Matthew Collins, the 23rd of April 2026
The first EU order often goes fine. The tenth brings an email from a customer in Germany or France asking why the courier wants extra money before handing over the parcel. From there, a UK brand's European sales can quietly stall.
Selling from the UK into the EU on Shopify works well when three things are settled before launch. Who pays VAT and duties, and when. Whether your product data can support that. And how the store presents prices, delivery and returns to European buyers. Get those right and EU customers see a clear total at checkout, with no surprise at the door.
Why EU customers get charged on delivery
Since the UK left the EU, a parcel from a UK store is an import. VAT is due, and duties may be due, depending on the goods and their value.
If the store doesn't collect those at checkout, the courier collects them on delivery. That's where the complaints, refused parcels and returns come from. The product was fine. The price just wasn't the price.
So the decision that matters most is whether you charge VAT and duties upfront. We almost always recommend that for consumer sales. A slightly higher price at checkout converts better than a surprise bill later.
What does Shopify need from you?
Shopify's own guidance covers the main pieces.
For VAT, Shopify's tax guidance for UK merchants says to register for the Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS) for physical goods. That lets you collect VAT at checkout on orders up to €150.
For duties, Shopify can collect duties and import taxes at checkout. The store needs a few things in place first.
- HS codes on your products.
- A country or region of origin for each product.
- A carrier that supports DDP labels, if you buy shipping labels through Shopify.
Shopify is clear that duty charges at checkout are estimates. If product information is wrong, the customer might still be charged extra on delivery. That makes your product data part of the customer experience.
Product data is the real project
On the cross-border stores we work on, the tax settings take an afternoon. The product data takes longer.
HS codes decide how goods are classified at customs. Many UK catalogues have them missing, inconsistent or copied from a single supplier sheet. Since October 2025, Shopify lets you set country-specific HS codes, including extended codes, so you can classify a product for each destination.
Country of origin matters just as much. It's easy to assume "made in the UK" when a product is designed in Britain but made elsewhere. The origin is where the goods were made, and it affects what the buyer pays.
We usually run a short data cleanup before switching duties on. It's the same thinking we apply to any catalogue: fix the structure once, so every market benefits.
Setting up markets for European buyers
With tax and data in place, the storefront itself needs to feel local enough to buy from.
- Currency. Show euro prices to EU buyers, rounded sensibly.
- Language. English works for some markets. Others convert better with translated product pages.
- Delivery. Show realistic delivery times and costs by country, not one European rate.
- Returns. Explain how returns work from the EU, and who pays. This is where cross-border trust is won or lost.
Shopify now lets you customise your theme and checkout by market, so EU buyers can see messaging that fits them without a separate store.
Once orders are flowing, check what each market actually earns. Shipping, duties and returns can turn a busy market into a thin one. Shopify's profit reports by market make that easier to see.
What about trade customers in the EU?
B2B sales work differently. Trade buyers in the EU usually expect the reverse charge, where VAT is accounted for by the buyer.
Shopify added VAT number validation at checkout in February. But its coverage is specific. It handles EU-to-EU cross-border and EU-to-UK shipments. It doesn't cover goods shipped from the UK into the EU. Our note on VAT number validation at checkout explains the detail. UK wholesalers selling into Europe need to agree their approach with their accountant, then build the store around it.
Where parallel helps
We're based in Belgium and most of our published work is for UK businesses. That puts us on both sides of this question every week. Read how we work with UK businesses and with businesses selling across Europe.
Forty Clothing is a useful example. After online grew to half of retail sales, the Glasgow brand started expanding across the UK and Europe, with online leading the way. Growth like that depends on EU customers getting a clean checkout and a parcel with nothing to pay on arrival.
We design and build Shopify stores that are ready to sell across borders. That includes market setup, product data, tax and duty settings, and a checkout that tells European buyers the full price. See how we approach Shopify design and build.
If your EU orders are growing but so are the complaints, send us a brief. Tell us where you ship from, what you sell and which markets matter most.