Cross-border returns: because crossing the border once wasn’t complicated enough.
You sold a jacket. The customer doesn’t want it. The jacket comes back to your stores and the money goes back to the customer. Everyone returns to approximately where they started, minus some postage and enthusiasm.
Unfortunately, the border does not have a “restore previous version” option.
Ron Healy of ePAL Global and Rod Talbot of Hurricane Commerce explore the administrative afterlife of a cross-border return, including why a parcel can be imported without being delivered and why a return label is not a passport. And why you should care (hint: there’s money to be recovered – your money).
Tax on shipping… because cross border eCommerce is not complicated enough!
There are points in conversations about cross-border complexity where sensible people stop nodding and start laughing. Not because the topic is funny, but because it has crossed the line from “complex” into “surely nobody expects this to work”. Tax on shipping is one of those points. When we first discovered the complexities of calculation tax on shipping for cross border eCommerce, our initial response was “Seriously..?” Unfortunately, it wasn’t a joke. Most merchants assume shipping is just… shipping. A cost. A line item. Something you add at checkout and maybe apply standard VAT to if you must. After all, you’re…
Nobody cares about compliance… until they have to
Most eCommerce merchants don’t spend much time thinking about compliance. Why would they?
Sales. Conversion rates. Customer acquisition. Margins. Growth. Those are the things that matter. Until one morning you discover that your international sales process stopped working.
From July 1st 2026, a major EU change means increased cross-border complexity. More rules. More customs considerations. Unexpected charges. Delays. Returns. Abandoned orders. Customer frustration.
Someone else’s problem is guaranteed to become your problem.
The uncomfortable truth is: customers don’t care why it happened. They only know the purchase experience broke (or, more precisely, the delivery process).
Customers expect eCommerce to…
How mixed baskets confuse Customs and why most tax engines still get them wrong
There is something charmingly simple about a single product checkout. One SKU, one VAT rate, one duty rate, one HS code, one shipping rule. It is the regulatory equivalent of a calm Sunday morning. Everything is where it should be and nothing surprises anyone. Unfortunately most customers do not shop that way. They buy a pair of shoes, a notebook, a skincare product and a bottle of vitamins in one go. They mix standard rate with reduced rate. They blend products that are zero rated with products that trigger excise. They add an item that is IOSS eligible next to…
Let one-click Fully Landed Cost calculation open the doors to EU sales.
Ask any merchant what’s stopping them from selling more into the EU, and you’ll rarely hear “lack of customers.” Europe’s 450 million consumers are eager buyers. They love variety, quality and cross-border discovery. The real problem isn’t the demand — it’s the detail. Behind every potential sale lies a tangle of regulations, declarations, tariffs, taxes, and thresholds that change from one border to the next. A product that clears customs smoothly in France might stall for days in Spain. A shipment that’s tax-free in Belgium might suddenly incur a 12% charge in Germany, for reasons that seem to live somewhere…
The €3 flat rate duty (pt.IV): merchants who adapt will win
After all has been said about the EU’s new flat rate (which isn’t actually flat rate) Customs Duty, merchants who use this regulation to drive innovation will benefit while competitors struggle. The real trick is to know what innovation to leverage. Or leave it to ePAL..!
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.