Key facts
Online shops: 56 checked facts and figures, with sources
Each entry is the fact one of our guides rests on: a rule, a date, a price or a figure we worked out, with where it came from. Quote any of them; a link to the guide lets your reader check the working.
Customer service and returns
Worked through regulation 34, five invented orders show what the customer gets back and what they bear. A £40.00 order with £3.99 standard delivery refunds £43.99; the same order with £7.99 next-day delivery chosen still refunds £43.99 and the customer bears £4.00; a single £6.50 delivery option refunds £46.50; a £55.00 order over a free-delivery threshold with £6.99 express chosen refunds £55.00 and the customer bears £6.99; a £120.00 order with £9.99 express against £4.49 standard refunds £124.49 and the customer bears £5.50. Goods received back on Mon 9 November 2026 put the refund deadline at Mon 23 November.
Source: legislation.gov.uk, The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, regulation 34 (reimbursement by the trader), paragraphs 1 to 3, 5 and 6. Read 24 October 2026. We did not read regulation 35 or the rest of the Regulations, including the rules on when goods must be sent back and who pays for that, and the page we read showed a cross-reference in paragraph 6 that an amending regulation has changed. The free-delivery row applies the cap in paragraph 3 as we read it; check it against your own terms. The five orders and all prices are invented.
Worked through regulations 30 and 31, five invented orders gave cancellation end dates from 14 days to 12 months after delivery: a single parcel on Tue 3 November 2026 ends Tue 17 November; two parcels on 2 and 6 November end Fri 20 November (18 days after the first); a split order delivered 26 November and 9 December ends Wed 23 December (27 days after the first parcel, 13 days later than counting from the first); a monthly box first delivered Mon 2 November ends Mon 16 November; and a single parcel with no cancellation information given runs to Wed 17 November 2027.
Source: legislation.gov.uk, The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, regulation 30 (cancellation period for goods contracts) and regulation 31 (extension where information is not given). Read 23 October 2026. We did not read the rest of the Regulations, including the rules on how the customer gives notice and when goods must be sent back, or any exceptions such as made-to-order goods. We did not check bank holidays, which the rule as quoted does not mention. The five orders are invented.
Worked through the ICO's rule, six invented requests received between 15 October 2026 and 31 March 2027 gave deadlines 29 to 32 days after receipt, never a flat 30: a request on 15 October ends on Monday 16 November (32 days), one on 31 January 2027 ends on Monday 1 March (29 days), and one on 31 March 2027 ends on Friday 30 April (30 days).
Source: ICO, "Time limits for responding to data protection rights requests" (calendar month, start day, weekends, shorter months) and ICO, "A guide to subject access" (extension, fee, verbal requests, clarification), ico.org.uk. Read 22 October 2026. We did not check the UK bank holiday dates for the worked examples, so only weekends are applied; check gov.uk/bank-holidays for your own date. We did not read the legislation text itself. The six requests are invented.
Sort a 3,000-address list by how each address was collected: 1,850 bought from the shop and were offered an opt-out at checkout, 600 ticked a marketing consent box, 200 only entered a prize draw and 350 came from a bought-in list. The first two groups can be mailed, 2,450 of 3,000 or 81.7%, and the last two, 550 or 18.3%, are held back until consent is on record.
Source: ICO, Electronic mail marketing, in the Guide to PECR (marketing email or text to an individual needs consent unless the soft opt-in applies; the soft opt-in needs an existing customer who bought, or discussed buying, a similar product or service from you, and a simple way to opt out when details were collected and in every message; it does not apply to prospective customers or bought-in lists; sole traders and some partnerships are treated as individuals; a company, LLP, Scottish partnership or government body can be emailed, with a do-not-email list kept; the page says it is under review because of the Data (Use and Access) Act). The page shows no date. Read 9 October 2026.
We wrote this questionnaire of 6 questions and 8 outcomes from the rules set out in 5 of our guides and the sources each outcome names. Six of the eight outcomes are settled before the questionnaire asks about the item's condition. That question changes the refund only where the shop gave the cancellation information before the order: without it, regulation 34(11) of the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 bars any deduction for handling.
Source: Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 4; Sale of Goods Act 1979, section 14(2); read on legislation.gov.uk 2 October 2026; Consumer Rights Act 2015, sections 20(8), (10) and (15) and 22(3) and (4), read on legislation.gov.uk 2 October 2026; Consumer Rights Act 2015, sections 19(14), 23(2) and 24(5) and (10), read on legislation.gov.uk 2 October 2026; Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulations 5 and 27 to 29, read on legislation.gov.uk 2 October 2026; Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 28(1)(b) and (c) and 28(3)(a) and (b), read on legislation.gov.uk 2 October 2026; Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulations 30(3) and 31, read on legislation.gov.uk 2 October 2026; Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 34(1) to (5), (9), (10) and (12), read on legislation.gov.uk 2 October 2026; Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulations 29, 31, 34(1) to (5) and (11), and 35(5), read on legislation.gov.uk 2 October 2026; each outcome names its source, and the linked guide shows the working.
Free tool: Do I have to accept this return, and what do I refund? Six questions for UK online shops
We wrote this questionnaire of 6 questions and 8 outcomes from the rules set out in 4 of our guides and the sources each outcome names. Only a customer who wants their money back for a late or lost personalised or perishable order reaches the last question. For an ordinary stock item the 14-day right to cancel settles it first, because regulation 29(2) starts the cancellation period when the order is placed, not on delivery.
Source: Sale of Goods Act 1979, section 32(1), (2) and (4), read on legislation.gov.uk 2 October 2026; Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 29(3) to (5), read on legislation.gov.uk 2 October 2026; Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 29(1) and (2), read on legislation.gov.uk 2 October 2026; Consumer Rights Act 2015, sections 28(2) and (3) and 29(2), read on legislation.gov.uk 2 October 2026; Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulations 29(1) and (2), 34(1) to (4) and (7), and 35(4), read on legislation.gov.uk 2 October 2026; Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 28(1)(b) and (c); Consumer Rights Act 2015, sections 28(3) and 29(2); read on legislation.gov.uk 2 October 2026; Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 28(5), (6) and (9), read on legislation.gov.uk 2 October 2026; Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 28(3) and (5) to (9), read on legislation.gov.uk 2 October 2026; each outcome names its source, and the linked guide shows the working.
