“I live in Italy and am currently selling on the five European Amazon marketplaces, but I want to expand further, to reach my goal of selling on all the markets served by Amazon. I think my next move should be to sell on Amazon in the U.S., because I think customers there are more used to buying products online than they are in Europe. I currently fulfill all of my orders using FBA and I would like to continue doing this for whichever marketplace I expand on to next.

My question is whether you think expanding to Amazon in the U.S. should be my next step, or if there is anything more I can be doing in Europe

“I got into “multi-channel” selling a couple of years back, to increase sales and reduce the risk of all my income coming through one marketplace. It’s going well with sales on Amazon and eBay, including international sites, and my own store. If any one channel went down tomorrow it wouldn’t kill my whole business in a shot like it would have before…”

I’ve been working on eBay for too long. I’m jaded. I’ve lost the will with listing. Having spent the better part of a decade either selling on marketplaces like eBay, or managing a portfolio of seller’s listings and storefronts. I’ve lost hope.

Now you’re just ticking me off sellers. Really? Why are you doing this to me? To us? To your buyers? Why are you continuing to shoot yourself in both foots, and your arms and legs? Why are you mutilating your listings into disfigured abominations of confused conflicting logic. Why?

“Love your answer to Cathy. So I’m taking you up on your offer to ask “How best to find products to sell on Amazon?” Specifically I have a beauty brand with seven products I started selling FBA last February and would like to add some private labels to quickly scale the line. How can I source profitable items to add, including sourcing suppliers?”

There is no doubt that international ecommerce – selling to customers outside your own country – is one of the most complex and challenging aspects of selling online.

I can’t make it less complex for you than it really is (although I would love to do that if I could!) but I can highlight some of the areas that, in my experience, many sellers misunderstand.

So here are my top ten myths about international ecommerce, covering strategy, translation, returns, taxes and duties, passive versus active selling, selling to Europe, shipping and more.

I hope you find it useful, and would be happy to answer any questions you have in the comments below