The US Amazon marketplace is roughly ten times the size of the Canadian one, so every serious Canadian seller eventually wants in. The part that trips people up is inventory. Most of the confusion I hear comes from one program, NARF, that gets pointed in the wrong direction. Here is how the setup actually works, where your stock has to physically live, and what NARF will and will not do for you.
If you are watching margins on both marketplaces, keep our complete guide to Amazon seller fees in 2026 and the 2026 fee cheat sheet open while you plan the move.
The account: one North America Unified Account
You do not open a separate American company or a second Seller Central login to sell on Amazon.com. One North America Unified Account covers the US, Canada, and Mexico from a single dashboard. If you already sell on Amazon.ca you can switch your .com marketplace on inside the same account, verify your identity and a bank account, and start listing. The listings are managed together, but the inventory behind them is not, and that is the whole game.
Where your inventory has to live
Amazon does not move FBA stock between countries for you. If you want to sell on Amazon.com with FBA, the units have to be sitting in US fulfillment centers. That means physically getting your product across the border and into Amazon's American network. There are three common ways in:
- Ship from your supplier straight to a US prep center. If you already import from overseas, route that shipment to a prep center in the US instead of one in Canada. It gets checked, labeled, and forwarded into FBA.
- Ship your Canadian stock south to a US 3PL. If the goods are already in Canada, a freight forwarder or 3PL receives them stateside, then sends them into fulfillment centers on your FBA shipping plan.
- Use your own US ship-from address. Some sellers set up a US receiving point and hand the border crossing to a customs broker.
In every version you need a US ship-from point, prep that meets Amazon's requirements, and someone clearing the goods through customs. Use marketplace-specific SKUs so your US and Canadian quantities stay separate. Mixing them is how sellers oversell one country and stock out the other.
What NARF does, and what it does not
NARF, or Remote Fulfillment with FBA, is the program everyone reaches for and almost everyone points backwards. Here is the actual direction it runs: NARF takes inventory you already have in US fulfillment centers and lets it serve customers on Amazon.ca, Amazon.com.mx, and Amazon.com.br. Amazon handles the cross-border shipping and shows your US stock to shoppers in those other countries. One pool of American inventory, extra marketplaces, no new shipments.
Read that direction again, because it is the opposite of what a Canadian expanding to the US needs. NARF does not take your Canadian FBA stock and sell it to American buyers. There is no program that does. Your .ca inventory cannot fulfill a .com order. So if your plan was to leave everything in Canadian warehouses and flip a switch to reach the US, that switch does not exist. You still have to get product into US fulfillment centers first. NARF only becomes useful later, once you hold US inventory and want to serve Canadian and Mexican customers from it without a second send.
The Canadian reality nobody mentions
Crossing the border with commercial goods makes you an importer, which brings customs clearance, duties where they apply, and US sales tax registration questions once your volume grows. That side has real money and real deadlines attached, and it is not something to wing. We hand all of it to our accounting firm, Jones & Cosman, who handle the cross-border tax and customs side for Amazon sellers. On the freight itself, our notes on freight forwarding for importers cover the moving-parts version.
Frequently asked questions
Can I sell on Amazon.com from Canada without a US company?
Yes. A North America Unified Account lets a Canadian business sell on Amazon.com directly. You do not need a US corporation to open the marketplace or to run FBA there, though a customs broker and a US ship-from point make the logistics far easier.
Does NARF work for Canadian sellers?
Only in one direction. NARF serves Canadian and Mexican customers from inventory you already hold in US fulfillment centers. It cannot send your Canadian FBA stock to US buyers, so it does not help you launch on Amazon.com from Canada. For that you ship inventory into the US first.
How do I get my inventory from Canada into US FBA?
Route it to a US prep center or 3PL, or import to your own US receiving address, then create the FBA shipment from there. A customs broker clears the goods and you enter Amazon's network like any American seller. Keep US and Canadian units on separate SKUs.
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