For most US sellers, the first Amazon marketplace to expand to is Canada, Mexico or Brazil, because all three sit inside the account you already have. Amazon’s global expansion guide says a US seller needs a “Professional North America and Brazil unified account, which you can use to sell in the US, plus Canada, Mexico, and Brazil” (sell.amazon.com, data checked 2026-10-04). Europe, the Asia-Pacific and the Middle East each need another account. That split, plus one fee rule for linked accounts, sets the order of the decision. The demand data in the Sell Globally dashboard and Marketplace Product Guidance then tells you which country inside that order is worth the work.
This guide is the decision layer: the account map, the fee rule, what the two Amazon tools are for, and an order of gates to run each candidate country through. Country-level detail lives in the linked country guides; market size and VAT by country are covered in Amazon FBA by country, and the option of exporting from US stock without opening anything new is covered in Amazon FBA Export.
The Amazon Account Map: Unified Account vs Regional and Country Accounts
Amazon Global Selling has three kinds of seller account, and which kind a country needs drives the first round of cost and admin. Amazon’s Global Selling page sorts them by region (sell.amazon.com, data checked 2026-10-04):
| Account type | Marketplaces it covers | What a seller on Amazon.com does | Official wording |
|---|---|---|---|
| North America and Brazil unified account | US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil | Uses the existing account | “Use a North America and Brazil unified account to reach Amazon customers in the US, Canada, Mexico, and Brazil.” |
| Regional Europe account | European stores | Creates a Europe account | “Use a Europe account to reach Amazon customers in 28 countries.” |
| Country-specific Asia-Pacific accounts | Australia, India, Japan | Creates one account per country | Asia-Pacific accounts are country-specific: Australia, India and Japan |
| Country-specific Middle East and North Africa accounts | United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt | Creates one account per country | “Use country-specific Middle East and North Africa accounts to reach Amazon customers in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.” |
Three points in that table get lost in most expansion advice.
Canada, Mexico and Brazil are not new accounts. Amazon’s expansion guide tells sellers already on Amazon.com that to expand to those three, they should “use your existing North America and Brazil unified account” (data checked 2026-10-04). The first step costs no new registration. That is why the Americas usually come first.
Everything else is a new account, created from the dashboard. For sellers who want the Americas plus another region, the same guide says to “first create a North America and Brazil unified account. Then create additional regional or country-specific accounts from your Sell Globally dashboard in Seller Central.” Each new account comes with its own registration requirements, which Amazon tells you to review “for the relevant region or country” before you start.
One Europe account is not one country of work. The Europe account opens the European stores, but tax registration still follows where you store goods. That cost lives in the fulfillment decision, covered in Pan-EU FBA vs EFN. The first-step guide is selling on Amazon Europe from the US. For which stores sit inside a single European account, see Amazon FBA by country; we do not repeat that list here.
Counted from the product-category list in Amazon’s expansion guide, there are 20 Amazon stores across the four regions: 4 in the Americas, 10 in Europe, 3 in the Asia-Pacific and 3 in the Middle East and North Africa (data checked 2026-10-04). Store availability is not the same as FBA availability. Each country guide below checks fulfillment country by country, and nothing here should be read as “FBA is available everywhere on this list.”
The Fee Rule for Linked Accounts
Opening a second region does not have to double your subscription, and this is where sellers most often get the cost wrong in both directions. Amazon’s Global Selling page states the rule in two sentences (sell.amazon.com, data checked 2026-10-04):
“There are separate Professional selling plan fees for Americas and Europe regional accounts, and for country-specific accounts for the Asia-Pacific and Middle East and North Africa. However, if you link global Amazon selling accounts, your monthly fee will be either the equivalent of USD 39.99 per month or the sum of the selling plan fees for each region and country in which you have active listings, whichever is lower.”
What follows from that wording:
- The unified account is one plan fee. The base Professional plan on Amazon.com is “$39.99/month + selling fees” (sell.amazon.com, data checked 2026-10-04). Adding Canada, Mexico or Brazil stays inside the Americas regional account, so it does not trigger a second regional plan fee. The Canada guide walks through the Canadian-dollar figure that confuses this.
