How To Set Up Amazon Seller Account Canada

Canada has a reputation for lagging backside the U.S. in ecommerce. However, contempo research indicates that Canadian ecommerce tides are turning, particularly on the Amazon front end:

In late 2022, e-commerce retail trade sales amounted to almost 1.85 billion Canadian dollars, with approximately 28.1 million Canadians having made purchases online.
Acquirement generated inside the retail e-commerce marketplace is expected to surpass 33 billion U.Southward. dollars past 2024, up from 25.four billion in 2022.
According to eMarketer, Amazon is at present the top online shopping destination for consumers in Canada.

Here's what you demand to know to get started selling on Amazon Canada, so you lot can decide if you tin can DIY or if you need the help of an Amazon agency.

1. Cull the Best Products to Sell on Amazon Canada

You can yet sell to Canadians from Amazon.com.

However, there's still a key difference betwixt the .com and .ca according to Pat Petriello, Director, Amazon Strategy at Tinuiti.

"While Sellers can make their products on .com available to Canadian-based buyers, they wouldn't get their products in forepart of those shoppers searching on Amazon Canada unless they listed in the .ca marketplace."

Now for the next question—bold your products aren't on Amazon.ca'due south listing of Prohibited or Restricted Products, how practise you know which products will sell all-time in Canada?

You can showtime by getting a skillful idea of the pinnacle-selling products on Amazon.ca vs. top sellers on Amazon.com.

The Amazon.ca pinnacle sellers:

amazon.top.sellers.ca

Amazon Top Sellers 2022

Annotation: If you're looking for new products to sell on Amazon.ca, you lot should use an Amazon seller production research tool. Check out our list of Amazon seller tools for more than.

Our best advice for selecting products to sell on Amazon.ca is to start pocket-sized. Your top v acknowledged products on U.S. Amazon may not perform as well on Amazon Canada. You don't know if your best sellers in the U.S. are going to interpret into high performers in a dissimilar marketplace.

"I wouldn't recommend edifice out your entire catalog on Amazon.ca. Start with some of your best sellers, and run across how they perform."

– Dave Cooley, Director, Marketplace at Tinuiti

two. Weigh the Amazon Canada Costs for Those Products

Ask a Canadian heir-apparent almost shopping Amazon.ca vs. Amazon.com, and they're likely to say Amazon.ca typically has a smaller selection of items and higher shipping costs.

Inquire a U.Southward. seller why they're not excited about selling on Amazon.ca, and they'll cite the higher shipping costs, additional work required to sell on the site, and the difference in the exchange rate. If yous sell a product for 50 Canadian dollars, yous'll simply receive $38.58 in US currency (based on current substitution charge per unit).

"Typically, U.S. sellers can increase their prices 35% to forty% to comprehend duties and shipping costs when selling on Amazon.ca.," says Petriello.

Seek to strike a skillful balance between price and need—the more your listings cost, the harder it will be to compete with local sellers.

Let'south cheque out a real-life example of a make adapting the same production to both the Amazon.com and .ca marketplace. Hither's an instance of the cost difference between Amazon.ca and Amazon.com for seller Tall Ridge, selling a 12 oz. Hydro Flask in the color "Lava". (Note the use of FBA. More on that afterward.)

Amazon Canada Listing

Hydro flask on amazon.ca

Amazon U.S. Listing

hydro flask on amazon.com

The price may exist higher on the Amazon Canada listing, but the "free aircraft" is a huge bonus. Some other search for the aforementioned Hydro Flask reveals this is the absolute lowest price. Many other sellers list that price point merely add on about CDN$10 in shipping.

Before you offset list all of your products, hither are two ways U.S. sellers tin become more competitive on Amazon.ca:

- Counterbalance product return against overhead (the cost to ship, competition, taxes, etc.)—is it worth listing this product?
- Use the smartest aircraft selection for your products

We'll talk virtually both below.

iii. FBA or MFN? Cull the Right Shipping Options

If you're wondering if y'all should ship with Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) or the Merchant Fulfilled Network (MFN), see the breakdown beneath based on Amazon'south Global requirements.

