Expanding into international Amazon marketplaces is a great way to reach more people and grow your Amazon business, but abiding by other countries’ rules, regulations, and tax codes can become complicated. 

Amazon’s North American Remote Fulfillment (NARF) program allows sellers to list their products on international marketplaces like Amazon Canada and Amazon Mexico without sending any inventory to those countries. 

The program makes it easy for sellers to get their international listings up and running quickly – without dealing with customs, logistics, and other costly expenses. 

Is it really that simple? In this article, we will explore the pros & cons, eligibility, program fees, and how to enroll in the Amazon NARF program.

North American Remote Fulfillment (NARF) is a program that allows sellers to store their products in Amazon fulfillment centers located in the United States and fulfill orders to customers across Canada and Mexico. 

Once you’re enrolled in the program and have your offers created, your listings will become available for customers to order on Amazon.ca and Amazon.com.mx. When a customer places an order, your U.S. FBA inventory is used to fulfill orders across the border.

If sellers didn’t use NARF but wanted to sell in both Canada and Mexico, they would need to send FBA shipments to both countries and deal with additional storage fees, customs duties, and taxes. NARF eliminates this problem and allows sellers to use one pool of inventory for all three countries.

READ MORE | How to Sell on Amazon Canada

Here’s how NARF works:

Inventory

All three Amazon marketplaces will share your inventory stored in Amazon’s fulfillment centers. For example, if you have 100 units available for sale, 100 will be shown in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. 

SKUs

Amazon uses a single “Global SKU” for your product, meaning you only need to create the listing once – you won’t need to create new listings in Canada and Mexico.

If you decide to send inventory to Canada or Mexico FBA, your inventory would be managed separately, and your products would need a marketplace-specific SKU – effectively managing three different listings and inventory pools. 

Shipping

The Remote Fulfillment program offers Prime customers free shipping in Mexico (5 to 9 days) and Canada (7 to 12 days). Non-Prime customers can expect longer shipping times. Customers will also be responsible for any applicable import duties and taxes on the items they order. 

Note: “Amazon NARF” is sometimes referred to as “Remote Fulfillment” as Amazon pushes this program into other regions around the world. 

Eligibility to enroll in Amazon NARF

Here are the eligibility requirements for enrolling products in the Amazon NARF program: 

• Have a professional Amazon seller account. You must be a professional seller (not an individual) in order to enroll in Remote Fulfillment. 
• Upgrade to a North American Unified Account. A North American Unified Account allows you to easily switch between the U.S., Canadian, and Mexican marketplaces. Upgrading is easy by going to the ‘Upgrade to a Unified Account’ page in Seller Central. 
• Use Fulfillment by Amazon. Products enrolled in NARF must be enabled for FBA. FBM listings will not be eligible. 
• Meet all trade compliance and destination-country regulations. Understand each country’s trade compliance requirements and regulations on the types of products you sell. 

Product types not eligible for Amazon NARF:

As is the case with selling in the U.S., Amazon has restrictions on what can and cannot be sold on the platform. With NARF, those same restrictions apply.  Please click the following links to learn more about ineligible products for the Amazon Remote Fulfillment program.

• Restricted products
• Prohibited products
• Dangerous goods

Amazon NARF program fees

Remote Fulfillment fees look a little different than the usual FBA fees you’re probably used to. To cover shipping internationally, Amazon charges more per order than if you were fulfilling orders within the U.S. 

According to Amazon, “Program fulfillment fees and surcharges apply only to sales of products on Amazon.ca and Amazon.com.mx and are different from your U.S. FBA fulfillment fees. Standard U.S. FBA fulfillment fees will apply for sales on Amazon.com. The referral fee will be based on the store where the customer buys the item.”

Here are the Remote Fulfillment fee rates for both Canada and Mexico:

Canada

Mexico

What are the pros and cons of the Amazon NARF Program?

Using the Amazon NARF program to post your products for sale in international marketplaces has many benefits but may also have a few cons. Let’s go over both so you can decide what is best for you and your business. 

