We are Amazon US based wanting to sell on Amazon.ca
We have been approached several times by Amazon.com to sell on their Canadian marketplace. So we decided to give it a try. There are so many articles on how to start it is daunting. We probably won't reach the $30K threshold in 12 months. Can somebody help. This will be direct to buyer. If we use Amazon Buy Shipping, do they fill out the necessary custom forms? How about the VAT taxes? If we don't meet the minimum $30K, do we have to collect taxes from the buyer? If so, then I would need a GST? Thanks for any help.
1 reply
Seller_LVZcgxAgZ2xBv
We are a US brand who sells on Amazon Canada (FBA). Low volume, probably 5% or less of U.S. sales.
Knowing what I know now about the bureaucracy and extra steps and above all extra costs I wouldn't do it again. We have to use a third party freight forwarder who handles a lot of it but it basically triples COGS which has to be passed onto the customer.
If Amazon implements placement and low inventory fees for Amazon Canada we will probably abandon the market, just not worth it as we can't raise the prices any further.
Amazon's Remote Fulfillment program is another option (ships from Amazon US to Canada, Amazon handles most of the paperwork), but the prices displayed to Canadian customers are even more expensive.
If you do FBM to Canada, beware of Canadian customs forcing the customer to pay tariffs or additional fees, and/or UPS holding onto the package if the customer refuses to pay, and then dunning you to send it back or destroy it. This is one reason we do not do ANY international FBM, and disabled all of our shipping templates for international orders.
