Amazon on Tuesday built another piece of its own version of the European common market, by launching a new service that will handle storage and shipping of wares across the continent for third-party merchants.
Until now, sellers using Amazon’s logistics service to distribute products across the European Union could either export their merchandise to the continent from U.K. warehouses, paying a cross-border fee, or store inventory locally in several countries at once.
The new service, dubbed Pan-European Fulfillment by Amazon, allows merchants to ship their inventory to any Amazon warehouse in Europe.
Amazon will take it from there. Based on its ability to predict customer demand by using data, it may move the merchandise to a warehouse in another country closer to where the shoppers will be. Sellers will pay Amazon only a fulfillment fee specific to the country where the product is sold.

In Europe, Amazon’s retail juggernaut has picked up speed from the increased popularity of the Prime loyalty program, which offers shipping and entertainment perks.The move comes as Amazon has made a huge business out of handling logistics for third-party sellers, a move that allows it to strengthen its role as a key arbiter of e-commerce while buttressing its profit margins. Its global shipping revenue rose 40 percent in the past quarter to $1.8 billion.
There, the new service could help boost exports among small and medium companies, Francois Saugier, director of EU Seller Services at Amazon, said in a statement.