I am a new individual seller and my marketplace is in Australia. My item was listed and available for purchase on the 10th of October 2023. About 90% of the people that want to purchase my product live in the USA and UK. I have FBA EXPORT enabled and there are no restrictions as it’s only an audio CD with my original music.
I have sent my Australian store link to people in the above mentioned countries and when they select ‘Ship outside Australia’ it shows New Zealand only because it’s in the same region. I’m not sure what’s going on but I have read that Amazon process new ASINs for eligibility once a month. Is this export-eligibility and the reason for the delay?. I have sent messages to support and the response hasn’t been helpful. They cannot tell me if I have done something wrong or if I have to wait until they check for export-eligibility.
In the Export settings it shows’ Currently FBA exports program in Australia is shipping to New Zealand only’. I have not excluded any countries/regions from FBA export. This is disappointing because I don’t know where I stand.
Hello @hans54,
thank you for joining our forum. I am sorry to hear that you are experiencing issues with having your products made available internationally through FBA Export.
It would be helpful to post the ASIN to see, if it is available to be ordered by members of the forum.
In general, not all ASINs are eligible to be exported to every country across the world. The eligibility depends on both the source and recipient country customs and import regulations.
Australia is known to be a country with limited export abilities, customs limitations may prevent your products from being exported.
My strong recommendation is that you also ship your inventory directly into USA FBA, which will enable better shipping possibilities.
I hope this helps. Please feel free to post here whenever you need help.
Hi Kika,
Thanks so much for your quick response. I may have to go with your suggestion as it is the only others way I could sell globally. I understand Amazon has rules and policies but it would help if they told me exactly what needs to be done to fix any issues in FBA EXPORT. My product is approved and I don’t see any limitations. I will probably have to upgrade to a professional account to ship to US & UK marketplaces.
Cheers
You are welcome. From what I know, Australia has always been tricky. They have strict customs regulations that often rule out export on the basis of fears over shipping endangered local species etc.
Remember how Johnny Depp and Amber Heard failed to declare a small puppy in a customs declaration and then they both had to publicly apologize in a video and pay a huge fine?
Australia is a special place.
Anyway, I hope you find a way how to make your business successful. Feel free to post here whenever you need any help & also invite any Amazon Seller friends to ensure this community grows! 
Hi Kika,
Thanks. I do remember the Johnny Depp puppy incident. Australia has strict biosecurity controls to help minimise the risk of pests and diseases entering the country. All travellers must declare certain food, plant material and animal products. Animals, birds, reptiles etc. need to be in quarantine for 10 to 30 days and it depends on the country they are travelling from
I can walk into the post office and mail a CD to another country without a problem, all I have to provide is the description and value of the item for customs and I think that’s what Amazon does with the commercial invoice they prepare and send with the item. It’s only a CD and the ASIN status shows it’s eligible, exportable, no restrictions and limitations. It’s been 2 weeks since it was listed in the Australian store and Amazon cannot tell me the exact reason as to why they are unable to deliver outside Australia.
I have sent about 5 messages to support and I keep getting the same reply every time ’ Delivery currently to Australia and New Zealand only’. This is frustrating and disappointing. I will be removing 50% of my inventory for now and sell globally on eBay. I will have to pack and ship and that’s fine. I think the problem is with Amazon, they are offering FBA EXPORT to their sellers and unable to deliver the service. This is a one off thing for me and eBay may be the way to go. I didn’t realize how complicated this was going to be. Even to list and sell from marketplaces outside Australia I will need to have a bank account in those countries, nominate someone to deal with duties and taxes, upgrade to a professional account and ship inventory to those countries. Amazon is a great selling platform but unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be the right one for me. The main reason I chose Amazon was because of FBA Export, shipping and packing.
Kind regards.
I completely get what you are dealing with. I am doing FBA in the US and Canada with all export settings enabled and I am still unable to create any MCF orders to non-US addresses out of my US inventory.
