Why isn't every US seller already on Amazon.ca ? Serious friction: • Bilingual l
By Max Sigurdson-Scott · May 20, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
Why isn't every US seller already on Amazon.ca?
Serious friction:
• Bilingual labeling is federal law. The Consumer Packaging and Labelling Act requires identity, net quantity, and key declarations in both English and French on the physical packaging. Country-wide.
• Amazon.ca is roughly 7-10c on the US dollar. Canadian Amazon GMV sits at $10 to $15B USD versus the US at $190 to $220B. A US seller doing $1M a year is modeling $50 to $80K from Canada in year one.
• Someone has to be importer of record with CBSA. That someone is you, your freight partner, or a Canadian entity acting on your behalf.
Can you answer YES to all 4 questions below? If so... it might be a good idea to launch in the great white north.
1. Is Amazon.com already profitable for you? (Expansion adds variance to a working business. It does not rescue a thin one - also, look up "Complexity Tax" it is a real thing)
2. Can your packaging be bilingual EN+FR? (Redesign, sticker over, or a CA-specific SKU run.)
3. Are you ready to be Canadian importer of record? (Or partner with someone who is.)
4. Will you register for a Canadian GST/HST number? (Registration lets you recover the 5% GST you pay on imports. Skipping it leaves that 5% on the table forever.)
Before we tally... NARF (North American Remote Fulfillment) is a good idea for a lot of people to start. Amazon ships your US-stock inventory to Canadian buyers from US warehouses. The buyer is the importer of record. You spend zero on Canadian infrastructure. Watch the data for 90 days. The 5 to 10 SKUs that pull weight become your first FBA-CA inbound shipment. Everything else stays on Remote Fulfillment forever. You never split inventory on a SKU until it earns the right.
On a seller pushing CAD $200K of inventory into Canada annually, the recoverable GST is roughly CAD $10K. The cost of registering is a fraction of that.
Anyway, count your yeses. 4/4? launch this quarter. 2-3, Remote Fulfillment only for 90 days while you fix the gap. 0-1 stay on Amazon.com. Every dollar of expansion overhead is a dollar not spent on listings and ads that already work.
This week's Selling From the Beach deep dive is the full Canada decision sheet. Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/gxg_PZS7