Amazon Expands AWD Bulk Storage to Europe’s Top 5 Markets

Amazon is officially bringing its Amazon Warehousing & Distribution (AWD) program to Europe. Starting August 20, sellers operating in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the UK can utilize the service to store inventory in bulk for extended periods.

Instead of manually shipping stock to Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) facilities, AWD acts as an upstream holding hub that automatically transfers inventory to FBA fulfillment centers as demand dictates.

Key Highlights for Sellers

• Target Markets: Available in Europe’s five largest e-commerce hubs (DE, FR, IT, ES, UK).

• Capacity Flexibility: Helps merchants bypass standard FBA capacity limits by storing overflow inventory long-term in Amazon’s existing distribution centers.

• Automated Stocking: Auto-replenishment features aim to prevent stock-outs during major peak retail events like Prime Day and Q4/Black Friday.

• Pricing Model: Charges a flat-rate storage fee, alongside processing and transportation costs when goods move to FBA centers.

The Bigger Picture

While AWD gives sellers a more streamlined logisitics flow and reduces manual restocking tasks, it deepens vendor reliance on Amazon’s ecosystem. Over 100,000 European third-party sellers – mostly SMBs – account for the bulk of sales on the platform. Extending storage capabilities allows Amazon to solidify its control over the regional supply chain.

Unlike the US version of AWD, which launched four years ago and now permits inventory distribution to non-Amazon sales channels, the European rollout will initially serve Amazon’s internal network only, with no immediate timeline announced for expanding to smaller European markets.