How Amazon UK and EU FBA inventory pools will function from 1st Jan 2021

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The UK is due to formally leave the EU’s Single Market and Customs Union from the 1st of January 2021. While UK-EU negotiations are ongoing (including determining what tariffs, if any, will apply), from the 1st of January 2021 there will be a customs border between the UK and EU which will have an impact on businesses working across this border and that includes your Amazon UK and EU FBA inventory pools.

From the 1st of January 2021, Amazon will cease moving inventory across the UK/EU border. This means for some, make sure you have sufficient inventory in EU FCs to cover any period where you may find it difficult to replenish stock until any new customs and shipping arrangements become clear. For others it will mean depleting inventory in mainland Europe FCs before the 1st of January 2021 as after then it will become more difficult to repatriate your stock back to the UK.

Good news – You can continue using the same FBA SKU for your UK and EU listing, however your FBA inventory pools will be split to reflect the different quantities in each. For a listing to be active (i.e. in stock) in UK, it must have stock in a UK FC and vice versa for EU.

For example, if you send 60 units to a UK FC and 40 to a German FC, then you will two FBA inventory pools – You’ll have 60 units available on your UK offers and 40 will become available for any of the EU marketplaces (provided you have enabled EFN or Pan-EU in EU4). Amazon will be sharing more specific information and timelines over the coming months.

As Amazon will not be moving items across the customs border, you will be unable to create removal orders for inventory in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland or the Czech Republic to be returned to a UK address (and vice-versa). To have inventory returned, you will have following restrictions while creating a removal order:

Input valid UK address to remove inventory from UK FCs
Input valid EU (excluding UK) address to remove inventory from German, France, Italian, Spainish, Polish or Czech FCs.
To have inventory returned, you will need to create a removal order to an address that is local to where the inventory is stored. You can then arrange for a courier to collect your inventory from that address and ship these items back across the border.

If you have auto-removals enabled, these returns will only be processed if your auto-removal address is local to where the inventory is stored.

To keep up to date on Amazon news regarding the UK’s final parting from the EU, visit their Prepare your Amazon Business for Brexit Help page.