Amazon launched in Ireland on March 18th, marking its 23rd global marketplace and 11th in Europe. It follows the launch of South Africa in 2024, returning to an annual marketplace expansion cadence after not opening any new markets in 2023.

The expansion into Ireland is a logical extension of existing infrastructure. Amazon established its first Irish fulfillment center in Dublin in 2022, initially serving as an extension of its UK marketplace. Amazon.co.uk was already the dominant e-commerce platform in Ireland, making this expansion less disruptive and more of an operational and fiscal optimization process.

This latest launch follows a proven pattern—Amazon launched the Netherlands marketplace by leveraging German marketplace infrastructure and Belgium by leveraging the French. This approach is logistically more straightforward than required in other more isolated markets Amazon had previously considered but delayed, such as Chile, Colombia, and Nigeria. These standalone locations require more significant capital investment in new infrastructure, whereas Ireland benefits from proximity to the UK, an established customer base, and existing fulfillment capabilities.

The launch will have minimal impact on Ireland’s GDP. According to Marketplace Pulse research, there are fewer than 15,000 Irish sellers across all marketplaces globally. While Amazon has launched a dedicated “Brands of Ireland” page highlighting local businesses, the bulk of sales on amazon.ie won’t be by Irish sellers but will instead follow similar patterns to other newer marketplaces.

For instance, over two years on from Amazon’s previous European launch in Belgium, Marketplace Pulse data shows that less than 1% of sellers are local Belgian businesses, with almost 50% from China, 11% from Germany, and 8% from the UK. Ireland will inevitably show a similar distribution.

Following a season of rapid global expansion between 2017 and 2022—during which 11 new marketplaces launched—territory growth has slowed by both default and design. By default, because Amazon is already established in nations representing over 60% of global GDP, and by design, because Amazon is maturing and attention is naturally turning to profit margin growth over broad market expansion.

Most recent quarterly filings show eight consecutive quarters of year-on-year net margin improvement for Amazon’s international segment, and a methodical approach that leverages existing infrastructure will likely continue. European markets like Norway and Austria are logical next steps, as are Latin American nations like Argentina and Colombia, which could benefit from Brazilian infrastructure in the same way Ireland did from the UK.