Selling on Amazon from Europe is a real opportunity: five large marketplaces in the EU plus the UK, a shared logistics network, and hundreds of millions of shoppers. But European sellers face a cost structure that differs sharply from the American one most online advice assumes. Prices include VAT, fees vary by country, and moving stock across borders has tax consequences. This article walks through what you actually keep, line by line.

Start with VAT: the price is not your revenue

In the United States, a listed price excludes sales tax. In Europe, consumer prices include VAT, and that VAT belongs to the tax authority, not to you.

Standard VAT rates on Amazon’s main European marketplaces are roughly:

• Germany: 19%
• France: 20%
• United Kingdom: 20%
• Spain: 21%
• Italy: 22%

Some product categories, such as certain books, foods, and children’s goods in some countries, carry reduced rates, so check the rate for your exact product.

On a €29.99 sale in Germany, the VAT is €29.99 − (€29.99 ÷ 1.19) = €4.79. Your net revenue is €25.20 before Amazon takes anything.

When and where you must register

VAT registration is where many sellers get caught out:

• Storing stock in a country generally requires a VAT registration there. If you join Amazon’s Pan-European FBA programme, your stock can be held in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, and the Czech Republic, which can mean registrations and filings in each.
• Selling cross-border from one country to consumers in other EU countries is covered by the EU-wide €10,000 distance-selling threshold. Above it, VAT is due at the buyer’s country rate, usually reported through the One-Stop Shop (OSS) in your home country.
• The UK is outside the EU VAT system since Brexit. Selling there from stock in the UK requires UK VAT registration, and shipping goods between the UK and the EU involves customs.

Rules change and depend on your situation, so treat this as a map and confirm your obligations with a tax adviser.

Amazon’s fees: referral, FBA, and the extras

Referral fee

Amazon charges a referral fee on every sale, a percentage of the total price including VAT. For many categories it is around 15%, with some lower (for example, certain electronics) and some higher. On our €29.99 product, a 15% referral fee is €4.50.

FBA fulfilment fee

If Amazon stores, picks, packs, and ships your order, you pay a per-unit fulfilment fee based on size and weight. Fees differ by marketplace and change regularly. For a small standard parcel, budget several euros per unit; assume €3.50 for our example.

The fees sellers forget

• Monthly storage fees, which rise in the fourth quarter, and long-term storage fees on stock that sits too long.
• Digital services fees. Amazon passes on part of national digital services taxes as a surcharge on its fees in several countries, including France, Italy, Spain, and the UK.
• Returns processing. Some categories, especially apparel, have high return rates and a processing fee per return.
• The professional selling plan, a fixed monthly subscription.
• Advertising. Most new products need sponsored ads to get traction, and in competitive categories ad spend can take several euros per unit.

Getting the goods there: inbound shipping and duties

Your cost of goods does not end at the supplier’s price. Add:

• Inbound freight to Amazon’s warehouse, and prep or labelling costs.
• Import duties if you source from outside the EU or UK. Duty is usually charged on the customs value of the goods including freight, and import VAT is due on top (often recoverable if you are VAT-registered, but it ties up cash).
• Cross-border transfers. With Pan-European FBA, Amazon moves stock between countries, which counts as a taxable transfer and adds reporting work.

For our example, assume inbound shipping and prep of €0.80 per unit.

A worked example

Here is the €29.99 product sold on Amazon.de, sourced for €10.00 (net of recoverable VAT):

The “€20 profit” is really €6.00, a 20% margin on the sale price and 60% return on the stock cost. Spend €2 per unit on ads and it falls to €4.00. A price war that pushes the price down by €3 would leave almost nothing.

The same product in Italy, at 22% VAT, keeps less; in a marketplace with a digital services surcharge, less again. The marketplace you choose changes the answer.

How experienced sellers protect their margin

Calculate before you buy

The most expensive mistake is buying stock on a gross margin that never existed. Experienced arbitrage and wholesale sellers run every product through a full calculation, including VAT, referral and FBA fees, and shipping, before placing an order. Sourcing software for European marketplaces, such as ProfitPath, does this at scale: it scans supplier catalogues and wholesale lists and shows profit, ROI, and sales velocity per marketplace, so sellers can compare where a product actually earns the most.

Set minimum thresholds

Decide in advance the minimum profit per unit and the minimum ROI you accept, and leave room for price drops and ad spend. Many sellers will not touch a product that clears less than a few euros per unit after all costs.

Choose your marketplaces deliberately

Pan-European FBA can lift sales, but it brings registrations and filings in several countries. Some sellers start with one marketplace and use Amazon’s European Fulfilment Network to sell cross-border from a single warehouse country, then expand once volumes justify it.

Watch velocity, not just margin

A product with a high margin that sells twice a month ties up cash and collects storage fees. A lower margin with fast turnover can produce more profit over a year.

Keep VAT money separate

VAT collected is not your money. Set it aside as you go so the quarterly filing never becomes a cash-flow crisis.

The bottom line

Amazon Europe rewards sellers who know their numbers. Remove VAT first, subtract every Amazon fee, add the true cost of getting goods into the warehouse, and only then look at what is left. Sellers who calculate this way before they buy build businesses that survive price drops and fee changes. Sellers who trust the headline price usually learn the difference from their first payout.