How to sell on international marketplaces

1. 1

   Discover

   Step 1: Choose the markets, and check the product may be sold there

   Before you choose by demand alone, check the duty, any import restriction, and the labeling and safety rules in each market. For trade with the European Union, the European Commission’s Access2Markets covers tariffs, taxes and product requirements¹. Note whether the market requires a local business to be responsible for your product, as the European Union does for most consumer goods⁷.

   What this step produces

   • A shortlist of markets, with the rules each one sets

   Common mistake: Choosing markets by demand alone, then finding that the product needs a certificate or a local responsible business.

   With Promote:Global

   The Demand explorer ranks countries by how much of your product they import and how fast that is growing, with the year of every figure, for 1 AI action. Export check then gives the duty in a market, standard and preferential, the documents a shipment needs and the checks to make before it ships. Export check is free, and it is guidance, not a customs ruling.

   The Demand explorer and Export check

2. 2

   Prepare

   Step 2: Meet the product, labeling and safety rules

   In the European Union, the General Product Safety Regulation, which has applied since December 2024, requires most consumer products to have a responsible business established in the Union, such as the manufacturer, the importer or an authorized representative, whose details must appear on the product or its packaging and in the online listing⁷. Check the regulation’s current text for your product. Other rules cover electrical goods, chemicals, cosmetics, labeling and packaging¹.

   What this step produces

   • A compliance file per product and market
   • The details of your responsible business in the European Union, where needed

   Common mistake: Relying on the marketplace to check compliance, when the seller stays responsible⁷.

   With Promote:Global

   A project holds your certificates and documents with their status and expiry, and an expired one blocks the project until it is renewed. Find service providers lists certification and inspection firms that list themselves. Promote:Global does not act as your responsible business in the European Union or confirm that a product complies.

   Projects

3. 3

   Connect

   Step 3: Choose your channels, and check each platform will accept you

   Canada’s trade commissioner service counts more than 400 e-marketplaces worldwide. A marketplace brings buyers, brand awareness and sales data; your own site lets you shape the content, the language and the currency, and keeps the customer relationship with you².

   Large platforms run regional or country accounts: Amazon, for example, lists separate accounts for North America and Brazil, for Europe, and for several countries in Asia-Pacific and in the Middle East and North Africa³. Regional platforms set their own entry rules. When this guide was written, Jumia’s cross-border program worked through an overseas warehouse model, selling directly in six African countries, with a separate local application for Egypt⁹. Before you apply, read each platform’s seller rules: the countries it accepts sellers from, the documents it asks for, and any extra requirements for your product category.

   What this step produces

   • A channel plan
   • Each platform’s seller requirements

   Common mistake: Signing up on a platform without checking that it accepts sellers from your country.

   With Promote:Global

   On a marketplace project, Search for possible buyers looks on the open web for online marketplaces and retail platforms in your category in the market, ranked by fit to your product and route, for 1 AI action. Each result says where it was found. Read each platform’s own seller rules before you apply.

   Finding connections

4. 4

   Prepare

   Step 4: Apply for the seller account, and get it approved

   Platforms ask for business registration, identification, bank or payment details and, for some markets, tax registrations. Jumia, for example, asks for a business license, the legal representative’s identity document and an email address for most of its sites, and more local documents for Egypt⁹. Allow for the platform to review the application before you can list.

   What this step produces

   • Business registration
   • Identity documents
   • A bank or payment account
   • Tax registrations, where required
   • An approved seller account

   Common mistake: Using shortcuts, such as a borrowed bank account or another company’s registration, which platforms and regulators can shut down.

   You do this step yourself

   Promote:Global does not open marketplace seller accounts. You apply to each platform yourself, on its own terms.

5. 5

   Prepare

   Step 5: Work out import VAT, duty and who pays at the border

   In the United States, duty-free entry for shipments worth $800 or less has been suspended since 2025. Interim final rules from US Customs and Border Protection in June 2026 cover every mode of entry, the post included, which now has its own informal entry process, and a law-firm note of October 2026 reports that the compliance date for some postal requirements moved to 20 January 2027^4,10.

   In the European Union, the customs duty exemption for consignments worth €150 or less ended on 1 July 2026. A temporary customs duty of €3 per line item applies instead, running to July 2028 according to KPMG’s September 2026 note, and an EU-wide handling fee, a fixed amount set by the Commission, is due to start in November 2026^5,11. For VAT, the optional Import One Stop Shop lets you charge the buyer’s VAT at checkout on consignments of €150 or less and pay it in one monthly return. A seller from outside the Union needs an EU intermediary to use it, and without it the buyer pays the VAT and any duty on delivery¹¹.

   In the UK, the relief from customs duty on goods worth £135 or less is to be removed by October 2028, under an HMRC policy paper of 13 July 2026 summarized by Baker McKenzie. VAT is collected at the point of sale for now, and the details remain open⁶.

   What this step produces

   • A landed-cost calculation per market
   • An IOSS registration and intermediary, where used
   • A decision on who acts as importer

   Common mistake: Promising no extra charges on delivery without registering for the Import One Stop Shop or its equivalent, so the buyer is billed at the door and refuses the parcel¹¹.