Free tool: The parcel is lost or late: who pays, and what next? Six questions for UK online shops
We ran a £42 order delivered nine days ago through the regulations: a change-of-mind return is in time until day 14, the refund of £45.95 includes the standard delivery charge, and the customer pays the return postage only if the shop said so before the order; if the cancellation information was never shown, the 14 days becomes 12 months and 14 days.
Source: Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 regs 28, 30, 31, 34 and 35; Consumer Rights Act 2015 ss 19, 22, 23 and 24; GOV.UK "Accepting returns and giving refunds"; all read 2026-10-01. Our test is saved in tests/packhand/tools-check.txt.
Free tool: Returns rights checker: what this customer is owed, by when, and who pays the postage
Two omissions cost real money under the regulations: a policy that does not say the customer pays return postage makes the shop pay it (regulation 35(5)), and a site that never gives the cancellation information extends the 14-day right by 12 months (regulation 31).
Source: Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 regs 28-35 and Schedule 2; Consumer Rights Act 2015 ss 19-24; GOV.UK "Accepting returns and giving refunds"; all read 2026-10-01.
Royal Mail's business claims page pays a lost Tracked parcel at what the item cost the shop, not its sale price, up to £150 (Royal Mail's own Tracked 24 and 48 pages give £75 for postage bought online without a business account), and only if the claim is made within 30 calendar days of the date it opens (7 working days after the due date); Evri's terms for parcels booked on evri.com limit standard cover to the lesser of £20 or the value, and reject a business claim not made in writing within 28 days of the order.
Source: Royal Mail help centre, "Business Account Claims Centre" (dated 19 August 2026) and "Find out if my item is lost or delayed" (dated 9 September 2026), read in a browser 2026-10-01; Evri terms and conditions, conditions 3.7, 3.8 and 7.3, read in a browser 2026-10-01; Ofcom, "Advice to help with your postal service" (published 30 March 2023), read 2026-10-01; Consumer Rights Act 2015 s 29 and Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 reg 34(5), read 2026-10-01. eBay UK announcement "Royal Mail tariff changes coming October 2026" for the £3.75 label price, read in a browser 2026-10-01. Royal Mail's compensation policy pages for postage bought without an account refused our reader.
An order delivered on Black Friday, 27 November 2026, can be cancelled until the end of 11 December 2026 and rejected as faulty for a full refund until 27 December 2026; only orders delivered on or after 11 December still have their 14-day window open on Christmas Day.
Source: Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 regs 29, 30, 34 and 35, and Consumer Rights Act 2015 s 22, read on legislation.gov.uk 2026-10-01; GOV.UK "UK bank holidays" and "Accepting returns and giving refunds: the law", read 2026-10-01; Royal Mail, Christmas last posting dates page, read in a browser 2026-10-01 (it still showed the 2025 dates). The shop in the worked example and its return rates are invented.
Under regulation 34(9) of the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 a shop may deduct the amount by which a customer's handling, beyond what a shop would allow, has reduced the goods' value, up to the contract price; it comes off the item price only, so the standard delivery charge is still refunded, and no deduction is allowed if the shop never gave the cancellation information.
Source: Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 regs 28, 29, 34 and 35 and Schedule 2 paragraph (l); Consumer Rights Act 2015 ss 22 and 24; GOV.UK "Accepting returns and giving refunds: the law"; all read 2026-10-01. The jumper in the worked example is invented.
Regulation 28(1)(b) of the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 removes the 14-day right to cancel from "goods that are made to the consumer's specifications or are clearly personalised", but section 31 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 makes any term that excludes the faulty-goods rights not binding, so a blanket "no refunds on custom orders" line holds for a change of mind and fails for a fault.
Source: Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 regs 28 and 31 and Schedule 2 paragraph (o); Consumer Rights Act 2015 ss 9, 10, 11, 12, 19, 20, 22, 23 and 31; GOV.UK "Accepting returns and giving refunds: the law"; Business Companion (Chartered Trading Standards Institute), "Consumer contracts: distance sales", last reviewed April 2025; all read 2026-10-01. The pen in the worked example is invented.
We wrote this list of 23 steps in 6 stages from the rules set out in 7 of our guides and the official pages each step names. Three separate 14-day periods appear in the list, and each runs from a different day: 14 days to cancel from delivery, 14 days to send the goods back from the day the customer told the shop, and 14 days to refund from the day the goods or the proof of posting arrived.
Source: Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 30; Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 22; Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013; Consumer Rights Act 2015; Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013; our returns policy template; Stripe UK pricing, as read for our chargebacks guide on 1 October 2026; Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 28; Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 31; Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 35(4); Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 35(5); Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 34(5); Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 22; Consumer Rights Act 2015, sections 19(14) and 23; Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 24; Consumer Rights Act 2015; our returns policy template, clause 5; Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 29; Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 34; Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 34(9); Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 34(5); Royal Mail Business Account Claims Centre; Stripe UK pricing and disputes documentation, as read for our chargebacks guide on 1 October 2026; Consumer Rights Act 2015, sections 28 and 29; our where-is-my-order guide; Stripe documentation, Respond to disputes, as read for our chargebacks guide; CMA208, Fake reviews guidance, 4 April 2025; Our worked example in the product margin guide; each step names its source, and the linked guide shows the working.
Free tool: Return and refund checklist for a UK online shop: from the request to the money back
We built the replies on the Consumer Rights Act rule that goods remain at the trader's risk until they come into the consumer's physical possession (section 29), so each one promises a replacement or refund by a stated date rather than telling the customer to wait for the carrier.
