E-commerce: merchants need to be prepared for cross-border checks

If you are an e-commerce merchants, you must be prepared for some additional measures. Retailers have been notified that there will be cross-border checks on all goods entering the European Union as from the 1^st of January 2021.

Considering the impact of the coronavirus, we might soon face the biggest recession in history. Thus, ongoing trade with the EU is critical for the economy and the UK has been making arrangements to speed up the flow of goods through customs so that clients can receive their products quickly. Despite that, the EU will still implement full cross-border checks as from the 1^st day of next year. This will have an impact on exports and all merchants must mandatorily have their customs paperwork in order. The country has been pledging to extend the launch of this measure until July 2021. However, Brussels is not going to agree to any delay.

As such, online merchants in the UK and EU have less than six months to ensure that they have the right systems in place to combat the potential fallout from this decision. Retailers who have arrangements such as Amazon FBA are advised to see to it that they have ample stock in EU warehouses before the 1st of January deadline as a precaution to keep sales flowing.

Full border checks will be introduced next year