Most people in the EU already shop online. In 2025, 78% of EU internet users aged 16 to 74 bought or ordered something online, according to Eurostat, up from 62% in 2015. So a new store or marketplace competes for practiced buyers, and it has to follow a set of EU rules from the first order. Six of those rules turn into features: a 14-day return flow, VAT for each buyer’s country, strong customer authentication at checkout, care with personal data, seller checks if others sell through you, and screens people with disabilities can use. Below is what each one means for your build, where the official page is, and the order we’d build in. This isn’t legal or tax advice. Check the details with an adviser in your main market.
The EU average hides big differences between countries. Eurostat also measures the gap between people who use the internet and people who buy online. In 2025 it was 5 percentage points in Ireland and in the Netherlands. Among EU countries it was widest in Bulgaria, at 33 points, and Romania, at 31.
A small gap means nearly every internet user there already buys online, so you compete with stores they know. A wide gap means many people still don’t buy online at all. There you’ll spend more on trust: clear delivery terms, easy returns, payment methods people know and a support line that answers. Neither market is easy. They cost money in different places.
| Rule | What it asks | What to build | Official page |
|---|---|---|---|
| Right to cancel | Buyers can cancel an online purchase within 14 days without a reason; for goods, from delivery | A return request in the buyer’s account, return instructions, refund tracking, and a flag for products the rule doesn’t cover | Your Europe: returns |
| VAT on cross-border sales | An EU-wide threshold of €10,000 for distance sales, and one registration that covers declaring VAT for sales to other EU countries | Tax by destination country at checkout and on invoices, and sales reports per country | VAT One Stop Shop |
| Strong customer authentication | An extra check on card payments under the PSD2 standards | A checkout from a payment provider that runs the check, and a clear retry path when it fails | European Banking Authority |
| Personal data | The GDPR’s duties for businesses, notifying data breaches among them | Consent records, data export and deletion on request, and a written breach process | European Commission: GDPR |
| Marketplace duties | Marketplaces must verify and show sellers’ contact details and act on reports of illegal goods | Seller verification at sign-up, seller details on product pages, a report button and a moderation queue with appeals | Digital Services Act |
| Accessibility | E-commerce is one of the services the European Accessibility Act covers | Screens that work with screen readers and keyboards, readable contrast, and labelled forms | European Accessibility Act |
The return rule has details that change your data model. The 14 days for goods start at delivery, so you need the delivery date per order. The buyer usually pays return postage, unless you offer to or didn’t tell them before the purchase, so that wording belongs in checkout. Some products are outside the rule, such as made-to-order or clearly personalised goods, perishables, and sealed audio, video or software once opened. Mark those in the catalogue, so the return button knows.
The OSS portal explains that sellers and marketplaces can register in one EU country and use that registration to declare and pay VAT on sales to buyers in other EU countries. For goods imported from outside the EU, the Import One Stop Shop covers consignments worth up to €150. Whatever your adviser decides, the product has to know the buyer’s country, show the right price and keep a report per country.
If you ship goods into the EU from outside, one more cost changed in 2026. Since 1 July 2026, parcels worth €150 or less sold to EU consumers no longer enter free of customs duty. A temporary duty of €3 per item applies until 1 July 2028, whatever VAT scheme you use, according to the EU’s Access2Markets service. For now, customs charges it per line of the declaration. Decide with your adviser who pays it, and show it in the price at checkout.
If other businesses sell through you, the Digital Services Act treats you as a marketplace. You must verify and show sellers’ contact details, make reasonable efforts to run random checks on products, and give users a way to report illegal goods, with an answer and an appeal. The Commission says micro and small companies have lighter requirements, which still leaves some. Build seller onboarding with these checks from the start. Adding them after a thousand sellers have joined means chasing every one of them.
According to Your Europe, the EU accessibility requirements apply to products and services placed on the market after 28 June 2025, and online shops are among the services covered. A service business with fewer than 10 employees and under €2 million in turnover is exempt. If you plan to grow past that size, build accessible screens from the first release. Fixing labels, contrast and keyboard use across a finished store takes longer than building them in.
Every new country brings a language, a currency and its own favourite ways to pay. Build for all three from the first release, even if you launch in one country. Translatable text, prices in more than one currency and a payment provider that supports local methods cost little early and a lot later.
We learned the payment part outside Europe. On AggloPay, a payment platform for merchants in Cameroon, Apple Pay and Google Pay weren’t available. So the product takes mobile money, local and international cards and USSD payments, in English and French, with payments in different currencies and no extra setup for merchants. The lesson carries over to any market: build checkout around how people there already pay.
Two choices shape the build more than any feature. The first is whether you sell your own goods or let others sell through you. A marketplace adds seller onboarding, payouts and disputes, and it usually launches the supply side first so buyers find something on day one. The second is where people buy. We would start with a fast web store, then add a mobile app when repeat buyers ask for one.
Before you commit a budget, you can see what your store costs to build with our project estimate. It works in four steps:
Our marketplace app development page covers payouts, reviews and launching the supply side first. Our web app development page covers web apps with payments, client portals and apps that install from the browser. The AggloPay build is in the AggloPay case study. If you also run physical shops, read our guide to retail app features that bring online shoppers into the store. If you plan to sell through live video or social platforms, see our guide to live shopping and social commerce.
A return flow for the 14-day right to cancel, tax by the buyer’s country, a checkout that runs strong customer authentication, consent and data tools for the GDPR, accessible screens, and seller checks if others sell through you. A lawyer and a tax adviser should confirm what applies to your business.
Yes. EU buyers can cancel an online purchase within 14 days without giving a reason, and for goods the 14 days start at delivery. Some goods are excluded, such as made-to-order or clearly personalised items and perishables.
The EU set one threshold of €10,000 for distance sales, and the One Stop Shop lets a seller register in one EU country to declare VAT on sales to other EU countries. Imports up to €150 per consignment can go through the Import One Stop Shop, and since 1 July 2026 they also pay a temporary customs duty of €3 per item. Ask a tax adviser how this applies to you.
Under the Digital Services Act, a marketplace must verify and display sellers’ contact details, make reasonable efforts to check products at random, and let users report illegal goods, with a response and an appeal. Micro and small companies have lighter requirements.
With us, a first version typically costs $5,000-15,000 and takes 2-4 weeks, and the smallest build we take is $5,000. Larger platforms are priced by the hour at $39-55, after we scope them.
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