- With EFN you keep stock in one country and ship to the others, paying higher cross-border fees.
- With Pan-European FBA Amazon spreads your stock across its European fulfilment centres and you pay local fees, but every storage country brings tax obligations.
- Multi-Country Inventory is the middle ground: you choose which countries to send stock to.
- The right choice depends on volume by country, catalogue sell-through and your ability to handle the tax side with your adviser.
Selling on your home Amazon marketplace is one thing; serving Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands well is another. The sticking point is always the same: where to keep the stock, what it costs to ship and which obligations arise when stock crosses borders. Here we line up the three options Amazon offers (EFN, Pan-European FBA and Multi-Country Inventory) and the criteria we use to choose between them.
The starting point: one catalogue, many marketplaces
With a European Seller Central account you can list the same offers on all of Amazon’s European marketplaces. The listings still need translating and adapting, though, and an order from a German customer has to arrive in the time a German customer expects. If the parcel leaves a warehouse in another country and takes four days, the delivery promise gets worse and conversion drops with it.
So logistics isn’t an operational detail. It affects the Buy Box, the Prime badge, your fees and how much stock you have tied up. That’s why the right question isn’t “which programme is best” but “which programme fits my volumes, country by country”.
EFN: one warehouse, shipping across Europe
The European Fulfilment Network (EFN) is the simplest model. You send stock to Amazon fulfilment centres in a single country, for example Germany, and Amazon ships orders from other European marketplaces from there.
- Pros: concentrated stock, simple management, only one storage country to keep on top of.
- Cons: every cross-border order pays a higher fulfilment fee than a local one, and delivery times abroad are longer.
- When it makes sense: for testing new countries, for catalogues with low foreign volumes so far, for products whose margins can absorb the EFN fee.
EFN is often the first step. Its limits show once a foreign country starts to matter: at that point the per-unit surcharge becomes a significant line in your P&L.
Pan-European FBA: Amazon moves the stock for you
With Pan-European FBA you send stock to one fulfilment centre and Amazon redistributes it across its European network based on forecast demand. Orders ship from close to the customer, so you pay local fulfilment fees and delivery is faster.
To join, each product needs an active offer on a set of marketplaces Amazon requires. Today the core group is Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands, and Amazon has announced that Belgium will be added gradually. Poland, Sweden and Ireland are linked to the programme with their own rules. The conditions change fairly often, so always check them on the programme page in Seller Central before you switch it on.
The key point to understand is a different one: with Pan-European FBA you don’t decide which country each unit ends up in. Amazon can store it in any of the storage countries you’ve enabled (the up-to-date list is in Seller Central). Every country where stock is actually held creates local tax obligations.
Multi-Country Inventory: you choose the countries
Multi-Country Inventory (MCI) is the middle ground. You send stock to fulfilment centres in the countries you choose and Amazon serves local customers from there. Other countries are served using EFN.
A typical example: a brand that sells well in Germany and Italy sends stock to both, and serves France and Spain through EFN until volumes justify another step. This way you control where your stock sits, but you take on the job of planning shipments for each country.
The three options at a glance
| Aspect | EFN | Multi-Country Inventory | Pan-European FBA |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who decides where stock sits | You (one country) | You (several countries) | Amazon |
| Fulfilment fees | Local in the stock country, cross-border elsewhere | Local in the chosen countries | Local in the countries covered |
| Delivery times abroad | Longer | Good in the chosen countries | Good almost everywhere |
| Planning complexity | Low | High | Medium |
| Storage countries to manage for tax | One | The ones you choose | All those where Amazon stores stock |
Stock, delivery times and costs: what really changes
Stock
Spreading stock across several countries means holding more inventory overall. Each warehouse needs its own safety stock, and Amazon’s capacity limits apply to your total stock. A catalogue with lots of slow-moving SKUs suffers more under Pan-European FBA than one with a few products that sell through well.
Delivery times
Fast delivery affects conversion and offer visibility. In countries where you sell a lot, having stock locally almost always makes a difference. In countries where you sell little, an extra day’s delivery often doesn’t change much.
Costs
The sums have to be done by product and by country. We compare the EFN fee with the local fee, multiply by forecast volumes and subtract the extra costs: transfers, storage, tax compliance, advisory fees. If the difference is positive and stable, it pays to move stock closer to the customer.
Tax obligations in general terms
The basic rule is simple to state: wherever stock is stored, VAT obligations arise. As a rule you need a VAT registration in each storage country, with the related periodic returns, and stock transfers between countries must be documented. Simplified schemes exist for some distance sales to consumers, but they don’t cover everything.
We won’t go into detail because it depends on your structure, your volumes and your type of product. Before you switch on MCI or Pan-European FBA, talk to your tax adviser and factor in the cost of compliance too. If you’d rather not register abroad, there’s also the option of selling through a Merchant of Record that handles sales and invoicing in each country.
How to decide: the questions we ask
- How much do you sell today in each country? If a foreign market accounts for a meaningful share of revenue, EFN is probably costing you too much.
- How many SKUs do you have and how fast do they sell? A few fast movers suit Pan-European FBA. Lots of slow movers risk fragmenting your stock.
- Are your listings ready in the local languages? Having stock in Spain won’t help much if the Spanish listing is a machine translation.
- Who will handle the tax side? You need an adviser who knows foreign VAT registrations and a process for reconciling Amazon’s reports.
- Do you have planning capacity? MCI needs separate forecasts and shipments for each country. If your team is small, Pan-European FBA may be easier to manage.
In the projects we run, the most common path is gradual: start with EFN, measure demand by country for a few months, then move to MCI in the strongest countries or straight to Pan-European FBA once the catalogue is ready. For a full picture of how we approach expansion, see our Amazon Seller and Vendor services page.
What to do now
Download your last six months of sales from Seller Central, split by marketplace and by ASIN. Work out how much you’ve paid in cross-border fees and compare it with local fees. Then take those numbers to your tax adviser and decide, on solid ground, whether to stay on EFN, move to MCI in one or two countries or switch on Pan-European FBA.
Frequently asked questions
What is Amazon Pan-European FBA?
It's a Fulfilment by Amazon programme where you send stock to one fulfilment centre and Amazon distributes it across its European network based on demand. Orders ship from close to the customer, so you pay local fees and delivery is faster. In return, Amazon decides which of your enabled countries to store the stock in.
What's the difference between EFN and Pan-European FBA?
With EFN you keep stock in one country and Amazon ships from there across Europe, charging higher cross-border fees. With Pan-European FBA stock is spread across several countries and you pay local fees. EFN is simpler to manage; Pan-European FBA pays off as foreign volumes grow.
Do you need a VAT number in every country to use Pan-European FBA?
In general, local VAT obligations arise wherever stock is stored, so with Pan-European FBA you need registrations in the storage countries. The details depend on your situation, so check with your tax adviser before switching on the programme.