A webshop or retailer is not known for waiting. You have thousands of orders per day, customers who expect their package within 48 hours, and margins that leave no room for failed declarations or double VAT levies. Since the abolition of the €22 exemption in July 2021, every shipment from a third country is subject to declaration — even that €19 sneaker. What was once a threshold question is now a scalability problem. DouaneDoc builds customs flows that scale with you, integrated with your shop platform and your fulfillment partner.
What’s at play in e-commerce and retail
The biggest change of recent years is both fiscal and operational. Fiscal through IOSS (Import One-Stop Shop) for shipments under €150: you collect the VAT at the online checkout and remit it monthly via one EU return. Operational through ICS2 release 3 (since 2024–2025), which requires Pre-Loading Advance Cargo Information for every air, postal and courier shipment — including a correct 6-digit HS code and a credible goods description. “Various items” or “general merchandise” is refused by the carrier.
Beyond that there is the complexity of EU cross-border sales. Above €10,000 turnover per year you must charge VAT in the consumer’s country. OSS (One-Stop Shop) solves that administratively, but only works if your customs and logistics flow knows which country is the final destination. Wrong hub routing or incorrect IOSS numbers lead to double levies and angry customers.
Finally there are returns. A German customer returns a sweater to your NL warehouse: that’s intra-EU, no problem. But a UK customer post-Brexit or a Swiss customer? Then a whole inbound flow kicks off with return shipment declarations, possibly Returned Goods Relief to avoid double duties, and correct processing in your accounting. Anyone handling this manually burns through their margins.
Documents e-commerce and retail often need
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H7 declaration (low-value shipment) — Simplified import declaration for shipments ≤€150 from third countries. Requires a valid IOSS number, otherwise a regular H1 declaration.
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H1 declaration for B2B and higher values — The full import declaration for everything above €150 or outside IOSS.
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Bulk export declaration (DECO) — We bundle export shipments from your fulfillment partner into one consolidated declaration with underlying manifest.
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IOSS registration and intermediary services — For non-EU sellers we arrange IOSS registration via a fiscal intermediary.
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Returned Goods Relief (RGR) — For returns within three years in unaltered condition, to avoid double duties and VAT.
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Pro-forma invoices for returns — With correct reason for return, original order value and reference to the export declaration.
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CN23/CN22 customs declarations — For postal shipments via PostNL or international postal cooperation.
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CBAM declaration — For retailers importing steel, aluminum or cement-containing goods (think kitchen, bicycle and fitness categories).
How we serve e-commerce and retail
The difference between a regular customs broker and DouaneDoc for e-commerce lies in automation and data quality:
- API and CSV integrations with Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, Lightspeed, Centra, and custom platforms. Order data comes in directly — no manual retyping, no errors in address or value.
- HS code mapping per SKU. We set up a classification rule per article or product category once and apply it automatically to new orders.
- Batch processing. Hundreds of shipments are processed in groups in DMS 4.0 with underlying article lines, so you don’t get a per-package declaration on your invoice.
- IOSS and OSS flow check. For every shipment we check whether the right IOSS number has been provided and whether the destination matches your OSS registration.
- Return portal. For your customers we automatically generate a customs-friendly return document with the correct coding for RGR.
- Scalability for peaks. Black Friday, Sinterklaas, Singles’ Day — our infrastructure scales with you. We already run for webshops with 5,000+ inbound shipments per day.
See our import declaration service or read our article IOSS / OSS explained for the VAT details.
Frequently asked questions from e-commerce and retail
We sell from a Chinese supplier directly to EU consumers — do we have to clear that?
Yes, unless you dropship under DDP terms and your supplier handles it. In practice we advise EU sellers against leaving the declaration to a Chinese forwarder — errors on the declaration come back to you as the brand owner. With our IOSS flow you do it correctly yourself.
What if a customer refuses their package and it has to come back?
Then we start a Returned Goods procedure: link the original export declaration, declare the return import with RGR so no duties and VAT are levied. Provided it’s within three years and in unaltered condition.
Do you work with our fulfillment partner (3PL)?
Yes. We have active integrations with bol, Active Ants, Salesupply, DocData/Ingram, ITM, and direct Schiphol fulfillment hubs, among others. Often you only need to enter our EORI in their system.
Our HS codes come from our PIM — do you trust them?
Trust, but verify. We test your PIM codes on a sample basis against TARIC and your product specifications. If we discover systematic errors (e.g. textiles wrongly classified), we correct the mapping at the source — saves you duties and inspections.
Get started
Is your e-commerce scaling faster than your customs flow can handle? Request a quote mentioning your platform and average daily volume, or get in touch for an API demo.