Source: Consumer Rights Act 2015 ss 28 and 29; Royal Mail service aims for Tracked 24, Tracked 48, 1st and 2nd Class as published (next working day; two to three working days), read 2026-10-01. Shopify Community threads on WISMO volumes, read 2026-10-01 (data/seo/research/packhand.md).
Fees, payments and postage
The bands are £10 a month for 25 to 50 hours, £18 for 51 to 100 and £26 for 101 or more. In weekly hours (x 52 / 12) 25 hours a month is 5.77 a week, 50 is 11.54, 51 is 11.77, 100 is 23.08 and 101 is 23.31. Five invented routines: 5 hours a week (21.67 a month) is below the minimum and gets nothing; 10 hours (43.33) gives £10, £120 a year; 12 hours (52.00) gives £18, £216; 20 hours (86.67) gives £18, £216; 25 hours (108.33) gives £26, £312. At a 20% rate of tax, £120, £216 and £312 are worth £24.00, £43.20 and £62.40 a year; at 40%, £48.00, £86.40 and £124.80. Moving from 11 to 12 hours a week adds £8 a month, £96 a year.
Source: GOV.UK, Simplified expenses if you're self-employed: working from home (gov.uk/simpler-income-tax-simplified-expenses/working-from-home). Read 30 October 2026. We did not read the pages on the actual-costs method in full, the rules for a business that is a limited company, the tax rates used for the saving, or whether storage of stock counts as business use of home. The routines and the shop are invented.
At £12.71 an hour and a £96 weekly threshold, employer National Insurance is £4.67 a week for 10 hours (pay £127.10), £14.20 for 15 hours (£190.65), £23.73 for 20 hours (£254.20), £42.80 for 30 hours (£381.30) and £57.09 for 37.5 hours (£476.63). Over 52 weeks that is £242.58, £738.27, £1,233.96, £2,225.34 and £2,968.88, or 3.67% to 11.98% on top of pay. For an 18 to 20 year old on £10.85 for 20 hours (£217 a week) the figure is nil.
Source: GOV.UK, Rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027 (gov.uk/guidance/rates-and-thresholds-for-employers-2026-to-2027). Read 29 October 2026. We did not read the pages on how National Insurance categories are chosen, how payroll rounds each pay period, pension auto-enrolment, holiday pay, or how Employment Allowance is claimed. The rotas and the shop are invented.
Four invented shops each sell £40,000 or £100,000 before VAT (VAT-inclusive turnover £48,000 or £120,000). Shop 1 spends £840 on goods, under 2% of £48,000 (£960), so it is a limited cost business and pays 16.5% x £48,000 = £7,920 against £7,860 under normal VAT (£8,000 less £140), £60 more. Shop 2 spends £6,000, is not limited, and pays £7,000 under normal VAT. Shop 3 spends £984, over 2% but under £1,000, so it is limited: £7,920 against £7,836, £84 more. Shop 4 spends £2,160, under 2% of £120,000 (£2,400): £19,800 against £19,640, £160 more. In a first year the 1% discount makes shop 1's rate 15.5%, £7,440, which is £420 below normal VAT.
Source: GOV.UK, VAT Flat Rate Scheme (gov.uk/vat-flat-rate-scheme) and GOV.UK, VAT Flat Rate Scheme: how much you pay (gov.uk/vat-flat-rate-scheme/how-much-you-pay). Read 28 October 2026. We did not read the "who can join" or "leaving the scheme" pages, the sector rates for other trades, what counts as goods for the test (the pages' list of exclusions), or the rule on capital assets beyond one sentence, and we did not confirm whether the test compares goods with VAT-inclusive turnover for each period. The four shops and all figures are invented.
The two limits cross at £154.0625 a week of normal earnings (123.25 divided by 0.8), so below about £154.07 the 80% figure applies and above it the £123.25 cap does. Five invented staff: £90 a week gives £72.00, £120 gives £96.00, £154 gives £123.20, £154.07 gives £123.25 (80% is £123.256, so the cap applies) and £300 gives £123.25. The most an employer could pay for the full 28 weeks at the cap is 28 × £123.25 = £3,451.00.
Source: GOV.UK, Statutory Sick Pay: overview (gov.uk/statutory-sick-pay) and GOV.UK, Statutory Sick Pay: what you'll get (gov.uk/statutory-sick-pay/what-youll-get). Read 27 October 2026. We did not read the eligibility page, so we say nothing about who qualifies, waiting days, how part weeks or daily rates are worked out, or whether an employer can reclaim any of it. The five staff and all pay figures are invented.
Tested against the GOV.UK wording, five invented sellers show the line is sales, not profit. Seller A, £62,000 of sales and £51,000 of costs, leaves £11,000 profit but £62,000 qualifying income, so is in. Seller B, £48,500, is out. Seller C, exactly £50,000, is out because the test is over £50,000. Seller D, £50,001 of sales and £4,001 profit, is in. Seller E, £35,000 of shop sales plus £16,500 of rent, has £51,500 and is in. The 2026/27 updates fall on Fri 7 August 2026, Sat 7 November 2026, Sun 7 February 2027 and Fri 7 May 2027; from 26 October 2026 the next is 12 days away.
Source: GOV.UK, Sign up for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (gov.uk/guidance/sign-up-for-making-tax-digital-for-income-tax) and GOV.UK, Send quarterly updates (gov.uk/guidance/use-making-tax-digital-for-income-tax/send-quarterly-updates). Read 26 October 2026. We did not read the pages on the £30,000 and £20,000 thresholds, exemptions, penalties, digital records, partnerships, or how refunds and marketplace fees are treated in the total, and the sign-up page does not mention the £1,000 trading allowance. The five sellers and all figures are invented.