- Linking is what triggers the cap. The “whichever is lower” comparison applies “if you link global Amazon selling accounts.” An unlinked Europe or Japan account is simply a separate plan.
- “Active listings” is the trigger for each region’s fee in the sum. A dormant regional account with no active listings does not, on this wording, add its plan fee to the comparison.
- Referral and fulfillment fees are not covered by the cap. The same page says referral fees “vary by product category” and are charged per item sold. The linked-account rule only covers the monthly subscription.
Country pages do not all word this the same way. The Amazon.com.au pricing page footnote says that with merged accounts “you will pay the equivalent of $39.99 USD per month, split proportionately across each country or region in which you have an active listing and charged separately in each local currency” (sell.amazon.com.au, data checked 2026-10-04). Both pages cap the total around the USD 39.99 equivalent. One describes a “whichever is lower” comparison and the other a proportional split charged in local currencies. Expect the subscription line on your statements to show up in more than one currency after you link, and budget against the USD 39.99 equivalent rather than one figure per country. Our Australia guide covers the standalone Australian plan price.
The practical conclusion: on subscription cost alone, a second region is close to free once accounts are linked. The real cost of expanding sits in tax registration, compliance, translation and logistics, which is what the gates below are for.
Using the Sell Globally Dashboard and Marketplace Product Guidance to Pick a Marketplace
Amazon offers two Seller Central tools for the “where” question, and they answer different halves of it. The expansion guide introduces both under “Decide where to sell” and says you “Log in to Seller Central to explore these tools” (sell.amazon.com, data checked 2026-10-04).
| Tool | What Amazon says it does | Best used for |
|---|---|---|
| Marketplace Product Guidance | “Review global demand for your existing products, plus category insights and product recommendations.” | Product-first: which of your current ASINs have demand abroad |
| Sell Globally dashboard | “provides data and recommendations for countries where you already sell. It also offers insights and recommendations for new global stores. View your sales potential by country and product, and understand current trends around the world.” | Country-first: sales potential by country, plus creating new regional accounts |
The dashboard is also the place where the account work happens. The same page routes the creation of additional regional or country-specific accounts through it. In practice, the decision and the registration start on the same screen.
What Amazon does not publish about these tools. Amazon’s public pages do not say what data source sits behind “sales potential,” how often the recommendations refresh, or what metric “global demand” is measured in. We have no Seller Central access and do not describe the screens beyond Amazon’s public wording. Treat both tools as a shortlist generator, not a forecast. A country that shows potential still has to clear the requirements, fulfillment and margin gates.
A third, public input. Amazon’s Step 2 (“Select your products”) adds a check anyone can run without logging in: “You can use the Best Sellers lists in the relevant Amazon store to understand which products might be popular” (data checked 2026-10-04). The same step warns that “Amazon product categories can vary by country,” and that some categories need approval or are closed to third-party sellers. If your category is gated in a target store, that country drops down the list whatever the dashboard shows.
A workable routine is to pull candidate countries from Marketplace Product Guidance by ASIN, check the dashboard’s country view for the same products, then open the Best Sellers list in each candidate store and confirm comparable products are actually ranking there. Three signals that agree are a shortlist. One signal alone is a guess.
Which Amazon Marketplace to Expand to First: Four Gates in Order
Run each shortlisted country through these gates in order. A country that fails an early gate is not worth the effort the later gates cost.
Gate 1: Account cost — does it sit inside the account you have?
Countries inside the unified account (Canada, Mexico, Brazil) pass immediately: no new registration and no new regional plan fee. Every other country means a new account and its registration requirements. This gate does not rule countries out. It ranks them, and it explains why Canada is the common first step. Country specifics: Canada, Mexico, Brazil.
Gate 2: Demand — do the tools and the store agree?
Apply the three-signal check from the previous section. Weight Marketplace Product Guidance more than the country view when your catalog is small, because it answers the question at the ASIN level.
