Frequently asked questions about marketplace selling

Create an Amazon Seller Central account, pass the identity and business verification (KYC), then prepare your product listings and choose a fulfilment model (FBA or FBM). Account verification usually takes 1–3 weeks.

We described the whole process step by step in a free 8-chapter guide.

No. A company registered in your home country is enough to sell on Amazon, Kaufland, eBay or eMAG. Foreign registration duties (such as VAT) only appear once you store goods in another country or exceed the EU distance selling threshold.

Typically: a company registry extract, an ID document of the company representative, a bank statement confirming the business account, and a payment card. Amazon and Kaufland also verify the company address and beneficial owners.

The documents must match to the letter: a mismatch in name or address is the most common reason verification fails.

A realistic scenario: 1–3 weeks of account verification, then 2–4 weeks of implementation (listings, logistics, launch campaigns). First orders usually arrive within the first month after publishing, and sales stabilise over 3–6 months.

We check four things: margin (is there profit left after commission, logistics and advertising), demand (search volume and competitor sales), competition (how many sellers, how good their listings are) and logistics (weight, size, fragility).

This potential analysis is the first step of every engagement, before you invest in stock and accounts.

Yes, as a distributor of other brands. Owning a brand, however, unlocks Amazon Brand Registry and with it: A+ content, a Brand Store, protection against hijackers and extra ad formats.

That is why we almost always recommend manufacturers register a trademark before launch.

Three main components: the Professional subscription (about €39 net per month), a referral fee on each sale (most often 8–15% depending on category) and FBA fulfilment fees if Amazon stores and ships your goods.

Add the advertising budget on top. In practice the total channel cost is usually 25–40% of the selling price.

Orders of magnitude: Allegro from a few percent to the low teens depending on category, Kaufland about €40 monthly subscription plus a 6–13% commission, eBay around 11–13% in total, eMAG and Cdiscount in similar ranges.

Exact rates are in each platform pricing list; when quoting a project we calculate them for your specific categories.

Pricing is individual and depends on the number of platforms, the number of products (SKUs) and the scope of work. After a free consultation you receive a specific proposal with scope and price.

Most often in a mixed model: a fixed monthly retainer for managing accounts and campaigns plus a success fee on generated sales. For smaller projects and new sellers we offer one-off launch packages.

The mixed model aligns our incentives with yours: we earn more only when your sales grow.

On a single Amazon market a sensible minimum is usually €350–700 per month for Sponsored Products campaigns. A smaller budget will not gather the data needed for optimisation.

We scale the budget only once campaigns hit the target ACOS, so the initial spend is an investment in data, not a fixed cost.

Rule of thumb: the selling price should be at least 3 times your purchase or production cost. That leaves a healthy profit after commission, logistics and advertising.

Lower margins can still work, but they require high volumes or a cost advantage such as in-house production.

It depends on your product and target market. Pan-European reach: Amazon. A lower entry barrier in Germany: Kaufland.de. Furniture and home decor: home24, Wayfair, eMAG. Handmade and design: Etsy. Poland: Allegro.

You will find a comparison of all 13 platforms we manage on the marketplace page.

If your market is Poland, start with Allegro: simple logistics and competition playing by familiar rules. If you aim at exports, one Amazon account opens Germany, France, Italy, Spain and more.

In practice most of our clients run both channels in parallel through an integrator, without doubling the work.

Yes, especially as an entry into Germany. Kaufland Global Marketplace has tens of millions of visits per month, visibly less competition than Amazon and a simpler registration process. Strong categories: home and garden, appliances, toys, electronics.

Both specialise in home & living but operate differently. Wayfair works in a dropship model: the platform buys from you and sets the retail price itself. On home24 you sell as a marketplace seller with your own price.

For furniture manufacturers it is often a duo: Wayfair brings volume, home24 brings control over brand and price.

Yes, for the right products. TikTok Shop sells impulse products under roughly €50 best: cosmetics, gadgets, accessories, fashion. Sales are driven by short videos and live streams, not by a search engine.

If your product can be shown in 15 seconds, it is worth testing. A B2B catalogue will not find its buyers here.

With an integrator such as Apilo, realistically a dozen or more. Stock levels, prices and orders sync automatically, so adding another platform means work on feeds and content, not a new operational process.

Our clients sell on up to 12 platforms in parallel from a single warehouse.

In two situations. First: you store goods in another country (for example FBA in Germany), then VAT registration in that country is mandatory from day one. Second: your B2C distance sales to other EU countries exceed €10,000 per year, then you settle the VAT of the consumer countries, most simply through OSS.

OSS (One Stop Shop) is an EU procedure that lets you settle VAT on B2C sales to all EU countries with a single quarterly return in your home country, without registering in each country separately. IOSS is the equivalent for goods imported from outside the EU with a value up to €150.

