Amazon Finally Lets UK Sellers Hold Their Money in Pounds

Amazon quietly rolled out something genuinely useful for once. On 5 November, it launched Seller Wallet GBP for Amazon.co.uk, and if you've ever had money sat in limbo while you waited for a currency conversion to clear at a rubbish rate, this one's worth ten minutes of your time.

What's actually changed

Amazon has launched Seller Wallet GBP, allowing eligible sellers on Amazon.co.uk to hold, pay, and transfer proceeds in pounds sterling. It sits inside Seller Central, so there's no new login or separate app to wrestle with. Sellers on Amazon.co.uk can now hold their proceeds in pounds sterling, pay UK suppliers and move money to UK bank accounts from within Seller Central, with overseas sellers able to convert funds into more than 20 currencies.

The useful bit for anyone who buys stock from overseas sellers or pays suppliers directly: transfers in pounds to UK bank accounts are free. A volume-based fee applies to these transfers, and it falls as a seller's business with Amazon grows. So the more you turn over, the cheaper it gets to move your own money around. For sellers trading across more than one Amazon store, all three currency wallets - GBP, EUR, and USD - are accessible within Seller Central, with each kept separate for easy tracking and management by currency.

Why Amazon's bothered doing this

Amazon's own line is that running a business across borders adds complexity most sellers could do without. Manasi Kudtarkar, general manager of Amazon Seller Wallet, said selling in the UK and abroad can make everyday finances more complex, and that Seller Wallet GBP gives sellers more choice over how they manage UK proceeds, from the same place they run their Amazon business. That's corporate speak for "we noticed people were losing money to bad exchange rates and middlemen, so we built our own version instead."

It's not new technology for Amazon globally. Seller Wallet first launched in the US store in 2022. The GBP version is the missing piece for anyone running stock across the UK, EU and US at once. Amazon said the GBP wallet completes the set for sellers trading across its UK, EU and US stores.

Where this actually helps resellers

If you're sourcing from UK wholesalers, clearance houses or distributors and getting paid in GBP by Amazon anyway, this probably won't change your life. But there are a few genuine use cases worth flagging:

• Importers and arbitrage sellers. If you buy from EU suppliers or run parallel listings on Amazon.de or Amazon.fr, you can now keep proceeds in the currency you earned them in and pay a supplier directly in that currency, rather than converting to GBP and back again, losing a slice twice.
• Multi-marketplace sellers. Running UK and US storefronts side by side means you no longer need a separate Payoneer or Wise setup just to see where your money actually is. It's all inside one Seller Central view.
• Cashflow timing around peak season. With the UK's festive fulfilment surcharge running since mid-October through to 14 January, and the fuel and logistics surcharge having stepped up from 1.5% to 2% this month, every extra holding cost or conversion fee during Q4 matters more than usual. Keeping proceeds in GBP until you're ready to move them, rather than being converted automatically, gives you a bit more control over timing.

The catches worth knowing

Nothing from Amazon is ever completely frictionless, and Seller Wallet has a patchy track record on other marketplaces. US sellers have reported funds getting stuck during verification reviews, and support response times have been a common gripe on seller forums for years. None of that means the GBP version will behave the same way, but it's sensible to test it with a smaller transfer first rather than routing your entire month's payout through a brand new system on day one.

It's also opt-in, not automatic. Seller Wallet works separately for GBP, EUR and USD, and eligible sellers can sign up at no cost. You'll need to check eligibility inside Seller Central under the payments section rather than assuming it's switched on for you.

What to do with this right now

If you're paying suppliers in euros or dollars every month, or you're juggling more than one Amazon store, it's worth ten minutes checking whether you're eligible and running a small test transfer before the Black Friday payout crunch hits. The money you save on conversion spreads over a busy November and December adds up faster than people expect, especially once order volumes spike and every percentage point on fees and FX starts compounding.

We'll be tracking how this performs in practice over the next few weeks inside the Lunar FBA community, comparing notes with members who sell across UK and EU stores and flagging anything that doesn't match Amazon's pitch. If you're already testing it, drop your experience in the group so the rest of us aren't finding out the hard way during peak season. Small admin wins like this one rarely get talked about, but they're exactly the kind of thing that protects margin when fees are only moving in one direction.