Back in January, the UK entered a Brexit transition period that will last until 31 December 2020 under the current withdrawal agreement. The UK is expected to leave the European Single Market and the EU Customs Union as of 01 January 2021. Although negotiations are ongoing, starting on 01 January 2021, there is expected to be a customs border in place between the UK and EU. At that time, there is expected to be an impact on businesses operating across the UK and EU border — whether trading to or from the UK.
Last week we looked at the implications of Brexit on Amazon FBA. This week we turn our attention to important details about selling on Zalando after the UK leaves the European Market and EU Customs Union.
One of the biggest changes for Zalando sellers is that Zalando Fulfilment Solutions (ZFS) services to the UK will be discontinued from 01 January 2021.
Read on to find out how these, and other Zalando changes might impact your business.
Key Considerations
As the process for both importing and exporting goods into the UK will change, it’s recommended you familiarise yourself with the Government Guidelines in full, as well as any other requirements that may affect your business. You will then need to ensure your Zalando product listings are ready both in the UK and the EU.
If you sell in the EU
- You will need to ensure you have an EU-based authorised representative and/or EU responsible person’s office address indicated on the product or, where this is not possible, on its packaging.
If you sell in the UK
- You will need to ensure the products indicate your name/ your importer’s name and local contact details.
The UKCA (UK Conformity Assessed) marking is a new UK product marking that will be used for goods being placed on the market in Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland). It covers most goods which previously required the CE marking.
Where applicable, the products listed by you may require both, CE and UKCA conformity markings and, where necessary, conformity assessments need to be carried out both by UK and EU notified bodies.
For more information on UKCA, visit the Government Website.
If you sell on Zalando, it is your responsibility to ensure that your products meet the new guidelines in order to avoid any obstacles with your shipments resulting in delays for the customer.
If You Use Zalando Fulfilment Solutions for Deliveries to the UK
Zalando will be discontinuing its Zalando Fulfilment Solutions (ZFS) outbound services to the UK from 01 January 2021 in line with new guidelines. Zalando has indicated this may be revised once Zalando is able to adapt its processes, we will keep you updated.
The termination of existing ZFS contracts for outbound services to the UK will come into effect on 31 December 2020.
Zalando has two solutions for sellers affected by this change:
- You can deactivate your UK channel by the end of November 2020 and as a result, most customer returns will be processed by Zalando before Brexit.
- Zalando will take care of the handling of returns until 31 December. You can keep your UK channel active until 31 December 2020; if customer returns reach Zalando after this date, Zalando will handle them in a separate procedure. Please note that the return lead time might be longer than usual.
If You Use Zalando Fulfilment Solutions with Warehouses in the UK
As a result of new Zalando guidelines, sellers need to consider additional fulfilment areas which will be affected such as: return-to-merchant (RtM), defect, and QS returns processes. In simple terms, this means Zalando will not be able to ship any seller returns directly to the UK after 01 January 2021 until further notice. As a seller, you will need to ensure you have an address located in the EU for return deliveries in order to process those deliveries without customs declaration (which could incur additional fees).
It’s also important to note that for ZFS deliveries, Zalando will not allow you to deliver goods that are not customs cleared in its warehouses. All goods delivered to the Zalando warehouses must be customs cleared beforehand. Customs Clearance in the EU may require a residence and/or a registration in the EU. Shipments which are not customs cleared will be refused.
For more information, we recommend you read the Zalando Delivery Terms.
Making yourself aware of these new regulations and requirements is important to a smooth transition. Subscribe to our blog so you can get more Brexit updates, and other e-commerce news, directly to your inbox.
If you’re a ChannelAdvisor customer, please know that we’ll be rolling out updates to our platform to accommodate these changes. Additional communications about these updates will be coming soon.
This information was accurate at the time of publishing from Zalando’s Partner Portal.