Amazon.ca Merchant Fulfilled Aircraft

For Merchant Fulfilled aircraft, make sure you lot cover these bases:

- Ensure your products are non prohibited in Canada
  Cheque Amazon.ca's list of Prohibited Content and Restricted Content.
- Read the Canada Border Services Agency's Step-by-Stride Guide to Importing Commercial Goods into Canada
- Choose an international shipping carrier with DDP (Duties Delivered Prepaid) capability
- Annals for a business number and NRI (Not-Resident Importer)
  To learn more well-nigh registering as a non-resident importer, cheque out the Amazon Global Selling page under "Canada tax and regulatory considerations".
- If you plan to collect tax on your Canada sales, register for Goods and Services Revenue enhancement (GST) or Harmonized Sales Tax (HST)
  Cheque the Canada Revenue Agency site for more on GST and HST for businesses.
- State "ships from x country" in seller profile and include accurate shipping times
- Apply a "Global SKU" on your products (see #4 for more on SKUs)

Benefits of FBA for Amazon Canada Sellers

At that place are a few reasons why FBA has the advantage over MFN. Here'southward why.

FBA is Reliable and Scalable

"You can apply Merchant Fulfilled shipping in Canada, just because there are so many hoops to jump through whenever yous need to export products to another land, it's safer to go the FBA route," says Cooley.

"Amazon has already set the "two-day shipping" precedent for customers around the world, and it can be hard to keep upward on your ain."

This too affects your scalability. If your Amazon Canada orders for individual water bottles take off, you'll be working actress hard to brand timely shipments without FBA.

FBA Reduces Customer Service Issues

In addition, yous'll avoid having to deal with issues with customer service.

"FBA will likely make more sense logistically," says Cooley.

"You don't have to deal with client service issues if at that place are any problems with shipping time or damaged packaging. When information technology comes to customer service, shipping across borders makes any problem exponentially bigger."

FBA Makes Y'all More Competitive

All of the to a higher place—reduced costs, decreased shipment times, and practiced customer service by Amazon—can make you much more competitive in the Canadian marketplace.

According to Amazon Canada, FBA includes:

- Storage of your products in an Amazon fulfillment center
- Picking and packing of your products when a customer orders them (on or off Amazon.ca)
- Shipping of your products to the customer including free shipping with Amazon Prime number or eligible orders at no actress price to you
- Customer service and returns for products sold on Amazon.ca

Overall, there are many benefits to using FBA. Interested in using your own facilities to ship Prime number products? Check out our Guide to Seller-Fulfilled Prime.

How to Set up Up FBA for Amazon.ca

1. Ensure your products are not prohibited in Canada
Check Amazon.ca's list of Prohibited Content and Restricted Content.

2. Use the beta calculator to find out how much FBA will cost for your products
This is based on production dimensions and weight. Co-ordinate to Amazon, if the production yous want to judge is already on Amazon.ca, you can use your own ASIN. If your production is non on Amazon.ca, yous can use a dummy ASIN (B003BD5PQW) to enable you to enter your own weight and dimensions for each product.

3. Check aircraft rates for FBA in Canada
Specifically review Pick & Pack, Weight Handling, and Inventory Storage.

four. Read the Canada Border Services Agency's Step-by-Step Guide to Importing Commercial Appurtenances into Canada

5. Create listings Amazon.ca
Your products will not motorcar-populate from preexisting U.South. listings.

6. Send inventory to an Amazon Fulfillment Center in Canada
Follow the steps under "Sending inventory to an Amazon Fulfillment Eye"

vii. Use a "Market place-specific SKU" on your products (meet #4 for more than on SKUs)

4. Set upward the Correct SKUs in Amazon Canada's Seller Key

There's a lot of confusion about the difference between "Global SKUs" and "Marketplace-specific SKUs" out in that location. Here's the difference between the SKUs.

Global SKUs

A Global SKU unites the number for total inventory beyond all marketplaces. For instance, if you have 75 units of water bottles, this number will show across both your .ca and .com listings. However, thisdoesn'tmean you have 150 total. It simply ways you have 75 overall. If you sell four h2o bottles in .com, that number will lower to 71 across both .com and .ca listings.

Annotation:Global SKUs are Only for Merchant Fulfilled accounts. Y'all cannot utilize Global SKUs with FBA.

How to gear up upwards Global SKUs: Choose "Existing Offering" in Amazon Canada'due south Seller Central when setting up offers.

Marketplace-Specific SKUs

A Marketplace-Specific SKU separates your units and prices across marketplaces. Meaning the 75 units of water bottles in your .ca market place is specifically what yous have available in Canada, and will not lower if someone in the U.S. orders a h2o canteen shipped from a Fulfillment Eye in the U.S.