EPR (extended producer responsibility) is the obligation to register and pay fees for packaging, electronics and batteries you place on a market. Germany requires packaging registration in the LUCID register, France a UIN number, before you sell the first unit.

It applies to practically every seller shipping physical products. Platforms verify EPR numbers and block listings without them.

GPSR is the EU General Product Safety Regulation, in force since 13 December 2024. It requires appointing a responsible person in the EU and publishing their details and safety information on the listing.

Marketplaces enforce GPSR directly: listings without responsible person data get removed. We complete the data at catalogue level, for your whole assortment at once.

The fastest consequence comes from the platform: Amazon blocks sales to Germany without a LUCID number and suspends listings without GPSR data. On top of that come administrative fines in the countries of sale and back VAT with interest.

That is why we treat registrations as part of the implementation, not an option for later.

Amazon can issue invoices automatically through the VAT Calculation Service. On other platforms invoicing is usually handled by an integrator (such as Apilo) connected to your accounting system, using the VAT rates of the consumer country.

FBA (Amazon stores and ships) gives you the Prime badge, better conversion and a Buy Box advantage, but costs more and imposes prep requirements. FBM (you ship yourself) gives control and can be cheaper for oversized or slow-moving products.

We most often recommend a hybrid: bestsellers in FBA, long tail and oversized items in FBM.

A programme in which Amazon distributes your stock across warehouses in several European countries, making delivery faster and cheaper. The catch: storing goods in a country creates a VAT registration obligation there.

So we plan Pan-EU together with tax compliance, never separately.

Yes, an FBM model with a single central warehouse covers the whole EU. Keep in mind that delivery time affects conversion and visibility: a 5-day shipment loses to local FBA.

For high-volume markets we usually move bestsellers to a local warehouse after a few months.

In FBA Amazon accepts and processes returns. In FBM you need a local return address on key markets (Amazon requires one in Germany, among others) or a return consolidation service that collects parcels locally and ships them back in bulk.

Every unit needs an FNSKU label, packaging compliant with Amazon requirements (including poly bags with suffocation warnings and protection for granular products and liquids), and master cartons within weight and size limits with a correct shipment notification in Seller Central.

Prep mistakes mean non-compliance fees or a rejected delivery, so we walk clients through their first shipments step by step.

It means matching the title, bullet points, description and hidden backend keywords to the phrases customers actually search for, and to the Amazon ranking algorithm. Good optimisation lifts both search visibility and conversion on the listing itself.

It is the cheapest sales growth available, because work done once keeps paying off without ad spend.

ACOS is the ratio of ad spend to the sales it generates. Example: €300 spent, €2,000 in sales, ACOS 15%. Typical targets are 15–30% depending on margin and phase: during a product launch a higher ACOS is acceptable, because you are buying organic rank and first reviews.

The Buy Box is the main buy button on an Amazon product page; when several sellers offer the same product, the vast majority of sales go through it. The winner is decided by landed price, shipping speed (FBA has an edge) and account health metrics.

Buy Box monitoring and pricing rules are a standing part of our account management.

The legitimate tools are the Amazon Vine programme (up to 30 reviews from verified testers for new products) and the Request a Review button, which sends an official prompt to buyers. Buying reviews or inserting cards asking for 5 stars is a straight path to account suspension.

Brand registration (requires a trademark) unlocks A+ content on product pages, your own Brand Store, Sponsored Brands ads, Brand Analytics and tools protecting you from unauthorised sellers.

According to Amazon, A+ content alone can lift sales by several percent through improved conversion.

Price is only one of five areas. The most common causes are weak visibility (keywords, category), content that does not answer customer objections, missing reviews, poor logistics (delivery time) or technical account issues.

We laid out the full diagnostic framework in a free ebook.

We work along the WAYPOINT framework: we start with an audit and an expansion plan, after strategy sign-off we implement the core processes in 2–4 weeks (listings, feeds, launch campaigns, reporting), then move into ongoing management and scaling.

Yes, it is a common scenario. We start with an audit of the account, catalogue and campaigns, then restructure listings and feeds, implement SEO standards and consistent naming, and set up recurring KPI reporting.

You do not have to walk the whole route from the start: we join the journey wherever you are.

Yes. We analyse the suspension reason, prepare a Plan of Action and handle the communication with Amazon until selling privileges are restored. It is an urgent-mode service with its own fast onboarding track.

You receive recurring KPI reports: sales, ACOS, Buy Box share, stock levels and account health, together with conclusions and a plan for the next period. The data comes straight from platform panels and the integrator, and you have full access to it.

Manufacturers, distributors and brand owners, regardless of company size. Most often we help companies that want to enter foreign markets or bring order to and grow their sales on current platforms.

Yes, under our Seedlight brand we build eCommerce platforms as well as automations and AI tools for sellers: from warehouse integrations to automated product content generation.