European Fulfilment Services
for UK Sellers

Before 2021, a UK business could ship to an EU customer almost exactly like a domestic order. Since Brexit, every UK-to-EU consignment needs a customs declaration, and import VAT applies. Delivery times lengthened, paperwork increased, and customers started receiving unexpected charges before their parcel would be released.

It got sharper in July 2026, when the EU removed the long-standing €150 customs-duty exemption. Now even low-value parcels entering the EU attract customs duty, currently a temporary flat rate per item while the EU transitions to full classification-based duties. For UK sellers shipping order by order, that is more cost and more admin on every single parcel. Holding stock inside the EU is the clean way around it, because your orders no longer cross the border at all.

It changes customs from a per-parcel problem into a one-time one. Instead of every order clearing customs individually, with duty, VAT handling and declarations each time, you send your stock into the EU once, in bulk, and clear it then. From that point, every order is a domestic EU shipment.

The savings compound: no per-parcel duty, no cross-border carrier surcharges, faster delivery that lifts conversion, and fewer failed or refused deliveries from customers surprised by charges. Returns also stay inside the EU, so they are quicker and cheaper to process and get back into sellable stock. The more you sell into Europe, the more the EU-based model pays for itself compared with shipping everything from the UK.

We run our own, self-run fulfilment centres in three EU countries: two in Germany (Wetzlar in Hesse and Kösching in Bavaria), one in France (Taverny near Paris) and one in Austria (Enzersdorf near Vienna). Alongside our UK warehouse in Maidenhead near London, that gives you a network covering both the UK and the EU's core markets.

Germany matters most here, because it is the EU's largest e-commerce market, so holding stock there puts you closest to the greatest number of European customers, with excellent onward links across the union. You will find every location on our locations page.

You ship your inventory into one of our EU centres as a single bulk consignment, and that is the point where customs is handled, once, rather than on every future order. We help you plan how much stock to send and where, based on where your EU customers are concentrated.

From goods-in onward, your products are stored, tracked in real time in the Connector and ready to ship the moment orders arrive. Many brands split stock, keeping UK inventory in Maidenhead and EU inventory in Germany, France or Austria, so both markets are served domestically. We guide you through the transfer and the paperwork so the first shipment goes smoothly.

IOSS (Import One-Stop Shop) is an EU VAT scheme that simplifies how import VAT is collected on B2C orders valued up to €150 shipped into the EU from outside it. If you ship directly from the UK, IOSS lets you charge VAT at checkout so your customer is not billed on delivery, and it is still very much in use.

Here is the key point: once you hold stock inside the EU with us, your sales are no longer imports, they are intra-EU sales, so they are handled through OSS (One-Stop Shop) instead of IOSS. Either way, VAT stays manageable. The €150 customs-duty change from July 2026 affects duty, not VAT, and it is exactly the per-parcel cost that EU-based fulfilment removes.

Not when you fulfil from inside the EU. Because the order never crosses an external border, there is no import, no customs charge and no duty demand at your customer's door. They receive their parcel exactly like a domestic order, which is what they expect and what keeps conversion and repeat rates high.

If you instead ship directly from the UK, your customers can face import VAT and, since July 2026, customs duty on arrival, unless you cover it yourself through a DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) arrangement. Avoiding that experience entirely is one of the main reasons brands move stock into the EU.

DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) means the seller, not the customer, covers all import charges, so the buyer is never asked to pay duty or VAT to receive their parcel. It is the way to protect the customer experience if you do ship cross-border from the UK, but it means you absorb the customs cost and admin on every order.

EU-based fulfilment makes the DDP question mostly disappear for your EU sales, because those orders are domestic and never incur import charges in the first place. DDP stays useful for the initial bulk transfer of your stock into the EU and for any markets you still serve directly. We can advise on the right approach per market.

Yes, and this is a real advantage of EU-based fulfilment. Your EU customers return to an EU address, so returns stay inside the union instead of making an expensive, slow round trip across the border. We process them with ABC classification and photo documentation, then get sellable items back into stock quickly.

Fast, local returns matter most in high-return categories like fashion, where a smooth returns experience directly affects whether customers buy again. You track the status of every return in the Connector. More on our approach on the returns page.

Yes. Both your UK and EU stock, orders, tracking and returns run through a single dashboard in the Quivo Connector, so you never juggle two systems or two providers. You see stock levels in each location, route orders automatically to the right warehouse and keep one clear view across both markets.

That unified setup is what makes splitting inventory across the UK and the EU practical rather than a management headache. As you grow, you simply adjust how much stock sits where. Learn more about the software on our Connector page.

Any UK brand with growing EU order volume benefits, but a few cases stand out:

• Brands where EU delivery times or customer charges are hurting conversion and reviews
• High-return categories like fashion, where local EU returns save real money
• Subscription and repeat-purchase brands that cannot afford border delays on every cycle
• Sellers on marketplaces and platforms like Amazon or TikTok Shop that expect fast, compliant EU delivery
• Brands testing the EU that want to scale without rebuilding logistics each time

If you are still shipping every EU order from the UK and feeling the cost, it is usually the point to switch. Talk to our team about your markets.

Onboarding typically takes a few weeks, depending on your setup. The steps are clear: connect your shop to the Connector, get your EU EORI and VAT registration in place, plan your stock split, then send your first bulk consignment into an EU centre. Once your stock is booked in and the integration is tested, you go live.

The compliance setup is the part most brands worry about, and it is exactly where we help, so it becomes a one-time task rather than something you face on every order. Our team guides you through it with short response times. Get started on our contact page.