Amazon Seller Guide.

Is your product worth it on Amazon?

The question before all others. Skip it and you'll later be optimising a product that could never have been profitable.

Before you get into tax numbers and registrations, you should know whether your product actually makes money on Amazon at all. That sounds obvious, but it's regularly skipped – and it's the most expensive mistake in the whole process.

Working the numbers backwards

Work backwards from the selling price. From the gross price, first deduct VAT, then Amazon's selling fee (usually 8–15% depending on the category), the FBA shipping fee by size and weight, your cost of goods including transport and customs – and finally the advertising costs you'll realistically need.

Item	Amount
Selling price (gross)	€ 24,90
− VAT 20%	€ 4,15
− Amazon commission 15%	€ 3,11
− FBA shipping fee	€ 4,10
− Cost of goods	€ 6,50
− Advertising (TACoS 12%)	€ 2,49
Contribution margin	€ 4,55

What's left is your contribution margin. If it's below about 20% of the gross price, things get tight: returns, price pressure from competitors and storage fees eat up the rest. Products with a selling price under ten pounds almost never work on Amazon, because the fixed costs per order barely go down.

Is the market even accessible?

• Check competitor density: How many sellers are on the first page, and how many reviews do they have? Taking on established listings with thousands of reviews costs a lot of money and time.
• Look at the price level: What do the top sellers charge? If your calculated minimum price is above that, you need a genuine unique selling point.
• Read your competitors' reviews: The one- and two-star reviews show you what customers are missing – that's your chance for a better product.
• Check the category: Some categories are gated, such as food, cosmetics or certain electronics. Getting approved requires documentation and time.
• Size and weight: Bulky or heavy products have significantly higher FBA fees – often FBM is then the only economical option.

Tax hurdles for UK sellers.

The point where most UK sellers stumble – and one that must be sorted before your first shipment.

Before you send even a single pallet to Amazon, you need to know how you're selling: FBA (goods sit in Amazon's warehouse, Amazon ships) or FBM (goods sit with you, you ship yourself). Your entire tax setup depends on this decision.

FBA with storage in Germany

If your goods are shipped from a German warehouse, you must be registered for tax in Germany – regardless of the value of the goods. As a UK company you are then registered in two places: at home and additionally in Germany, where you need a German VAT ID and tax number. The point of contact for foreign companies is usually the Finanzamt München.

In Germany a monthly advance VAT return is then due – there is no small-business exemption for foreign companies. In addition, you have to document every movement of goods from home into a German Amazon warehouse: this is a VAT-free intra-Community transfer to yourself and requires a transfer document or a pro-forma invoice that you issue to yourself. And finally an EC Sales List (recapitulative statement) has to be submitted.

FBM from the UK – and the OSS scheme

If you ship from the UK, you initially don't need a German registration. Since July 2021, however, the One-Stop-Shop-Verfahren (OSS): the former country-specific distance-selling thresholds have been abolished. As soon as you deliver to private customers in another EU country, the destination principle applies – the VAT of the destination country is due from the very first euro.

The good news: you don't report and pay it in each country separately, but collectively through a single office. For micro-businesses there's a simplification – anyone without a permanent establishment in another EU state and staying below 10,000 euros in total for intra-Community distance sales and services can continue to tax it in their country of residence.

FBA or FBM – the fundamental decision.

Both models work. The question is which suits your product, your margin and your logistics.

Amazon FBA	Amazon FBM
+ Excellent, low-cost logistics system	+ Full control over shipping & packaging
+ Prime badge, preference in the Buybox	+ No registration in Germany for now
+ High degree of automation	+ No storage fees, more flexibility
− Double VAT returns, more bureaucracy	− No automatic Prime
− Storage and long-term storage fees	− Higher shipping costs to Germany
− Take care with PAN-EU and storage-location choice	− Meet delivery times even at peaks

The Prime badge without FBA

There's a programme called "Seller Fulfilled Prime" that lets self-shipped goods earn the Prime badge too. The catch: the warehouse has to be located in Germany – so you don't save yourself the tax registration with it.

PAN-EU, CEE or Germany only?

Your choice of programme determines your fees – and the number of your tax and EPR registrations.

