Europe is not one marketplace. It is eight storefronts, several tax regimes, a product safety framework with no US equivalent, and five languages in which your copy has to sound native rather than translated. Brands that treat it as “switch on the EU” lose a year finding that out.
We move brands from one marketplace to several without that year — UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Sweden.
Book a Free Strategy Call30 minutes. We will tell you which market to open first and what it will actually require.
GUAM, Amazon UK
Renora, Amazon DE
Men’s Master, UK & ES
UK, DE, FR, IT, ES, NL, SE, US
What actually stops US brands in Europe
It is rarely demand. The products usually sell. What stops them is a set of requirements that has no counterpart at home, and that Amazon enforces by switching listings off rather than by sending a warning.
You need someone inside the EU
Most products require a named economic operator established in the EU, printed on the packaging. Without one the listing cannot go live, regardless of how good the product is.
VAT follows your stock, not your company
Where your inventory physically sits decides where you owe VAT. That makes a fulfilment choice into a tax choice, and it is usually made by accident.
Translation is not localisation
A correct German translation of a US listing still fails, because Germans search with different words and read a product page differently. Ranking is lost before conversion is even tested.
Compliance is six layers, not one
GPSR, EPR, labelling, dangerous goods, category claims and VAT all apply at once. Missing any single one takes the listing down.
Which market first
This is the decision that sets everything after it, and there is no universal answer. The UK is the usual first step for brands with English-language branding and premium positioning — no translation, one VAT registration, a familiar buyer. Germany is the bigger market and the better long-term base for EU-wide expansion, but it is stricter on compliance and unforgiving of translated copy.
We make the call against your catalogue, your margins and your compliance exposure rather than against a rule of thumb.
UK or Germany first?
Which EU marketplace for a US seller?
The sequenced playbook
How an expansion runs with us
Readiness and exposure check
Which of your SKUs can legally be sold where, what each triggers in compliance terms, and what the landed cost looks like after EU fees and VAT. This is where expansions are saved or lost.
Set up the structure
VAT registrations, EU representation, EPR, Brand Registry for the new marketplaces, and a fulfilment model chosen deliberately rather than inherited.
Build the listings natively
Copy written in the target language for how that market searches, images and A+ content adapted, claims checked against local rules before anything goes live.
Launch and scale one market at a time
PPC built per marketplace, reviews seeded honestly, performance measured against margin. Then the next market, with everything learned from the first. See our full process →
Brands we have taken into Europe
GUAM — Amazon UK
Premium Italian skin care, held back by weak translations and compliance interruptions. +149% revenue in seven months at 16.83% ACoS.
Renora Cosmetics — Amazon DE
Near-zero sales on the German marketplace until a full relaunch of listings, images, A+ content and ads. 1000% growth in 90 days.
Men’s Master — UK and Spain
One product, two marketplaces, 20,000+ units a year. Spain ended up the stronger of the two, which was not the expected outcome.
Frequently asked questions
Do we need an EU company to sell on Amazon Europe?
Usually not a company, but you do need EU representation — a named economic operator inside the EU for product safety, and in many cases a fiscal representative for VAT. Both can be arranged without incorporating, which is what most brands end up doing.
How long does a European launch take?
The commercial work takes weeks. The paperwork sets the timeline: VAT registration alone runs several weeks and longer if documentation is incomplete. Plan the registrations before the stock ships, not after.
Should we open all marketplaces at once?
Almost never. Each marketplace adds VAT obligations, translation work, review-building and support in another language. One market done properly funds the next; five done badly drain each other.
Can you handle VAT and compliance, or only the selling side?
Both. Compliance is not a separate project from running the account — a suppressed listing is a sales problem before it is a legal one. Our EU compliance guide covers what a launch actually triggers.
We already sell in the UK. Is Germany just more of the same?
No. Germany means real localisation rather than translation, stricter EPR and packaging enforcement, and a buyer who reads product pages more carefully. It is the most valuable EU market and the least forgiving of shortcuts.
What if our category is regulated — cosmetics, supplements, electricals?
Then the compliance layer is the project, not a step in it. Beauty and personal care is our core category, so claim rules, EPR and dangerous goods classification are routine for us. See our work with beauty brands →
Tell us where you sell now
Thirty minutes and we will tell you which European market to open first, what it requires, and roughly what it costs before the first sale.