In a move that will help pan EU e-commerce trade, Amazon has announced the launch of its Pan European Fulfilment By Amazon (FBA) programme that the company says, will “help sellers of any size export to millions of Amazon customers across the EU more efficiently than ever before”. Amazon also claims that it will mean, “faster shipping times and lower delivery costs” for Amazon customers.

The company released a statement today that explains how the new system will work: “Pan-European FBA enables sellers to deliver their inventory to a local fulfilment centre for Amazon to take care of the logistics; automatically shipping sellers’ products across its European Fulfilment Network according to the anticipated local customer demand.

“Amazon will then pick, pack and ship orders to customers from the closest fulfilment centre where the product is available, as well as handling all customer service inquiries for the seller.”

Amazon also released a five point plan of the scheme:

1. Start : Sellers enroll products that are eligible for Pan-European FBA.

2. Ship : Sellers ship Pan-European FBA enrolled products to a local Amazon Fulfilment Centre;

3. Distribute : Amazon will distribute sellers’ inventory across its European Fulfilment Network – at no extra cost to seller – in order to get it close to customers, based on the anticipated local demand;

4. Orders : When customers order the products, Amazon will handle the fulfilment logistics and provide fast, reliable delivery from the closest fulfilment centre where the product is available;

5. Fees : For the delivery, sellers will only pay the local fulfilment fee  of the marketplace in which the product was ordered. There is no European Fulfilment Network cross-border fee.

Amazon has been ramping up its fulfilment and distribution facilities over the last year or so. The company now has 29 fulfilment centres across seven countries and there are a lot of reports to suggest that Amazon is bringing a lot more of its logistics in-house.