Irish users of Amazon face higher prices in no-deal scenario

IRISH people who buy Amazon products supplied by UK companies face higher prices in a no-deal Brexit.

They also face dealing with such companies without the same EU customer protection legislation that currently covers UK-based companies.

According to the BBC, UK companies are being told to shift their products from warehouses in the UK to warehouses in the EU.

This is because they will not be able to sell their goods into the EU so easily, if at all.

Indeed, Brexit could seriously harm the entire Amazon business model, never mind the businesses that sell through it.

However, a German-based Amazon website has sprung up and some of its prices for products are cheaper than the UK site, where customers are directed when they search for Amazon from Ireland.

At present UK businesses that sell to customers in the UK and across Europe do so via massive warehouses that handle the storage, packaging, delivery and returns of traders’ products. There are more than 20 of these warehouses, or so-called Fulfilment Centres, throughout Europe.

All traders have to do is deliver their products to the centres nearest their customers, and Amazon takes care of the rest.

In readiness for a no-deal scenario, many businesses have now started shipping extra products to Amazon’s fulfilment centres outside the UK.

Joe W Doherty, who runs a Derry-based skincare company, told the BBC: ‘We have been loading our products into Amazon’s pan-European warehouse to help ensure distribution to the European markets.

‘There is only so much contingency planning businesses can afford in the face of so many different outcomes.’