Amazon FBA UK Guide: Selling in the UK vs US

The complexities of selling in the UK market (e.g., specific FBA processes, fees, and return policies) mean sellers often miss opportunities that may be more well-known to sellers in the US.

This Amazon FBA UK guide will compare elements of selling in the US and UK, shine a light on unique challenges, show you how to overcome them, then highlight the opportunities and actions you can take to achieve success.

Is It Worth Selling on Amazon UK?

Though selling in the UK marketplace introduces a unique set of operational and financial complexities that differ from the US marketplace, there are advantages.

What sellers who are either based in the UK or actively selling in the UK marketplace may not realize is that some of those very complexities can lead to significant reimbursement opportunities that differ from the US.

Complexities with Amazon FBA in UK

Additional complexities UK sellers face include:

Dimensional Pricing

UK FBA now uses a 7-tier dimensional pricing model, replacing the simpler volumetric weight system.

Sellers must now optimize packaging to avoid higher tiers, which adds complexity to SKU prep and cost forecasting.

Amazon FBA fees UK

UK sellers pay higher fees in niche categories, like fine jewelry or accessories, with additional closing fees on media items like books and DVDs.

UK sellers must meet stricter eligibility criteria for certain items when it comes to avoiding return fees.

Less predictable fee structures are also part of selling in the UK, with UK sellers facing more nuanced fee changes year-over-year.

Cross-Border & VAT Compliance

In addition, UK sellers must navigate VAT across multiple EU countries post-Brexit, unlike US sellers who typically deal with state-level sales tax.

The Missed Opportunity

Where UK sellers may be missing out is Amazon reimbursements. FBA sellers lose 1–3% of revenue to shipment, fee, and inventory errors. These errors are often buried, unpredictable, and expensive, and can be even more so in the UK marketplace.

If you’re losing 3% of your revenue to deductions, and you could get it back, what would you do with that found money?

Deductions: UK vs US

When it comes to deductions, the reimbursement landscape in the UK differs from that of the US, especially when it comes to FBA-related claims, regulatory compliance and claim windows.

3P Reimbursement Differences

Unlike in the US, UK sellers often need to manually track and submit claims, especially for cross-border Pan-EU FBA shipments. Pan-EU FBA operations mean sellers must reconcile inventory across multiple countries, increasing the risk of untracked losses and delayed reimbursements.

In addition:

• UK reimbursements may be impacted by VAT miscalculations, especially if Amazon misclassifies product tax codes or fails to apply correct rates. Sellers must monitor VAT reports and reconcile with HMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs) filings.
• UK removal and disposal operations are less streamlined than in the US. UK sellers can request reimbursements for incorrect removals or disposals, but Amazon may require proof of error and disposal documentation.
• UK sellers must manually audit return reports vs refund reports, especially when customers return empty boxes or incorrect items. Amazon may not auto-reimburse unless flagged.

These differences lead to significant reimbursement opportunities that differ from the US.

Recovering “Lost” Funds

To maximize reimbursements, UK sellers should:

• Use automated audit tools to track FBA inventory across EU warehouses.
• Monitor VAT reports and tax code assignments monthly.
• Build a return discrepancy dashboard to flag refund mismatches.
• Submit claims proactively. Amazon’s systems miss up to 40% of eligible reimbursements.

The complexities involved in monitoring, flagging and disputing these deductions can rapidly become overwhelming. Yet, this is money that belongs to you. It should be returned to your cash flow.

Getting Help

Services like those provided by Carbon6 help handle these recovery tasks for you, applying their expertise to return maximum results. Their Seller Investigators team simplifies Amazon reimbursements and helps you reclaim your time and money.

A few examples of how Seller Investigators has helped 3P Amazon sellers:

What Next?

Once you find that money and get it back, do you simply restore those damaged profit margins? Or do you do something more?

One key differentiator for successful sellers in the UK marketplace is this:

They reinvest recovered funds into high-converting traffic.

Advertising on Amazon Seller Central UK can be costly; using those recovered funds to drive high-converting external traffic yields greater results and boosts organic rank.

External Ads & Boosting Organic Rank

Driving external traffic is one of the most powerful — and often underutilized — levers Amazon sellers can pull to climb the organic rankings. Amazon’s A10 algorithm rewards off-Amazon demand signals, meaning traffic from outside sources can directly influence your organic visibility.

External traffic directly influences:

• Sales Velocity
• Conversion Rate
• Brand Authority & Relevance

Plus many follow-on effects. Sales from external sources may carry up to 3x the ranking weight compared to on-Amazon traffic. Increased organic ranking, in turn, means less you have to pay for advertising, which frees up more funds to build your business further, and so it goes.

A Complete Cycle

Taking advantage of this process to reinvest your recovered funds represents a complete cycle:

1. Recover lost profits
2. Reinvest them smartly to fuel further growth

You are, in essence, taking what was once a loss, recovering it, then turning up the heat to drive additional profit, converting what was at first a loss into a gain.

Supercharging this Two-Step Process

The one-two punch of recovering deductions, then using those recovered funds to invest into a profit-booster, is a winning formula. Not just for sellers in the UK, but for sellers in markets around the globe.

The team at Cabon6 are cross-market experts. We’re an excellent resource for the EMEA region (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa), offering a full range of advice and services from basic tips to expert advice on enterprise-level strategies designed to maximize profitability.

We can help you supercharge your profits in two simple steps:

Step 1

Seller Investigators: With international support for the US, UK, EU and APAC, we boast a more effective recovery rate than 99% of our competitors. Seller Investigators gets back what you’re owed.

Step 2

PixelMe: Invest those recovered funds to boost rankings, and maximize ROI with external advertising. PixelMe’s world-class off-Amazon advertising technology gets you those results.