Note: Utilize Marketplace-Specific SKUs if y'all are FBA. Ensure your "ships from" listing is specific to those units available in that specific marketplace—for case, "ships from Canada" for products that alive in Fulfillment centers in Canada.

How to set Marketplace-specific SKUs: Choose "Unique Offer" in Amazon Canada's Seller Central when setting up offers.

5. Utilise NAUA to Manage Both Amazon Accounts

Trying to juggle two accounts used to be an issue, but it's getting much simpler since Amazon rolled out North American Unified Accounts (NAUA).

"In the past, you could create an Amazon.ca account, but information technology was almost similar you had to manage two completely different accounts. NAUA makes information technology easier," says Cooley.

Here's how Amazon describes NAUA:

"The North America Unified Account enables you to create and manage product offers in both the U.S. and Canada. You control what yous sell and where you sell from a single seller account interface."

Here's what y'all demand to know about NAUA accounts:

You lot can manage inventory and share listing data across both accounts, but know that product listings on Amazon.com don't automatically populate in Amazon.ca. To acquire how to re-create listings, see these Amazon posts in Seller Central:

- Build International Listings
- Expand Offers Internationally

Now, permit's talk nigh payments, fees, and orders in NAUA.

You must connect a bank business relationship, but you don't have to open a banking company account in Canada. Merely utilise the Amazon Currency Converter for Sellers (ACCS) to receive payments in USD in your business relationship. If you are a Pro Seller, you will only pay subscription fees for one marketplace, and this only applies to the original account you lot opened.

Trying to keep runway of orders? You'll take admission to a combined Club Study featuring all North American sales, or y'all can continue track of orders on both accounts via "Manage Orders".

6. Customize your advertising strategy for Amazon.ca

Copy pasting your current structure from the US into the Canadian marketplace is not a simple "golden ticket" to increase overall acquirement. But, that doesn't mean there isn't opportunity and scale to do good your business.

Here are a few tips from Zak Semitka,Specialist, Marketplace Search at Tinuiti:

Tip 1: Start with proven best sellers in the United states market that accept a college likelihood and catechumen in an untested marketplace. Think to begin your advertizement strategy with proven keywords for those products but ensure you're adapting and refreshing your targeting lists to maintain relevancy based on the market'south search queries for your products.

Tip two: Don't neglect Amazon's all-time practices and recall to test. Expansion into another marketplace is an investment in terms of time and resources, but Amazon remains consequent. Ensure content and listings are optimized to aid facilitate conversions. You don't know what will work and what won't until you lot exam it on the market. If you lot're investing in the Canadian marketplace, be patient, and follow the performance data.

Tip iii: Ensure your operations are sound to supply this marketplace. Every bit we mentioned earlier y'all should consider all shipping costs, pb times, tariffs, commutation rates, fulfillment, and other operational logistics to ensure products remain in stock and profitable.

"If y'all've started your business concern in the US, y'all may find that Canadian tariffs can lower your profit margin. Factor in your lower profit margin when deciding on ACOS targets. Oftentimes if a client sells in both the Us and CA, our ACOS goal is virtually 5 to 10% lower in Canada."

– Courtney Macfarlane, Senior Analyst, Marketplace Search at Tinuiti

"Consider differences in language when adding keywords. While it can be helpful to kickoff out your manual CA campaigns with your tried and true keywords from your US campaigns, be certain to likewise start auto campaigns in Canada. With auto campaigns, you can find new search queries Canadian shoppers might be using to find your products."

Selling on Amazon Canada: Is It Worth the Endeavour?

Amazon Canada is another opportunity for sellers to bound forward in other marketplaces, and information technology'southward the perfect place to dip your toes into an international Amazon selling strategy. However, you should check a few boxes first.

Starting time, you should know that you'll likely see lower volume on Amazon.ca than you practise on Amazon United states.

"At that place'due south room for growth on Amazon Canada simply at a slower step."

– Tanya Zadoorian, Senior Specialist, Marketplaces at Tinuiti

"If you have the bandwidth to set upwards shop on Amazon Canada, it's worth a shot," says Jordan Gisch, Senior Market place Channel Annotator at Tinuiti. "It is just lower volume, and so I'd recommend y'all get everything you lot can out of Amazon U.Due south. before investing time and resources in [Amazon Canada]."

Editor'due south Annotation: This post was originally published in July 2022 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.