called Fulfilled By Merchant (FBM) and Fulfilled By Amazon (FBA).

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There are advantages to both methods, but generally, FBA is better if you want to rank high in search results and sell larger volumes. If you want to read more about the differences and advantages, you can find more info here "FBA vs FBM".

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How do you register on Amazon?

Registering on Amazon is practically very easy. Amazon has several regions they sell in, and you will need to choose which of these you want to register in. You can find more information about this on Amazon. Once you have chosen where to register, Amazon will ask for the information they need, and once you have provided them with the necessary information, you can start selling.

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However, there can often be problems with providing Amazon with exactly the information they need. There is an entire blog post about this on SellWave (Registering on Amazon), and we also offer support during registration. Contact us.

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How do you appear high in Amazon's search results?

The eternal question that seems to have many answers. The short answer is: By optimizing product pages for SEO, conversion, and by selling larger volumes. It may sound strange, but a major contributing factor to appearing higher in the search results is to sell more, which is difficult when you are not yet visible high in the search results. Therefore, it often requires a significant investment in advertising initially or driving external traffic to Amazon.

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Briefly how to optimize the product page for SEO and conversion:

• Conduct a keyword analysis and find the best keywords.
• Get the product page up on Amazon and incorporate the keywords into the title, bullet points, and product description.
• Optimize product photos, price, text for conversion.

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How much does it cost to sell on Amazon?

There are two different ways to sell on Amazon. Either by sending the products to Amazon's warehouse, which then ships to the end customer upon order (FBA), or by shipping directly to the end customer (FBM).

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The costs differ slightly between these selling methods, but I will try to clarify.

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First and foremost, for all professional sellers, there is a $40 monthly fee. In addition to this, the following costs apply:

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FBA

• Referral Fee – Usually between 8-15% of the final price (depends on the product category).
• FBA Fees – Depends on the weight and size of the product you sell.
• Storage Fees – Warehousing costs. Depends on the season and size of the products.
• Returns – Maybe not really a direct cost. But it affects the margins.

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It's worth considering when selling on Amazon that you also need to send your products to Amazon. It is cheapest if you can ship directly from the manufacturer to Amazon.

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FBM

• Referral Fee – Often between 8-15% (depends on the product category).
• Returns – Maybe not really a direct cost. But it affects the margins.

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A major cost for FBM sellers is shipping to the end customer, especially if you sell to the USA, Canada, or elsewhere far away. To read more about the costs, you can find information on Amazon's own page.

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These were some of the common questions. If you have more questions, check out the Facebook group Amazon FBA – Sverige.

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