Gate 3: Requirements — can you meet them before listing?
Amazon’s Step 3 reads: “Review taxes and regulations in each country you want to sell in. You should also review and complete requirements for product compliance, safety, and listing in each country” (data checked 2026-10-04). It points to the Manage Your Compliance and Compliance Reference tools, covered in our Manage Your Compliance guide. This gate is where countries really separate. Germany’s packaging rules, Japan’s importer rules and India’s FBA structure are each a project of their own. See the Germany, Japan and Netherlands gate map, Japan and India.
Language belongs here too. Amazon says listings “need to appear in local languages.” The Build International Listings tool can cross-list from Amazon.com, sync prices and, in many cases, translate automatically.
Gate 4: Fulfillment — which route ships the order?
Amazon’s guide lays out several routes: FBA Export from US fulfillment centers, Remote Fulfillment with FBA, shipping inventory into local fulfillment centers, Pan-European FBA, and fulfilling orders yourself. If you send inventory abroad, Amazon states that “you or your provider must act as the exporter of record and importer of record,” and that “Any shipments arriving at an Amazon fulfillment center with customs duty charges due will be returned to the sender” (data checked 2026-10-04). A country where you can only reach customers by sending stock in, and where you are not ready to be the importer of record, should wait. For the Gulf, see UAE; for Britain, UK.
Our recommended order is to pass Gate 1 with one unified-account country, prove demand there for a full selling cycle, then use that experience to open the first new-account region. We take the first new-account region one at a time, not in parallel.
Common Mistakes
- Treating “28 countries” as 28 stores. The Europe account reaches customers in 28 countries, but that reach includes delivery from a smaller set of stores. The store-by-store breakdown is in Amazon FBA by country.
- Budgeting a full plan fee per region. With linked accounts, the subscription is capped around the USD 39.99 equivalent. Budget for the requirements work instead.
- Reading dashboard “potential” as a forecast. Amazon does not publish the method. Confirm with Best Sellers lists in the target store.
- Skipping the category check. Categories vary by country and some are gated. Check before you plan inventory.
- Assuming FBA works the same in every store. Brazil local FBA, India FBA and Japan imports each have their own conditions; read the country guide before you ship.
- Confusing FBA Export with expansion. FBA Export sells your Amazon.com listings to foreign buyers. It does not list you in other stores; see Amazon FBA Export.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which Amazon marketplace should a US seller expand to first?
For most US sellers, Canada or Mexico, because both are inside the North America and Brazil unified account a US Professional seller already has. No new account or regional plan fee is needed (data checked 2026-10-04). Brazil is in the same account, but local FBA there has its own conditions; see the Brazil guide.
What is the difference between a unified account and a regional account on Amazon?
The North America and Brazil unified account covers the US, Canada, Mexico and Brazil in one account. Europe uses a regional Europe account, and the Asia-Pacific (Australia, India, Japan) and the Middle East and North Africa (UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt) use country-specific accounts, per Amazon’s Global Selling page (data checked 2026-10-04).
How much does Amazon charge for linked global selling accounts?
Amazon’s Global Selling page says linked accounts pay “either the equivalent of USD 39.99 per month or the sum of the selling plan fees for each region and country in which you have active listings, whichever is lower” (data checked 2026-10-04). Referral and fulfillment fees are charged separately.
What is the Sell Globally dashboard?
It is a Seller Central tool that, in Amazon’s words, “provides data and recommendations for countries where you already sell” and lets you “View your sales potential by country and product.” It is also where existing sellers create additional regional or country-specific accounts (data checked 2026-10-04).
Conclusion
The question of which Amazon marketplace to expand to first is mostly answered by the account map. Canada, Mexico and Brazil sit inside the account you have. Everything else is a new account whose subscription, once linked, is capped around the USD 39.99 equivalent. Use Marketplace Product Guidance and the Sell Globally dashboard to build a shortlist, confirm it against Best Sellers lists, then rank countries by how much tax, compliance and fulfillment work they demand. Open one country, prove it, then open the next.