Amazon is a lot stricter than the actual customs regulations. Why waste time when you can ship inventory directly to the US?
It’s so easy and you don’t need to deal with any customs hassle as long as your inventory is valued under $1000.
Let me know if you need any help with shipping to the US.
It’s similar when you are entering the EU from outside the zone. I think they are over-concerned but it’s the law so there’s no choice but to comply…
Thanks once again Kika. I understand Amazon aren’t interested in selling CD’s anymore due authenticity. Amazon strictly prohibits the sale of counterfeit and fake products and that’s understandable. If that’s the case they need to be more direct and advise their sellers rather than keeping them in limbo. My CD contains my original material copyrighted with the US copyright office.
I have requested removal of my inventory and have them returned to me. I will sell and ship direct to my customers. I also have a contact in the UK that will sell and ship them for me if I shipped them over to him in bulk. UK is a hassle with VAT. Shipping to the USA cost AU$21.00 per CD and that’s a fair bit. I am looking at ECWID to sell the CD’s and have relatives and friends in the US that will help me with the shipping if needed. Thanks for your offer, much appreciated.
You are welcome, thank you for the update. I think that you made a good decision with regards to removing your FBA inventory.
Please note that individually shipping each CD to its international customer can be costly and you may also experience postal delays and non-receipt complaints.
My suggestion is that you launch as a FBA seller in the US to fulfill all international orders and maintain a local FBA inventory in Australia to supply any occasional domestic purchases.
I received my inventory from Amazon, they charged US$49.00 to process and ship them back to me. I registered as a seller with .com and .ca, opened a virtual bank account, filled in the W-8 form and everything looked ok but I wasn’t able to list my product because Music, CD’s, and DVD’s are gated products. It’s strange that I was able to list in the Australian marketplace. Anyway there isn’t much I can do now and I need a break from this nightmare 
. There are many seller’s out there stuck with CD’s and DVD’s they cannot sell on Amazon. What really disappoints me is that Amazon didn’t tell me that the product was gated, I had to spend hours searching the internet for info relating to my problem. In time to come things may change, who’s to know.
Don’t worry about that. Just apply and have the category ungated.
You should be able to get this sorted out. All you need is an invoice from a distributor that contains your information and a combined purchase of minimum 10 units.
Thanks for your reply. The problem is that ‘Listing Limitations and ’ Request Approval’ does not appear in the [Select a product type] page which contains the below that I have selected.
The product type is: CDs & Vinyl > Pop > Easy Listening
Category: CDs & Vinyl
The only active button is [Learn more], I cannot go any further, there isn’t a [NEXT] button.
In Learn More is shows the below,
In Seller Central, click the Inventory drop-down menu and select Add a Product.
Search for the product you want to sell.
In the search results, click the link Listing limitations apply to the right of the product.
If the Request Approval button appears, click the button to begin the application process.
If the Request Approval button does not appear, we are not accepting applications to sell this product at this time. (It does not appear)
Just to let you know that I don’t have the required documents to ungate my product. The documents must come from a distributor or liquidator. I only have the invoice from the manufacturer and the US copyright office where my works have been registered. Amazon has also deactivated my US account because I have violated their Multiple Account Policy. I think it’s because I used the same account name for Australia and USA which I didn’t realize at the time. It doesn’t matter anymore because I am unable to sell my CD and will probably close my account. I am using ECWID and don’t have any issues besides having to do the packing and shipping myself. Thanks for your help.
Thank you for the update. I am very sorry to hear that you are unable to list your CDs and that Amazon deactivated your account.
I would need to see screenshots of what you are seeing when trying to list the CDs.
Also, Amazon wouldn’t deactivate your account because you have a separate account in Australia, because you are allowed to have additional accounts in different countries.
Could you post here screenshots of all the communications?
Sorry I didn’t get back to you earlier, here’s the first email I received from Amazon about the deactivation. Screenshot below. I have changed the account name for the purpose of this email.