Percentage off is (was - now) / was. £500 to £350 is £150 / £500 = 30%. A coat at £150 sold at £99 is £51 / £150 = 34.0%, not the "half price" £75 it was once shown at (50%). A shop whose real previous price was £2 and shows "was £3, now £1.50" claims 50% but gives 25% (£0.50 / £2). Two stacked offers of 10% then 20% on £100 give £100 x 0.90 x 0.80 = £72, which is 28% off, not 30%.
Source: Business Companion (Chartered Trading Standards Institute), "Guidance for Traders on Pricing Practices" (https://www.businesscompanion.info/en/guidance-for-traders-on-pricing-practices), April 2026 edition, section 17 "Using reference prices" and its examples of "Was / now" prices, after-promotion prices and RRPs. Read 21 October 2026. I could not open a GOV.UK page for this today, so the figures below come from that Trading Standards page only.
Three temps for 8 weeks at 30 hours a week is 720 hours. All three at £12.71 is £9,151.20. With one aged 18 to 20 at £10.85 for 240 of those hours, the bill is 480 x £12.71 (£6,100.80) + 240 x £10.85 (£2,604.00) = £8,704.80, which is £446.40 less (240 x £1.86). Wages alone are not the full cost of a hire.
Source: GOV.UK, "National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates" (https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage-rates), the "Current rates" table for April 2026 (21 and over £12.71, 18 to 20 £10.85, under 18 £8, apprentice £8; the page says rates change on 1 April every year), and GOV.UK, "Part-year workers and irregular hours" under holiday entitlement (almost all workers, including agency, irregular-hours and part-year workers, are entitled to up to 5.6 weeks' paid holiday a year, built up from hours worked). Both read 20 October 2026.
A £50 voucher on standard-rated goods carries £8.33 of VAT (£50 / 6) the day it is sold if it is single-purpose, and nothing then if it is multi-purpose. Used against a £70 standard-rated basket with £20 paid in cash, both routes reach £11.67 in total (£8.33 + £3.33 against £70 / 6), but 100 vouchers sold in December and spent in the next quarter put £833.33 of VAT into December's return on the first route and £0 on the second.
Source: GOV.UK, HMRC, "Find out about changes to VAT legislation on face value vouchers (VAT information sheet 09/18)", published 30 November 2018 (single-purpose: VAT due on issue and on each transfer; multi-purpose: consideration on issue disregarded, VAT due on redemption on the last transfer price or face value; the £50 voucher against £70 of goods example; applies to vouchers issued on or after 1 January 2019) and GOV.UK, HMRC, "VAT treatment of vouchers", policy paper published 6 July 2018 (read for the framing: the rules concern when VAT is due, not whether it applies). Both read 19 October 2026.
Shop A has £1,800 of sales and £600 of costs: the allowance leaves £800 to be taxed, claiming costs leaves £1,200, so the allowance wins by £400 of profit. Shop B has £3,000 of sales and £1,400 of costs: the allowance leaves £2,000, costs leave £1,600, so costs win by £400. The break-even is £1,000 of costs; at an assumed 20% rate each £400 is worth £80 of tax.
Source: GOV.UK, "Tax-free allowances on property and trading income" (trading allowance up to £1,000 a year; full relief at £1,000 or less of gross trading income; partial relief lets you deduct up to £1,000 but not more than your income, instead of expenses; not available for income from your own company, a partnership you are in, or your or your spouse's employer). Read 16 October 2026.
£10,500 over 12 months is £875 a month. A shop with a National Insurance bill of £600 a month (£7,200 a year) uses £7,200 of the allowance and pays nothing. At £1,200 a month the bill is £14,400, so the allowance runs out after 8.75 months, in the ninth month, and £3,900 is paid.
Source: GOV.UK, "Employment Allowance", "Employment Allowance: eligibility" and "Employment Allowance: when to claim" (reduce employers' Class 1 National Insurance by up to £10,500 a year; claim every tax year; one payroll only; not for IR35 workers or domestic employees; a single-director company where the director is the only employee liable for secondary Class 1 cannot claim; only one company in a group; may claim for the previous 4 tax years). Read 14 October 2026. The "how to claim" page was not read.
At an assumed 4% base rate the statutory rate is 12% a year. On a £2,400 trade invoice that is £288 a year, £0.79 a day and £35.51 for 45 days, plus the £70 fixed sum for a debt of £1,000 to £9,999.99, so £105.51 in total. A £950 invoice carries £40 and £14.05 for the same 45 days. A £12,000 invoice carries £100.
Source: GOV.UK, "Late commercial payments: interest and debt recovery" (agreed payment date usually within 60 days for business transactions; if none is agreed, payment is late 30 days after the invoice is received or the goods delivered, whichever is later), "Charging interest on late commercial payments" (8% plus Bank of England base rate for business-to-business transactions; annual interest divided by 365; no statutory interest where the contract sets a different rate) and "Claim debt recovery costs on late payments" (£40 up to £999.99, £70 from £1,000 to £9,999.99, £100 from £10,000; charged once per payment; reasonable further recovery costs). Read 2026-10-13.
10 tonnes is 10,000,000 g. At 25 g a mailer that is 400,000 mailers; at 18 g it is 555,556. A shop importing 40,000 mailers of 25 g imports 1 tonne, one tenth of the threshold. If registered, 1 tonne at £228.82 would be £228.82, or 0.57p a mailer. 12,000 mailers of 18 g is 0.216 tonnes.
Source: GOV.UK, "Check if you need to register for Plastic Packaging Tax" (register if you manufactured or imported 10 tonnes or more of finished plastic packaging components in the last 12 months, or expect to in the next 30 days; tax applies to packaging with less than 30% recycled plastic; £228.82 a tonne from 1 April 2026, from £223.69). Read 11 October 2026.
To stay outside the report a seller must have fewer than 30 sales and take about £1,700 or less: 29 sales at an average of £58.62 come to about £1,700, and 30 sales of any price is reported. The report year is the calendar year, so 2026 sales split 95 days into tax year 2025 to 2026 (1 January to 5 April) and 270 days into 2026 to 2027 (6 April to 31 December), which is why the platform figure never matches a tax year total.
