Most small business owners who come to us with an e-commerce project already know what they want to sell. What they haven't yet worked out is how the money moves, who handles delivery and what a legally compliant invoice looks like in their specific situation. These aren't details to sort out after launch — some of them shape technical decisions, and others carry real legal weight. This article gives you a practical map of the territory, not legal advice. Think of it as a checklist of conversations to have before your developer writes a single line of code.
Choosing your payment methods
Card payments are still the backbone of European e-commerce, but card-only checkout is increasingly a friction point. Depending on your target market, customers may expect PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Klarna or local wallets that vary significantly by country. The more options you offer, the more integrations you pay for — and the more transaction fees you absorb. The fewer you offer, the higher your cart abandonment rate.
Major payment gateways available across the EU include Stripe, Adyen, Mollie, Braintree and Checkout.com, each with different fee structures, payout schedules and supported currencies. Before you sign up with any of them, run the maths on your expected average order value and monthly volume. A half-percent difference in transaction fees can translate into thousands of euros over a year.
Cash on delivery still has a place in certain markets and product categories — particularly where trust in online payments is lower or where the average order value is high enough that buyers want to inspect before paying. If you offer it, set a clear policy on what happens when a parcel isn't collected, because that cost lands on you.
Shipping: picking partners and planning for returns
For businesses shipping within one country, the choice of carrier is mostly about price, reliability and parcel size. For EU-wide selling, it gets more complex: you're dealing with different last-mile carriers per country, varied transit times, customs documentation for non-EU shipments and consumer expectations that differ between markets. Germany and the Netherlands, for example, have much higher expectations around next-day or same-day delivery than many Southern European markets.
Before negotiating rates with any carrier, have a realistic monthly volume estimate. Carriers price based on volume, weight brackets and destination zones — a number you make up will get you a quote that doesn't reflect reality. Negotiate once you've had three months of actual data.
Returns are where many stores underestimate costs. EU consumer law gives buyers the right to return most goods within 14 days without giving a reason. Your shipping setup and returns policy need to reflect this from day one — both for legal compliance and for the customer experience that drives repeat purchases.
- Define who pays return shipping upfront — absorbing the cost improves conversion but cuts margin
- Automate shipment notifications inside your store to reduce support requests
- Start with one or two neighbouring markets before attempting EU-wide shipping
Invoicing, VAT and getting it right from the start
This is the area where you absolutely need to talk to an accountant before go-live — not after your first hundred orders. VAT rules for e-commerce in the EU changed significantly with the 2021 OSS (One Stop Shop) reform, and they've continued to evolve. Broadly: if you sell goods to consumers in other EU countries above certain thresholds, you're liable for VAT in those countries. The OSS scheme simplifies registration, but it doesn't simplify understanding whether you're in scope.
Digital products and services follow different rules again. If you're selling software, downloadable content or online courses, VAT applies at the buyer's location from the very first sale — there's no minimum threshold. Getting this wrong isn't just an accounting error; it can trigger penalties.
Regulations change. The best advice we can give here is to verify the current rules with your accountant and check the official sources for your country's tax authority, rather than relying on any article — including this one — as your compliance reference.
The order of decisions matters
A pattern we see regularly: the store gets built first, then the owner scrambles to find a payment gateway that works, and fiskalizacija or VAT compliance comes up only when something goes wrong. The more efficient path runs in reverse. Clarify your legal and tax obligations first. Then select your payment and logistics partners. Then — and only then — define the technical requirements for the store itself.
When your developer knows which gateways to integrate, what your invoices need to contain and how returns need to be handled, they can build those requirements in from the start. Retrofitting compliance into a live store is expensive and disruptive. One joint call between you, your accountant and your web studio saves weeks of rework.
- Confirm your VAT obligations before choosing a platform or gateway
- Ask your accountant what your invoices must include for both B2C and B2B customers
- Check whether your chosen platform has certified integrations for your country's invoicing requirements
Where to go from here
If you're in the planning stage or somewhere in the middle of building an online store, Aurel Design has been developing e-commerce projects since 2004 — from straightforward WooCommerce setups to custom platforms with complex logistics and B2B pricing. On our e-commerce development page you can see how we approach projects and what we ask in our first meeting. The questions are more practical than you might expect, and the earlier you answer them, the smoother the launch.