   You do this step yourself

   Promote:Global does not register you for the Import One Stop Shop or any other tax scheme, and does not act as your importer. Export check gives a market’s standard and preferential tariff rates; the rules for low-value parcels are separate, so confirm them with the customs and tax authorities and with the marketplace before you set a price.

6. 6

   Prepare

   Step 6: Decide how orders will be fulfilled

   You can ship each order yourself from home, send stock in bulk to the platform’s or another firm’s warehouse in or near the market, or ship stock to a local warehouse yourself, as Jumia’s overseas warehouse model requires^3,9. Amazon’s fulfillment service, for example, handles shipping, returns and customer service for a fee³. Freight forwarders, customs brokers and fulfillment houses can help².

   What this step produces

   • A fulfillment and shipping plan

   Common mistake: Shipping each order as a parcel from home when duty and returns make small orders unprofitable.

   With Promote:Global

   Find service providers lists logistics and freight, customs and compliance, and digital and e-commerce firms that list themselves on Promote:Global; whether one is listed for your market varies. A request to a firm carries your company’s contact card, which you see before it is sent, and the firm answers in Messages.

   Service providers

   

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7. 7

   Prepare

   Step 7: Set up customer service and returns

   In the European Union, consumers who buy online can withdraw within 14 days without giving a reason, and goods carry a legal guarantee of at least two years against faults⁸. Other countries set their own rules. Decide whether returns go to a local address, are disposed of, or come back to you, and who pays for them, and publish the policy with your listings².

   What this step produces

   • A returns policy in the local language
   • A return address or partner

   Common mistake: Offering no local returns option, so buyers wait weeks and leave poor reviews.

   You do this step yourself

   Customer service and returns are yours, or your platform’s and fulfillment partner’s. Promote:Global does not handle orders, returns or messages from your buyers.

8. 8

   Prepare

   Step 8: List your products and set the prices

   Write listings in the local language, show prices, shipping and tax in the local currency, publish your shipping and returns policies, and take payment before you ship, through a card processor or a payment service². Make only the claims you can support, and show a certification mark only where its owner has licensed you to use it.

   Price each product from the margin on one order, with the platform’s fees in it. Amazon’s global selling page, for example, describes a monthly fee for its professional plan, referral fees that vary by category, and optional charges for fulfillment and advertising³. The example under What to budget for, below, works one order through.

   What this step produces

   • Listings in the local language
   • A price list per market
   • A margin per order, per product and platform

   Common mistake: Pricing from your home costs without adding the platform’s fees, shipping, duty and returns.

   With Promote:Global

   Landed cost adds goods value, freight, insurance, duty, tax and fees, and shows the cash needed at import, each line marked as your figure, an estimate or a live lookup, so the platform’s fees can go in as your own figures. It is free. On the plan, tick Choose a marketplace and list your product for your target market once the listings are live.

   Landed cost

9. 9

   Grow

   Step 9: Ship the first stock, go live, and reconcile every payout

   Start with one or two markets and a few products. Where a warehouse fulfills the orders, your first shipment is the stock, sent in bulk with its commercial invoice and packing list. Check customers and delivery addresses, and do not ship where you cannot identify the customer or the country the order comes from².

   A payout from a platform is your sales less its fees, refunds and the other charges it deducts. Match each one to the orders, the platform’s fee statement and the deposit in your bank, including the currency conversion, and chase any difference while the period is still open.

   What this step produces

   • The first stock shipment’s invoice and packing list
   • A reconciliation of each payout

   Common mistake: Counting a payout as sales, so the fees and refunds it nets off never reach the margin report.

   You do this step yourself

   Promote:Global does not connect to marketplaces, ship orders or read payouts: you reconcile them yourself, or with your accountant. Where you ship stock to a warehouse, the plan’s shipment steps fit that first shipment.

10. 10

    Grow

    Step 10: Measure the margin, keep up with the rules, then expand

    Track sales, fees, shipping, duty, returns and reviews every month, as a margin per order and per market, and add a market only once the first one is profitable. Duty, VAT, platform fees and product-safety rules are all changing: give someone the job of checking them each quarter for your main markets, and follow the customs and tax authorities’ own pages^4,5,6.

    What this step produces

    • A monthly margin report per market
    • A quarterly compliance check

    Common mistake: Pricing on last year’s low-value parcel or VAT rules.

    With Promote:Global

    The Revenue tracker adds up the revenue you log, by market and by project, against the goal you set for each market; the figures are the ones you enter. Promote:Global does not track marketplace fees or low-value import rules for you: check them with the platforms and with each market’s customs and tax authorities.

    The Revenue tracker

The duty, origin and certificate steps are looked up from your product’s HS code and the two countries, so their number depends on what you sell and where. A step with a condition in brackets appears only where it applies. In your own project, each step names your product and your countries. Building the plan uses no AI action.

On a project, Search for possible buyers looks on the open web for online marketplaces and retail platforms in the category, or for whoever you describe, ranked by fit, for 1 AI action. A result is a lead to check before you contact anyone, not a confirmed buyer.

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