Source: GOV.UK, Selling goods or services on a digital platform (HMRC; last updated 22 September 2025: platforms report your details and income to HMRC by the following January; not reported if fewer than 30 sales of goods in a calendar year and 2,000 euros, about £1,700, or less; platform must give you a copy; being reported does not mean you owe tax); GOV.UK, Check if you need to register as a digital platform operator (last updated 21 July 2026: the same exception, which does not apply to services or rentals); GOV.UK, Tax-free allowances on property and trading income (£1,000 trading allowance; register for Self Assessment by 5 October in the following tax year if income is over £1,000). All read 8 October 2026.
On a £3.99 delivery charge for standard-rated goods, 66.5p of what the customer pays is VAT (one-sixth), so 1,000 such orders hand £665 of postage VAT to HMRC. On children's clothes, which are zero-rated, the same £3.99 carries no VAT. In a £30 basket of £20 standard-rated and £10 zero-rated goods, splitting the £3.99 by value puts £2.66 at 20% (44p VAT) and £1.33 at 0%.
Source: GOV.UK, Postage, delivery and direct marketing (VAT Notice 700/24), sections on delivery charges made by suppliers of goods (single supply of delivered goods follows the liability of the goods; optional separate delivery is standard-rated); last updated 30 September 2022, read 7 October 2026.
The ICO's three tiers are £52 (up to £632,000 turnover or up to 10 staff), £78 (up to £36 million turnover or up to 250 staff) and £3,763; the £5 Direct Debit discount is 9.6% of the £52 fee and 6.4% of the £78 fee, so ten years of Direct Debit saves £50 either way, and a shop with £1.8 million turnover and six staff pays £52, not £78, because meeting either test is enough.
Source: ICO, "Data protection fee" (fee tiers and Direct Debit discount), "Exemptions" and "Data protection fee: what you need to do" (small organisations guidance), ico.org.uk; Data Protection (Charges and Information) Regulations 2018, regulation 2, legislation.gov.uk; all read 2026-10-06. The four shops in the worked example are invented.
We sorted the CMA's eight worked examples of lawful delivery pricing in CMA209 by whether they describe an online shop: five do (clothing ad, homeware flat fee, department store zones, marketplace, perfume), three do not (furniture showroom, newspaper florist, food app). Working a shop with £3.99 flat postage and free delivery over £40 through paragraph 5.14, the running total must read £15.99 after a £12 item and £37.99 after a £22 item, and may only drop the postage to £0 when a third item takes the goods past £40.
Source: Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 section 230(2), (4) and (5), legislation.gov.uk; CMA209 "Unfair commercial practices: price transparency" (published 18 November 2025, updated 7 January 2026), paragraphs 5.12 to 5.21 and the examples that follow; GOV.UK "Providing clear and accurate information about prices: summary" (7 January 2026); all read 2026-10-05. The sorting of the examples and the worked basket are our own.
On a £42 item with £3.95 postage, Etsy takes £6.47 (14.1%) from a seller who is not VAT registered, VAT on the fees included, including the 0.48% regulatory operating fee that rose on 22 June 2026, and Shopify Basic with Shopify Payments takes £1.33 (2.9%) at 120 orders a month; Shopify's plan fee is the part that falls as orders rise.
Source: Shopify UK pricing page (plans £19, £49 and £259 a month on annual billing; Shopify Payments 2%, 1.7% and 1.5% + 25p), read 2026-10-01. Etsy's own fee page refused our reader; the Etsy figures (6.5% transaction, 4% + 20p processing, US$0.20 listing, Offsite Ads 15% and 12%, VAT on fees for sellers not registered) are as stated by two UK seller guides read 2026-10-01, and the regulatory operating fee rise to 0.48% from ChannelX, April 2026. Our test is in tests/packhand/tools-check.txt.
Free tool: Etsy and Shopify fee calculator for UK sellers: what one order actually costs on each
On Stripe in the UK a dispute costs £20 when it arrives and a further £20 if you counter it, the second returned only if you win; the response window is 7 to 21 days by card network; and the issuer will not open links, so a tracking URL in the evidence is worth nothing.
Source: Stripe UK pricing page (dispute received £20, dispute countered £20) and Stripe documentation "Respond to disputes", both read 2026-10-01.
In our worked example a shop's twelve-month sales reports total £91,300 across Shopify, Etsy and eBay while its payouts total only £84,900; it went over the £90,000 threshold at the end of September 2026, so it must register by 30 October 2026 and account for VAT from 1 November 2026.
Source: GOV.UK "Register for VAT" (threshold £90,000, 30-day deadline, effective date) and "VAT thresholds" (deregistration £88,000); HMRC VAT Notice 700/1 (updated 5 August 2026) paragraphs 2.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.7 and 14.2; HMRC VAT Notice 700/24 paragraph 2.2; GOV.UK "VAT rates on different goods and services" (updated 10 July 2026); all read 2026-10-01. The shop's figures are invented.
On 1 October 2026 Amazon's UK pricing page gave the Professional plan at £25 a month before VAT, the Individual plan at £0.75 an item, and a referral fee of 15% of everything the buyer pays in most categories; a shop selling 150 toys a month at £18 plus £3.50 delivery pays £6,105 a year before VAT, which is 15.8% of its £38,700 of sales.
Source: sell.amazon.co.uk/pricing (selling plans, referral fee schedule, refund administration fee, FBA storage fees and 2026 fee updates) and sell.amazon.co.uk/learn/vat-resources, both read in a browser on 2026-10-01; GOV.UK "VAT rates" for the 20% standard rate, read 2026-10-01. Desk check only: we do not sell on Amazon. The shop in the worked sum and its 5% refund rate are invented.
