VAT and Ecommerce news from around the world to help you stay up-to-date with the market.
On the 1st of March, France introduced a Small Parcel Tax (SPT), known in French as the Taxe sur les Petits Colis (TPC). It applies to all parcels imported into France from outside the EU that are worth €150 or less. The tax is €2 per HS6 code per parcel. For example, you ship a parcel worth €100 to a customer in France. It contains a hardhat and two wool beanies in different colours. Between the three products there are two HS6 codes, so the total SPT to pay on this parcel would be €4.
This tax is in addition to the two upcoming EU-level fees: the Small Parcel Levy in July and the handling fee, which, whilst not yet confirmed, is expected to be implemented in November. France will transition to the EU-wide handling fee when it is in effect.
France isn’t the only EU nation to implement a parcel tax or handling fee. However, it stands apart from them for a major reason: you’ll need a French VAT registration to pay it. Instead of being collected at the border, the tax needs to be paid through the digital system that we pay French VAT through. That means, you will need to register for VAT in France, just to pay the SPT. Think of the VAT number as the account number that allows you to access the filing system.
The Small Parcel Tax is filed as an appendix to the French VAT return. That means you'll need to register for VAT in France to file the tax. If you have an IOSS number, this applies to you as well. The current guidance states that you should specify that the VAT registration is to meet the SPT reporting requirements.
There are alternatives. You could pause selling to France for the meantime. Doing so could buy you time to see what happens with the proposed EU-wide parcel charges. Once the rules are clearer, you can decide the best way forward.
Another option is to look into storing your goods in the EU, as EU-wide duties like this are coming into place this year. Right now, rerouting your parcels through another EU country can help you avoid SPT in France. In the long run, however, it might be easier and more cost effective to fulfil orders from within the EU.
Finally, talk to your freight forwarder. They might be able to help you in two ways:
If your shipment clears EU customs in another country (say Belgium or the Netherlands) you won't have to pay SPT, even though the final destination is France. That means re-routing is likely the cheapest alternative - at least for the meantime.
Since 2012, Amazon has spent EUR 10 billion in Poland. That money has gone into infrastructure, hiring and developing new technology. Now, the marketplace has announced a further 5 billion of investment alongside the opening of a new fulfilment centre.
In 2026 Amazon plans to open it’s 12th fulfilment centre in Poland - a robotic fulfilment centre in Dobromierz (Lower Silesian Voivodeship). The facility will be 200,000 square metres across four floors, with over 5000 robots to support human staff.
Amazon isn’t alone in recognising Poland’s strategic importance to ecommerce in Europe. For starters, Poland shares a border with Germany – the EU’s largest market – whilst generally offering more cost-effective fulfilment options. Notably, Poland is the entry point into Europe for rail freight coming from China. Since the start of the War on Iran in February, getting freight through the Gulf has been difficult. It has certainly gotten more expensive. Consequently, rail freight from China has seen a resurgence in popularity, much of which heads through Poland on its way to the rest of Europe.
Agentic shopping is getting more popular with big brands. Both Sephora and Shopify certainly seem to think it’s the future of ecommerce.
Sephora has integrated its app into ChatGPT so US members of its loyalty programme - “Beauty Insiders” - will be able to browse Sephora recommended products through AI conversation. Shoppers will be able to use their loyalty points and membership benefits whilst chatting to the AI. They won't, however, be able to checkout inside ChatGPT. Instead, they’ll be redirected to Sephora to complete the transaction.
“At Sephora we are passionate about assisting our customers with the best beauty advice and curation, wherever and whenever they want. Today this means piloting the Sephora app on new intelligent channels such as ChatGPT. We are proud to introduce this experience in the US market, with the goal of expanding this globally” - Anca Marola, Global Chief Digital Officer of Sephora.
This move makes sense when you remember that Sephora has always been big on personalisation as part of building customer loyalty. Adding ChatGPT at the discovery stage makes finding new products conversational.
Whether your store is built on Shopify or not, the ecommerce platform wants you to have access to agentic shopping. Shopify sellers can now use Agentic Storefronts to make their products discoverable in all the major AI channels. If you’re not selling on Shopify don’t worry – you won’t get left behind. You can add your products to the Shopify Catalogue and make your stock discoverable as well.
Last summer Adam James, Founder of Qwestyon, wrote for us about Shopify appearing in ChatGPT's code, and what you could do to prepare for agentic commerce. Read his article here: ChatGPT x Shopify: The Next Big Ecommerce Sales Channel
ChatGPT has been displaying product cards since the beginning of 2025. It’s created a lot of ecommerce news, as a new, hyper-personalised channel for consumers to discover new products. But how often do people actually go to ChatGPT to shop? Profound’s research shows that in 2 million prompts, shopping showed up less than 10% of the time. When people are shopping with ChatGPT, the LLM mostly cites product pages from huge brands like Walmart or Target.
More than 50 million copies of books recommended by #BookTok were sold across Europe in 2025. That translates to €800 million in revenue. Germany alone accounting for 28 million books and €482 million of that total.
Keen to capitalise on this momentum, TikTok is expanding its #BookTok Bestseller List and in-store sticker programme to new countries. The first three markets will be the UK, Italy and Spain, taking the total of Europeans countries to 6. The bestseller list first launched in Germany in 2023 and expanded to Switzerland and Austria the following year.