All my accounts have now been deactivated. My Australian account name is X123456 and I also opened another store in the US/Canada using the same account name which I didn’t realize at the time was violating their multi account selling policy. What I don’t understand is, if their system was clever enough to know that the same account name was used for Australia and USA stores, why didn’t it stop me from creating the USA store in the first place. The reason I created the US store was because FBA export didn’t work in my Australian store. They never gave me an explanation as to why it didn’t work but I later figured out it could have been due to the restrictions on CD’s and authenticity issues. I wrote back stating that I owned account X123456 and wasn’t aware of their multi account selling policy when creating the US store using the same account name. They replied stating that I will have to submit an appeal. At this stage my Australian account was still active. I admitted to them that I made an honest error and asked why I need to submit an appeal. What do I need to put in the appeal other than what I have already told them. So am I right in saying that my store in Australia and USA must have different account names and having used the same account name has violated Amazon’s multi account selling policy. I have to submit an appeal to reactivate the US account first followed by another appeal to reactivate my Australian account. If I cannot sell my CD due to restrictions should I then bother with reactivating accounts. I removed all inventory prior to the deactivations.
Unfortunately, I cannot see the screenshot, could you post it again?
You are allowed to operate a separate account on each international Amazon marketplace. So, if you have an account in Australia, then you can also have an account in the USA.
Which account was the first to get deactivated and what was the deactivation notice?
Yes I am allowed to operate a separate account but the account name cannot be the same for both marketplaces. I used the same account name X123456 for both marketplaces. I think this is what’s caused the problem. My first marketplace was Australia because it is my country of residence and US the second.
The US account was the first to get the deactivation notice. They are saying that I can no longer use X123456 selling account to sell on Amazon.com(US). Please note all my accounts have been deactivated.
Hello,
Your Amazon.com Seller account has been deactivated in accordance with section 3 of Amazon’s Business Solutions Agreement. Your listings have been disabled. Funds will not be transferred to you but will be held in your account while we work with you to address this issue. This may take up to 90 days, but funds may be held longer. Please ship any open orders to avoid further impact to your account.
Why is this happening?
You have a separate account X123456 which was enforced for violating one of our policies. As a result, you may no longer use the X123456 Selling account to sell on Amazon.com.
How do I reactivate my account?
In order to reactivate this Selling account, X123456 please follow the below steps:
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You must first reactivate the account associated with X123456 by submitting an appeal. Please follow the instructions in the communication received for that account.
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Once you have successfully reactivated that account, please submit an appeal to reactivate the current account, X123456 by using this link: Server Busy. When submitting the appeal, you will need to provide us with the name of the account that was reactivated and the date of reactivation.
What if I don’t own the account – X123456 ?
If you believe you do not own the other account, please follow the below steps:
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If you once owned the account/were a rights owner but no longer own it/no longer have account rights, please submit an appeal following this Server Busy and provide supporting documentation to show that you no longer own it/no longer have any relationship to this account. Supporting documentation may include sales deed, purchase agreement, or business transfer agreement, contract termination, etc.
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If you do not recognize the above account and believe this de-activation was in error, please submit an appeal following this link: Server Busy and confirm that this account does not belong to you. If we cannot substantiate the claim, your account will not be reinstated and this account will not be allowed to do business on Amazon in the future.
What happens if I do not send the requested information?
If you do not provide a valid appeal, or choose not to appeal the deactivation, after 90 days following this notification, you may separately request a funds disbursement by contacting [email protected]. We will conduct a separate investigation to evaluate your account and if we find that you have engaged in deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity; or have abused our systems or repeatedly violated our Policies that protect our customers and selling partners, we may withhold some or all funds in your account.
Regards,
Seller Performance Team
You can use the same storefront name across different international Amazon marketplaces.
They are saying that the other linked account was deactivated over a policy violation.
Did you receive any warnings / violations on the linked account?