From 5 October 2026, on eBay UK's published tariff summary, a 1st Class small parcel up to 1 kg is £5.70 by stamp while Tracked 24 bought online is £4.80, and 2nd Class is £4.40 against Tracked 48 at £3.75: the tracked service is 90p and 65p cheaper than the untracked one it replaces.
Source: eBay UK community announcement "Royal Mail tariff changes coming October 2026", read 2026-10-01 (Royal Mail's current postage prices page, re-read on 2026-10-02, still showed the tariff before 5 October, with online Tracked 24 from £4.65 and Tracked 48 from £3.65, so the October figures here are eBay's statement of the new tariff until Royal Mail publishes it). Consumer Rights Act 2015 s 29 for the risk rule.
On 1 October 2026 a shop with 400 orders a month across Shopify, Etsy and eBay was priced at £41 a month on Link My Books (£492 a year) and US$115 a month on A2X Multi 2K (US$1,380 a year); one Shopify store with 150 orders a month was £18 on Link My Books and US$29 on A2X Mini.
Source: linkmybooks.com/pricing (the price calculator's own figures, in pounds) and a2xaccounting.com/pricing with its Shopify, Etsy, eBay and multi-channel pricing pages (in US dollars), all read in a browser on 2026-10-01. Desk check only: we did not trial either product.
From 1 July 2026 until 1 July 2028 the EU charges a customs duty of €3 per item on consignments worth €150 or less (Council Regulation (EU) 2026/382, Article 2); an item is a kind of product, not a unit, so five T-shirts pay €3 and a T-shirt with a watch pays €6, and on a single €12 product the duty is a quarter of the price.
Source: Council Regulation (EU) 2026/382 of 11 February 2026, read on EUR-Lex 2026-10-01; European Commission, Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union, "Guidance and legal text on temporary flat fee on low-value imports" (8 June 2026, updated 20 July 2026); European Commission Access2Markets notice "EU applies €3 customs duty per item on low-value e-commerce consignments" (30 June 2026); both read in a browser 2026-10-01. The orders in the worked example are invented.
A £24 product sold by a VAT-registered shop leaves £20 after VAT. With a £7.50 product cost, 60p of packaging, £3.35 postage and £1.21 of fees, profit is £7.34 an order; with 5% of orders returned it averages £6.72. That is the most the shop can pay in advertising for one sale, a return on ad spend of 3.57.
Source: Our own arithmetic, shown in full on the page and checked by hand; VAT at the standard rate of 20% (GOV.UK VAT rates, read 2026-10-01). The test record is in tests/packhand/tools-check.txt.
Stock and listings
Since 13 December 2024 a product offered to customers in Northern Ireland or the EU needs a responsible economic operator established in the EU or Northern Ireland, and Article 19 of Regulation (EU) 2023/988 makes the online listing itself show the manufacturer's name, postal address and electronic address, the responsible person's details where the manufacturer is outside the Union, a picture and product identifier, and any safety warnings.
Source: Regulation (EU) 2023/988 on general product safety, Articles 2, 3, 4, 9, 16, 19 and 52, read on EUR-Lex 2026-10-01; GOV.UK guidance "EU Regulation on General Product Safety 2023/988" (Office for Product Safety and Standards, published 3 December 2024) and GOV.UK guidance on the General Product Safety Regulations 2005 in Great Britain (13 December 2024), both read 2026-10-01.
For a product selling 3.5 a day with a 21-day lead time and a week of safety stock, the reorder point is 98 units; a shop with 60 in stock has already missed it, and an order placed today lands four days after the shelf empties.
Source: Standard reorder point formula (daily demand × (lead time + safety days)); Shopify Help Centre notice that Stocky is unavailable after 31 August 2026, read 2026-10-01. Our test is in tests/packhand/tools-check.txt.
Shopify's help centre says Stocky is no longer available after 31 August 2026 and points shops to the inventory features in the Shopify admin; those track quantities and transfers but do not hold a supplier lead time, which is the one input a reorder point needs.
Source: Shopify Help Centre, Stocky page, read 2026-10-01; Shopify Community threads "Stocky App Going Away after August 31 2026" (160 posts) and "Replacement for Stocky?" (66 replies), read 2026-10-01 (data/seo/research/packhand.md).
Running the shop
At 1.1 kg a kettle, 5 tonnes is 5,000 ÷ 1.1 = 4,545.5, so 4,546 own-brand kettles in a compliance year reach the line (4,545 is 4.9995 tonnes). At 120 g a phone charger it takes 41,667 chargers (41,666 is 4.99992 tonnes). A shop selling 1,200 kettles is at 1.32 tonnes, under the line, and registers as a small producer; one at 5 tonnes or more must join a compliance scheme.
Source: GOV.UK, "Electrical and electronic equipment (EEE): producer responsibilities" (a producer includes anyone who sells EEE under their own brand, resells another maker's equipment under their own brand, or imports EEE on a commercial basis; less than 5 tonnes in a compliance year allows registration as a small producer; register by 31 January each year or within 28 days of first placing EEE on the market; report by category; mark with the crossed-out wheeled bin; keep records for at least 4 years), page updated 12 August 2025. Read 10 October 2026.
We did the arithmetic on an example shop, using our own assumed figures: 200 consumer orders a month at an average of £45.00. A 3% card surcharge is £45.00 x 0.03 = £1.35 an order. Across 200 orders that is 200 x £1.35 = £270.00 a month, and across 12 months 12 x £270.00 = £3,240.00. Regulation 10 of the 2012 regulations makes an unlawful fee repayable, so the shop's exposure on that example is the full £3,240.00 a year, before any enforcement step we did not read about. The 200 orders and £45.00 are our assumptions, not data about any real shop.
Source: The Consumer Rights (Payment Surcharges) Regulations 2012 (SI 2012/3110) on legislation.gov.uk, regulations 4, 5, 6, 6A and 10, and the page of the instrument as made for commencement 6 April 2013; the Payment Services Regulations 2017 (SI 2017/752) regulation 66 on legislation.gov.uk; all read 6 October 2026. GOV.UK's payment surcharge guidance page returned an error when we tried it, so we relied on the legislation pages. The example shop is our own illustration.