Pros of the Amazon NARF program

• Sellers can test new marketplaces quickly. Launching a product on an international marketplace can be risky. If your product sells well in the US, it doesn’t mean it will perform well in Canada or Mexico. Using Remote Fulfillment, you can launch your products without sending any inventory to another country. 
• All orders are shipped from the U.S. Orders from all three North American marketplaces will be shipped from a shared inventory pool. Keeping your inventory in the U.S. saves you time, money, and any logistical headaches that come with shipping internationally. 
• Customers pay import duties and fees. If a customer in Mexico or Canada places an order, that may be subject to import taxes and duties. The seller is not responsible for those fees or taxes. 
• Sellers do not need to file or pay taxes to Canada or Mexico. As mentioned above, customers are responsible for paying any duties and taxes. Sellers do not need to collect or pay Canadian or Mexican taxes. When customers order through Remote Fulfillment, they pay those taxes and fees at checkout and authorize the international carriers that partner with Amazon to pay this amount to Canadian or Mexican authorities on their behalf.
• Sellers do not need to create new listings. With the unified account, all of your listing information, including photos and reviews, will be duplicated on each foreign marketplace. Your listings will also be translated into the local language. We suggest double-checking the listing copy with a translator to ensure that it makes sense. 
• Easy to set up. You can enroll or unenroll your products anytime from your Seller Central account. Once enrolled, you, as a seller, do not have to do anything else. Amazon will handle all picking, packing, shipping, and customer service, as with all FBA orders. 

Cons of the Amazon NARF program 

• It is more expensive for the customer. Since customers are responsible for paying import duties and taxes, it may cost them more money to purchase your product. If you store your products in a Canadian or Mexican FBA fulfillment center, sellers are responsible for collecting and paying the taxes, saving customers money. 
• Sellers need to keep track of exchange rates. Since customers are purchasing in their local currency, sellers need to keep track of exchange rates to ensure they’re charging the correct price. You do not want to undercharge or overcharge your product.
  
• Longer shipping times. Since orders will be sent to different countries from the U.S., the shipping times will take longer than typical Prime shipping. As mentioned above, shipping times to Mexico are 5 to 9 days, and to Canada are 7 to 12 days.
• Higher fulfillment fees. Amazon charges more for remote fulfillment as it costs more to ship products internationally. This is another reason you need to keep track of exchange rates to ensure you profit after Remote Fulfillment fees. 

How to enroll in the Amazon NARF program 

Now that you know how the program works, let’s get you enrolled! To get started, go to the Remote Fulfillment with FBA page in Seller Central. The first page will go over how the program works and links to their fees and policies page. 

After going through Amazon’s policies and understanding all of the fees, click on next. 

The next page is where you will choose which marketplaces you want to add offers in – Canada and Mexico, in this case.

Amazon also states, “By enrolling in Remote Fulfillment with FBA, you will also be automatically enrolled in Build International Listings and you allow Build International Listings to duplicate your US offers for the target store or stores. Your US price is synchronized to the target stores and is adjusted for estimated differences in fulfillment fees, referral fees, exchange rates, and costs that you may incur when converting proceeds back to U.S. dollars.” 

Even though Amazon does adjust your price according to the exchange rate, we suggest still keep an eye on your pricing as mentioned above. 

Amazon provides fee examples to ensure you understand the costs involved. Once you are done here, click “Next.”

The last page has you remove seller-fulfilled offers if you have both FBA and seller-fulfilled offers with the same SKU. “If you participate in Remote Fulfillment, any seller-fulfilled offers you have will not be able to share the same SKU as an FBA offer.”

If you want your items to have a seller-fulfilled offer for the same items, you must have a separate SKU. 

Read through this to make sure you understand and check the box. Once you’re done here, click “Enroll.”

Now you are enrolled and ready to sell internationally! Amazon will evaluate all of your offers and automatically enroll any eligible items. Any new items that you add to your U.S. inventory will also be automatically added to Remote Fulfillment. 

Advertising on Amazon.ca and Amazon.com.mx

Advertising your products on Amazon is a great way to increase your sales, especially when you have a newly launched product. Just like advertising on Amazon.com, Amazon NARF sellers are also able to advertise their products on Amazon.ca and Amazon.com.mx.

In your Amazon Advertising console, sellers can easily switch to their advertising accounts in Canada and Mexico and set up campaigns. 

We suggest copying successful campaigns you’ve run in the U.S. to both Canada and Mexico, though it is also important to test out different strategies as some may work better on another marketplace. This can include Sponsored Products Ads, Sponsored Brands Ads, and Sponsored Display Ads. 

Note that the keyword bids and cost per click will likely be lower in Canada and Mexico compared to the US market due to less competition and sellers. (Which is great for you!)

READ MORE | Amazon Advertising Guide for Sellers

Will you be using Remote Fulfillment?

NARF — or Remote Fulfillment with FBA — is a fast and easy way to get your products in front of international customers – without having to deal with logistics or customs. We hope this article gave you a better understanding of how the program works and if it will work for your business. 

Give it a try and let us know how it works for your Amazon business! 

Want to learn more about how you can use Jungle Scout to launch, grow, and run your Amazon business? Click the “Learn More” button below!