Amazon offers several storage programmes, and the decision is no small matter: every country in which your goods physically sit triggers a VAT registration obligation – and as a rule EPR obligations too. The OSS scheme doesn't help here: it covers cross-border sales to private customers, not local warehousing.

Programme	Registrations	Assessment
Germany only	1 country	Highest shipping fees to the rest of the EU, simplest tax situation. The right start for most UK sellers.
CEE (DE, PL, CZ)	3 countries	Fees drop noticeably, the effort stays manageable.
PAN-EU	up to 7 countries	Lowest fees and fastest delivery – but registrations, filings and EPR obligations in every country.

OSS, invoices and bookkeeping.

Once the tax question is sorted, it comes down to automation – and to a decision that's hard to reverse later.

Amazon offers its own VAT calculation service that generates invoices for you. On paper that sounds good, but in practice it isn't fully mature in every case. The calculation follows your Seller Central settings strictly, including a dedicated OSS setting. That means you partly hand over responsibility for your invoicing – whether you want that is something you should decide deliberately.

What you can't ignore: for B2B orders, Amazon requires an invoice within 24 hours. You either use the Amazon service for this or connect an external tool. If you already use the VAT calculation service but still want to upload your own invoices, you'll need to get enabled for that by Amazon.

Which tool suits you?

• Amazon only, as little effort as possible: a lean invoicing solution that connects directly is perfectly sufficient.
• Several platforms plus Amazon fulfilment: Then you need a solution with multichannel shipping that bundles orders from all channels.
• Several platforms plus real inventory management: Here the path leads to an ERP system – more involved to set up, but beyond a certain size there's no alternative.

Register your trademark – and why one national office isn't enough.

Without a registered trademark you sell on Amazon with the handbrake on. And there's a quirk worth knowing about from the start.

As a trademark owner you get tools on Amazon that others are denied: advanced advertising formats, A+ Content for better product descriptions – and, often underestimated, higher write permissions over your own listings.

Write access in particular regularly leads to conflicts. If you've uploaded products and later want to change something, you'll often find Amazon simply doesn't apply the change. And if you're a manufacturer and your resellers already sell on Amazon, but the listings are poorly maintained, you can't get at the content without trademark rights.

Offices recognised include those of Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, the USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, India, Turkey and Australia – as well as the EUIPO for the whole of the EU.

What registration unlocks

• A+ Content – designed product descriptions with images and comparison tables.
• Brand Store – your own shop page on Amazon without third-party advertising.
• Sponsored Brands – advertising format with logo and headline above the search results.
• Amazon Vine – the legal route to your first product reviews.
• Trademark protection – tools against product pirates and unauthorised listing changes.

EPR: packaging, electricals & batteries.

What used to be a single packaging register has become several obligations across several countries – and Amazon actively checks them.

EPR stands for Extended Producer Responsibility – extended producer responsibility. Anyone who, as the first party to place goods on an EU market, introduces goods there is jointly responsible for their later disposal: for the packaging, but depending on the product also for electrical appliances, batteries and further categories.

Packaging: LUCID in Germany – and beyond

In Germany this runs through the packaging register LUCID: register, appoint a dual-system operator, report the packaging volumes and enter the LUCID number in Seller Central. Austria too requires foreign distance sellers to register separately, and France, Spain and Italy each have their own EPR systems with their own numbers.

Not just packaging

• Electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE): registration in the respective national register, in Germany with Stiftung EAR. Also affects products you might not immediately think of – such as illuminated or battery-powered items.
• Batteries and rechargeable cells: separate registration and take-back obligations, even if the battery is merely included with the product.
• Further categories per country: France additionally covers textiles and furniture, among other things.

What's now being added: PPWR

The new EU Packaging Regulation (PPWR) standardises the requirements Europe-wide and tightens them: recyclability, material specifications, labelling and reducing empty space in shipping boxes. The requirements take effect in stages over the next few years. If you're developing new packaging now, you should factor them in already.

GPSR – the EU General Product Safety Regulation.

In force since the end of 2024 and, for many sellers, the most unwelcome change: without the right details your listing disappears.

The EU General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR) has applied since 13 December 2024 and affects practically all consumer products. The core of the rule: for every product there must be a responsible person established in the EU – named, contactable and shown on the product page.