We read section 308 subsection by subsection. It has 6 subsections; the duty sits in subsection (3), fires on 1 event (you communicate the outcome of your consideration of a complaint), and has something to name only if the shop is obliged to take part in a scheme by 1 of 3 named sources (legislation, the terms of the customer contract, or other contractual arrangements the shop is party to). Of the 4 example shops in the table below, 1 has nothing to name and 3 may have to name something, depending on a source we cannot see from outside the shop; we did not find any source that makes every shop join a scheme.
Source: Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, section 308 (Duty of trader to notify consumer of ADR arrangements etc), legislation.gov.uk, which records that it came into force on 6 April 2026 under the Commencement No. 3 and Transitional Provisions Regulations 2026; legislation.gov.uk page for regulation 19 of SI 2015/542 (Consumer Rights ADR regulations), which shows it revoked from 6 April 2026; GOV.UK publication page for the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (Alternative Dispute) Regulations 2026; all read 6 October 2026. The four example shops are our own illustration.
We counted 30 days forward from five order dates in the 2026 peak season, using a date calculation, taking the day of the order as day 0 as the section's wording ("not more than 30 days after the day on which the contract is entered into") suggests. 20 Nov 2026 gives Sunday 20 Dec 2026; 27 Nov (Black Friday) gives Sunday 27 Dec; 30 Nov (Cyber Monday) gives Wednesday 30 Dec; 10 Dec gives Saturday 9 Jan 2027; 20 Dec gives Tuesday 19 Jan 2027. That is 5 dates, and 3 of the 5 deadlines (20 Dec, 27 Dec, 9 Jan) fall on a Sunday or Saturday, so the last working day to hand over is earlier. If a shop promises delivery in 7 days, it has 30 - 7 = 23 days of reserve before the legal default is missed, but that reserve is only for the default: a longer or shorter date you stated can replace it.
Source: Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 28 (Delivery of goods), legislation.gov.uk; GOV.UK, Online and distance selling for businesses; both read 6 October 2026. The calendar counts are our own calculation, and the example shop's 7-day promise is our own illustration.
We worked the thresholds into parcels. 25 tonnes is 25,000,000 grams. If the packaging on each order (box or mailer, tape, filler, label) weighs 150 g, that is 166,667 parcels a year, or 457 a day every day of the year; at a lighter 80 g it is 312,500 parcels, or 856 a day. Because a shop must also have £1 million or more of turnover to be obligated, a shop at 166,667 parcels reaches £1 million only if each parcel carries £6.00 or more of sales (£1,000,000 ÷ 166,667). A shop shipping 30 parcels a day at 150 g uses 1.6 tonnes of packaging a year, 6.6% of the 25-tonne line.
Source: GOV.UK, "Extended producer responsibility for packaging: who is affected and what to do" (page updated 19 August 2026), read 6 October 2026. Packaging weights per parcel are our worked example; weigh your own. Not legal advice.
We counted the items in regulation 6(1) of the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002 and regulation 25 of the 2015 Names and Trading Disclosures Regulations for three kinds of shop: a sole trader who is not VAT registered must show 3 items (name, a geographical address, an email), a limited company that is not VAT registered 6 (those 3 plus the company number, the part of the UK it is registered in, and the registered office, which can be the same place as the address), and a VAT-registered limited company 7, the seventh being the VAT number.
Source: Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002 (SI 2002/2013) regulations 6 and 13, legislation.gov.uk; Company, Limited Liability Partnership and Business (Names and Trading Disclosures) Regulations 2015 (SI 2015/17) regulation 25, legislation.gov.uk; Companies Act 2006 sections 82 and 84, legislation.gov.uk; GOV.UK, Limited company: signs, stationery and promotional material; all read 5 October 2026. The sorting by type of shop is our own reading, not an official list.
We worked one example through both outcomes: an item that costs 18.40 to buy in, meant to sell at 18.90 but listed at 1.89 after a decimal slip, with 37 orders in the hour. Honoured, the 37 orders bring in 69.93 against 680.80 of stock, a loss of 610.87 before postage and fees. Cancelled before dispatch, the loss is 0.00 and 37 refunds of 1.89 are owed. We also checked Regulation 11 of the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002: of its three paragraphs, only (1)(a) and (1)(b) put a duty on you, and neither one says the order is accepted.
Source: Citizens Advice, "If something is advertised at the wrong price", read 2026-10-05; Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002, regulations 9 and 11, legislation.gov.uk, read 2026-10-05. The worked example uses invented figures and is our own arithmetic.
We sorted the 24 lettered paragraphs of Schedule 2 against a one-off sale of physical goods by a small UK shop: 7 apply to every such order (a, b, c, f, j, l, p), 11 apply only where the shop trades a certain way or the regulation says "where applicable" (d, e, g, i, k, m, o, q, r, u, x), and 6 do not apply to that kind of sale at all (h, n, s, t, v, w).
Source: Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 regs 14, 16, 30 and 31 and Schedule 2, legislation.gov.uk; GOV.UK "Online and distance selling for businesses"; all read 2026-10-03. The sorting into three groups is our own reading for a one-off goods sale, not an official list.
Since 6 April 2025 it has been a banned practice to commission a review that hides its incentive, and commissioning "includes incentivising by any means"; the CMA's guidance says emailing customers generally to ask for a review is not prohibited, treats encouraging only satisfied customers as cherry-picking, and the CMA can fine a business up to 10% of its global turnover.
