← All articles
Amazon & Marketplaces

Launching on Amazon UK and Europe: A Pre-Launch Checklist

By HelloEcom Team · 13 October 2026 · 3 min read

Key takeaways
  • Treat each marketplace as its own launch: language, VAT, compliance and ads differ by country.
  • Sort compliance and fulfilment before you spend on ads.
  • Check current rules for your category with Amazon and a tax adviser. Requirements change.

Selling on Amazon UK and across Europe looks like one big opportunity, but in practice each country behaves like its own market. Listings, taxes, compliance and customer expectations vary. This checklist covers what we look at before a launch. Rules change, so confirm the current requirements for your products with Amazon and a qualified adviser.

1. Account and brand

  • Confirm which marketplaces your seller account is registered and verified for.
  • Enrol your brand in Brand Registry where eligible. It supports A+ Content, Sponsored Brands and brand protection.
  • Have your trademark, business documents and identity verification ready, since delays here hold up everything else.

2. Tax and compliance

  • VAT: understand where you must be VAT registered, which depends on where you hold stock and where you sell. Get tax advice before you ship anything.
  • Product safety and labelling: check that your products meet the requirements for each market, including product safety rules, required markings, and information about the manufacturer and responsible person where applicable.
  • Environmental obligations: some countries require registration for packaging, electrical equipment or batteries before you can sell.
  • Restricted categories: check whether your category needs approval.

3. Catalogue and listings

  • Make sure product identifiers (such as barcodes) are valid and consistent.
  • Have listings written for each language, ideally by someone fluent in it. Machine translation alone often misses how people actually search.
  • Localise units, sizes and terminology, and research keywords per country rather than translating your English ones.
  • Prepare A+ Content and images that suit each market.

4. Fulfilment and delivery

  • Decide between FBA, cross-border fulfilment options, or fulfilling yourself, based on speed expectations and cost.
  • Check customs and import rules if you are shipping between the UK and the EU.
  • Plan returns: where they go, who handles them and in which language customers will contact you.

5. Pricing

  • Price in local currency, with VAT treatment worked out in your margins.
  • Work out your break-even ACoS per marketplace before turning on ads, as fees and costs differ.

6. Advertising at launch

  • Start with a focused set of hero products rather than the whole catalogue.
  • Run automatic campaigns to discover search terms, then add manual campaigns for the ones that convert.
  • Set budgets and bids per marketplace. Do not copy one country's settings to another.
  • Expect a learning period with a higher ACoS, and agree in advance how long you will accept it.

7. Launch order

Many brands start with the UK and Germany, because they are among Amazon's largest European marketplaces, then add France, Italy and Spain once the process is working. The right order depends on your product, your competition and where your customers are, so treat that as a starting point rather than a rule.

Before you press go

  1. Compliance and tax confirmed for each country.
  2. Listings translated and checked by a native speaker.
  3. Stock and fulfilment in place.
  4. Pricing and break-even ACoS worked out.
  5. Reporting set up, so you can see what is working from week one.