What is specifically required

• Responsible person in the EU: If you're a manufacturer based in the EU, that's you. If you import from third countries, you need a designated person or an authorised representative within the EU.
• Manufacturer details in the listing: Name, postal address and electronic contact address must be visible to customers.
• Safety and warning notices: in the language of the destination country, including pictograms where required.
• Technical documentation and risk analysis: must be available and able to be produced on request.
• Traceability: batch or serial number on the product or on the packaging.
• Reporting obligation: Safety issues must be reported via the EU portal, and affected customers informed.

EAN, SKU and ASIN – the three numbers.

Three abbreviations that are constantly confused – yet each number has a clearly distinct job.

Number	Origin	Meaning
EAN / GTIN	You, via GS1	Internationally unique product number. Without it you can't create a new product in most categories.
SKU	Freely chosen	Your internal item number, e.g. PROT-50G-CHOC. For your administration only – watch the character length.
ASIN	From Amazon	Ten-digit Amazon number, assigned automatically on creation. If the product already exists, you attach yourself to the existing listing.

When you can manage without an EAN

There are categories in which you can apply for a GTIN exemption . If it's granted, you can create any number of products without an EAN. Which categories this affects and how the application works is set out directly in the Amazon help.

Image and listing guidelines.

A single breach can suppress your listing – and the rules are more specific than many think.

Rules for the main image

• Pure white background (RGB 255,255,255) – no setting, no props, no coloured background.
• Just the product itself: no accessories that aren't included, no packaging as an eye-catcher.
• No text, no logos, no overlays: discount stickers, "bestseller" banners or watermarks are not allowed.
• Product fills at least 85% of the area and is fully visible.
• At least 1,000 pixels on the longest side, so that the zoom function kicks in.

The further images

With the additional images you have much more freedom: usage situations, infographics with text, size comparisons, detail shots, what's in the box. Use six to nine images – each one should clear up a purchase objection. A video boosts conversion further and is available to trademark owners.

What's forbidden in the text

• Cure and health claims without permissible evidence – a classic with supplements and cosmetics.
• Price statements or promotional references in the title or in images ("this week only", "lowest price").
• Contact details, website links or prompts to buy outside Amazon.
• Other brands' names for comparative advertising or in the title.
• Requests for positive reviews – only the neutral "Request a Review" function is permitted.
• Superlatives without proof such as "best product" or "number 1".

Fees, margin and cash flow.

Amazon's jungle of fees is the reason why many sellers generate revenue and still make no money.

It isn't one or two fees, but lots of small ones: monthly account fee, sales commission per category, FBA shipping fee by size and weight, storage costs, long-term storage fees, removal and disposal fees, returns processing, advertising costs. In total, depending on the category, this eats up a considerable part of your margin.

On top of this comes an issue that beginners regularly underestimate: cash flow. Amazon usually pays out every two weeks. Anyone who has to reorder goods, finance advertising and pay suppliers all at the same time can run into a liquidity gap despite good revenue.

What you need to keep an eye on

• Contribution margin per product – not per order overall, but per item after all fees.
• Attribute advertising costs per product – otherwise your bestsellers quietly cross-subsidise slow movers.
• Return rate – it hits twice: lost revenue plus processing effort.
• Lost and damaged goods – Amazon reimburses, but often only on request.
• Stock coverage – too much stock costs fees, too little costs ranking.

Returns from the FBA warehouse.

A point that affects anyone storing in an FBA warehouse abroad (for example in Germany) – and that's almost always forgotten during planning.

Amazon only delivers removals to a country that has its own marketplace. If your goods are in a German FBA warehouse, there's no way to have them sent back directly to an address at home.

For many sellers this initially looks like a dead end – but it isn't. The solution is a fulfilment service provider in Germany that receives the removal, checks the goods and forwards them in bulk back home. It costs little and runs reliably once you've set up the process.

Removals aren't an exception but routine: customer returns, damaged outer packaging, discontinued products, excess stock before the cut-off dates for long-term storage fees. Anyone who only starts looking for a service provider when the fee statement arrives is already paying twice.

Amazon Business – the overlooked customer base.

A considerable part of Amazon's revenue runs through business customers. Many sellers never activate it.

Amazon Business is the platform's B2B area: companies, public authorities, schools and associations buy there with a business account. For you as a seller it isn't a separate marketplace, but an extension of your existing account – you just have to activate it and set up your listings accordingly.