Source: Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, Schedule 20 paragraph 13 (in force 6 April 2025 by S.I. 2025/272), legislation.gov.uk; CMA208 "Fake reviews" guidance (4 April 2025), paragraphs 2.10, 3.4 to 3.7, 4.3 to 4.7 and 8.9 to 8.11; CMA short guide for businesses publishing consumer reviews (4 April 2025); CMA press notice "Fake and misleading reviews: 5 businesses under CMA investigation" (27 March 2026); all read 2026-10-01.
A sole trader must keep business records for at least 5 years after the 31 January return deadline for the tax year, so the record of an order delivered on 14 November 2026 is kept until at least 31 January 2033; a limited company keeps it for 6 years from the end of the financial year, and VAT records are kept for at least 6 years.
Source: GOV.UK "Business records if you're self-employed: how long to keep your records", "Running a limited company: company and accounting records" and "Keeping VAT records"; Limitation Act 1980 s 5 and UK GDPR Article 5(1)(e) on legislation.gov.uk; GOV.UK "Accepting returns and giving refunds: the law"; ICO, "Principle (e): Storage limitation"; all read 2026-10-01. The shop and the order in the example are invented.
On the example hours for a small online shop (31.5 office hours a week, 18.5 of them on six jobs a tool can prepare, a quarter of each kept for checking), 13.9 hours a week could be handed over: 44% of the total, costing £9,574 a year at £15 an hour over 46 weeks.
Source: Arithmetic on the hours entered; the checking share is our stated assumption and can be changed. Rules behind what is drafted: Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013; Consumer Rights Act 2015
We wrote this list of 26 steps in 6 stages from the rules set out in 13 of our guides and the official pages each step names. One step in the 26 depends on a page that was out of date when we wrote the list: on 1 October 2026 Royal Mail's last posting dates page still showed Christmas 2025, with Tracked 48 by Friday 19 December, so the 2026 dates have to be checked again.
Source: Standard reorder point formula; our reorder point guide; Our guide to replacing Stocky; Our reorder point guide; Our worked example in the product margin guide; Business Companion (Chartered Trading Standards Institute), Providing price information, reviewed April 2026, read 1 October 2026; GOV.UK, Register for VAT; HMRC VAT Notice 700/1; eBay UK summary of the Royal Mail tariff, as read for our postage guide on 1 October 2026; Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 29; Stripe documentation, Respond to disputes; Royal Mail Business Account Claims Centre; Evri terms and conditions, as read for our lost parcel guide; Royal Mail, Last Christmas posting dates page, read 1 October 2026; Royal Mail service aims, as read for our where-is-my-order guide; Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 28; Council Regulation (EU) 2026/382, Article 2; European Commission guidance of 8 June 2026; Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulations 31 and 35(5); Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013; our returns policy template; GOV.UK, Accepting returns and giving refunds, read 1 October 2026; Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, Schedule 2; Stripe documentation, Respond to disputes, as read for our chargebacks guide; Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 29; Vendor pricing pages, as read for our helpdesk prices guide on 1 October 2026; CMA208, Fake reviews guidance, paragraphs 3.6, 4.3 and 4.5; Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 30; Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 22; GOV.UK, Register for VAT; HMRC VAT Notice 700/1, paragraph 3.7; each step names its source, and the linked guide shows the working.
On 1 October 2026 the plan that keeps a shop's chats out of model training by default cost £15 a user a month on ChatGPT Business and £18 a seat on Claude Team (both billed annually, both sold from two seats up), from £13.80 before VAT on Microsoft 365 Copilot Business and £5.90 before tax on Google Workspace Business Starter; a two-person shop pays £30, £36, £27.60 and £11.80 a month.
Source: chatgpt.com/pricing (Individual and Business tabs) and the OpenAI help page "How your data is used to improve model performance"; claude.com/pricing and the Anthropic Privacy Center pages "Is my data used for model training?" (consumer, dated 16 March 2026; commercial, dated 19 August 2026); microsoft.com/en-gb/microsoft-365/copilot/business and Microsoft Learn "Data, Privacy, and Security for Microsoft 365 Copilot"; workspace.google.com/intl/en_uk/pricing and Google's "Generative AI in Google Workspace Privacy Hub" (updated 14 August 2026); ICO, "Guidance on AI and data protection" (updated 15 March 2023); all read in a browser on 2026-10-01. Desk check only: we did not test the quality of any assistant's writing.
On 1 October 2026 we read the pricing pages of Gorgias, Zendesk UK, Freshdesk and Re:amaze; for a two-person shop handling 600 tickets a month, Gorgias Pro is US$300 a month on annual billing with 190 AI replies included and US$1.50 for each one beyond that, Zendesk Suite Team is £90 a month for two agents with AI resolutions at £1.30 beyond ten a month, and all four price automated replies per conversation rather than per seat.
Source: gorgias.com/pricing; zendesk.co.uk/pricing; freshworks.com/freshdesk/pricing; reamaze.com/pricing; all read 2026-10-01. Shopify Community threads on per-ticket pricing in data/seo/research/packhand.md. Desk check only: we did not trial any product.
We wrote ten questions from the rules set out in 10 of our guides; for 4 of the ten the answer that is in order is "no", so the check cannot be passed by ticking yes. The first asks: Does your returns policy say in words that the customer pays the return postage on a change-of-mind return? A policy that is silent on return postage makes the shop pay it under regulation 35(5). The customer bears the cost only if the shop said so before the order was placed.
Source: Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 35(5); Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 31; Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 29; Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, Schedule 20 paragraph 13; Stripe UK pricing and disputes documentation, read 1 October 2026; GOV.UK, Register for VAT; HMRC VAT Notice 700/1; Royal Mail Business Account Claims Centre, read 1 October 2026; eBay UK summary of the Royal Mail tariff, read 1 October 2026; Standard reorder point formula; our worked example; Regulation (EU) 2023/988, Articles 16 and 19; each rule is set out with its source in the guide the question links to. The test record is in tests/readiness/tools-check.txt.
AEO Lookup editorial team
We write practical guides for people who run small UK firms, and we check every fact against its source on the date shown. Read how we review, or tell us if something has changed.