With the end of the year fast approaching, key Amazon FBA Brexit Dates have been announced today which will start to impact your business as early as mid-November. Amazon have already announced that the UK will be segregated from FBA in the EU as of the 1st of January 2021 – this isn’t a choice they’ll have relished but a consequence of the UK leaving the EU.
Amazon want to help you prepare your business and with peak and the new post-Brexit customs border approaching wanted to give you the latest information on key FBA inventory dates to help you prepare for the upcoming changes.
“We know that these are challenging times for our Selling Partners and we want you to know that we are steadfast in our commitment to supporting your business as we make this transition.”
– Amazon Services Europe
While the date the Transition Agreement between the UK and EU runs out on the 31st of December, Amazon can’t simply switch operations on the 1st of January and so are today sharing their plans as to when changes will take place. The aim is to ensure that Selling Partners using FBA have sufficient time to manage their inventory levels in the UK and EU. December will be a busy period, as always, and so Amazon have outlined the latest dates that they can ensure products will arrive at their chosen destination.
Key Amazon FBA Brexit Dates
- Saturday 14th November: Inventory removal orders for cross-border inventory will stop
This means that removing inventory from UK fulfillment centers to EU addresses and from EU fulfillment centers to UK addresses will cease on the 14th of November. Any removal orders created before this date will continue to be processed until 31st of December 2020. Local removal requests will continue to be accepted as usual (i.e. within the UK or within the EU region).
- Friday 18th December: Pan-European FBA inventory transfers will stop between the UK and EU
From this point forward, you will need to send inventory to fulfillment centers in the UK and the EU in order to maintain your stock levels (refer to the Amazon Brexit help page for information on how to do this). Pan-European FBA inventory already placed in the EU before Friday the 18th of December will continue to be used to fulfill EU orders and Pan-European FBA inventory in the UK will continue to fulfill UK orders. Pan-European FBA inventory transfers will continue as usual within the EU region.
- Monday 21th December: Cross-Border Fulfillment via EFN and Pan-European FBA will start winding down
Cross-border fulfilment via EFN and Pan-European FBA will have to wind down before the end of the year in order to give Amazon logistics time to fulfil any final orders. Over the week starting the 21st of December you will see a dramatic slow down in cross border sales, stopping in full on Monday the 28th of December. To maintain your European sales, you will need to send products to fulfillment centers in the UK and the EU. More details can be found on the Amazon Brexit help page.
In order to prepare for sending goods across the UK-EU border, please review the ‘Preparing for Brexit’ section of the Amazon help page. You should also consider contacting a customs broker to understand how they can support you in dealing with customs clearance post-Brexit. To get started, Amazon’s Service Provider Network contains a number of recommended brokers and shippers that you can contact directly, and they will work with you to ensure your products clear customs successfully.
6 Responses
Bit early for inventory remova. Clearly they cant be bothered with these over Chirstmas, even thou most of the returns as faulty are not and often not even opened or used.
Better set account to allow buyer to keep items then and raise prices to cover. Wonder how long before word gets out and every UK customer wants a refund for the tiniest of issues.
Anyone know as Pan-European FBA is ending, if can stop selling in certain countries, as with Pan-European FBA to get the lower rates you had to sell in all 4 EU markets.
I’d be interesting removing Germany for instance due to the high amount of returns now I won’t be able to get my stock back at a reasonable cost.
ifellow you can, your just have send you good directly into that marketplace rather then into a UK forfillment center for Amazon, to move into Europe and you need an European EORI number and pay import VAT on it and not use Amazon to move your goods.