What you need for it

• Net prices: Business customers see prices without VAT. For this you enter B2B prices per item.
• Quantity discounts: Tiered prices from certain quantities – the most important lever for winning B2B customers.
• Invoices within 24 hours: Without an automated solution this quickly becomes a problem.
• Qualifications (optional): Certificates and credentials can make your listings visible for tenders.

B2B customers order larger quantities, reorder more predictably and return far less often than private customers. Especially with consumables, office and operating supplies, repeat-purchase cycles arise that stabilise your business.

Account security & Account Health.

A suspended account stops your entire business from one hour to the next. Prevention is far easier than repair.

Amazon summarises your seller performance in Account Health – a score that drops when there are breaches. If it falls too far, the account is deactivated for review. Until it's resolved, nothing runs: no sales, no payouts, no advertising.

The metrics that count

• Order Defect Rate: negative reviews, A-to-Z Guarantee claims and chargebacks. It should stay under 1%.
• Late deliveries and cancellation rate: affects FBM sellers above all.
• Policy violations: Product safety, trademark rights, impermissible details in the listing.
• Validity of the details on file: expired ID documents, address changes or changed bank details trigger verifications.

Activate two-factor authentication and use a company email address that more than one person can access. Assign staff and service providers their own user permissions instead of sharing the main password.

Seasonal planning and the Q4 trade.

For many ranges the fourth quarter decides the year's result – and it's planned in summer, not in November.

Period	What's due
Summer	Analyse the previous year's sales, project demand, order goods. For imports from Asia, allow lead times of several months.
September	Finalise listings, images and A+ Content – changes should be indexed before the hot phase.
October	Delivery into the FBA warehouse. Amazon sets fixed cut-off dates; after that, check-in can take weeks.
November	Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Deals have to be registered well in advance, and advertising budgets set much higher.
Dec./Jan.	Factor in the wave of returns and check remaining stock before long-term storage fees kick in.

Product pirates and listing hijackers.

As soon as a product is doing well, third-party sellers attach themselves to your listing. That's everyday life – what matters is how fast you react.

A hijacker is a seller who sets themselves up as an additional offer under your existing listing – often with fakes, remainder stock or grey imports and almost always cheaper. The result: you lose the Buybox, stop selling, and bad reviews for someone else's goods end up on your product.

How to proceed

• Make a test purchase: Order from the third-party seller and document everything – packaging, labels, condition. That's your evidence.
• Report via the Brand Registry: As a trademark owner you have access to a reporting procedure for trademark infringements.
• Write to them directly: Some sellers disappear of their own accord after a factual request.
• Consider Transparency or Project Zero: Amazon's protection programmes – for recurring problems the most effective route.
• Escalate legally: For stubborn cases, a formal warning letter via a solicitor remains an option.

Anyone who has a registered trademark, marks their products clearly and controls their supply chain becomes a target far less often. Also pay attention to who you sell goods to at wholesale terms – not infrequently the hijacker sits within your own distribution network.

Your ready-to-go checklist.

Work through it in this order – then there'll be no nasty surprise at your first sale.

• Product fully costed – contribution margin works
• Competition & category checked
• Tax setup sorted with the tax adviser
• FBA/FBM decided and costed
• Storage programme chosen (DE, CEE or PAN-EU)
• German tax number applied for (with FBA)
• OSS checked or activated
• Trademark registered with UK IPO or EUIPO
• EPR: packaging registered per destination country
• EPR: WEEE & batteries checked
• GPSR: responsible person named
• GPSR: warning notices & documentation prepared
• EAN codes obtained via GS1
• SKU system defined
• Images created to Amazon guidelines
• Listing text checked for prohibited claims
• Invoicing or ERP tool chosen
• Fees calculated against the margin
• Return route for removals organised
• B2B prices & discount tiers checked
• Two-factor authentication activated
• Document folder for verifications set up
• Seasonal and delivery plan created
• Trademark protection against hijackers set up

As of 2026. This guide is no substitute for tax or legal advice and makes no claim to completeness. Amazon, the Amazon logo and Amazon.de are registered trademarks of Amazon EU SARL. Onfidence is not a trademark or a company of Amazon EU SARL.