Landed Cost for Amazon International Expansion

Duties, freight, and marketplace fees reshape contribution margin when you expand Amazon beyond one marketplace.

Markdown source

Crossing borders multiplies cost classes. A SKU that performs well on Amazon.com can fail on an EU or UK marketplace once duties, freight, and local fee schedules enter the model.

What changes across borders

Import duties and VAT apply per destination and per HS code, freight shifts once inventory routes into a different fulfillment network, referral fee percentages vary by marketplace and category, and currency conversion on payouts introduces a cost that never appears on a single-marketplace P&L.

Building a per-marketplace model

Start from the destination marketplace's own FBA fee schedule—it will not match the US schedule. Add the duty or VAT rate tied to the product's HS code, then add freight per unit at the volume you actually expect to ship, and compare the result to your domestic contribution margin rather than assuming parity.

Common expansion mistakes

Assuming the home-marketplace fee structure carries over unchanged, underestimating the ongoing cost of VAT registration and compliance, and ignoring FX drag on payouts that get converted back to a home currency every settlement cycle.

FAQ

Should pricing be identical across marketplaces?

No. Price to the local contribution margin target for that marketplace's fee schedule and duty structure, not to a currency-converted version of the domestic price.

Is a single-marketplace test enough to judge feasibility?

Test with a narrow SKU set sized to the real duty and freight costs of that specific marketplace before committing the full catalog—early results on the wrong SKU mix can mislead the broader rollout decision.

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CostRadar tracks marketplace-specific fees and landed cost side by side, so an international launch gets judged on contribution margin, not converted revenue.