No VAT when non-EU customers select in-store pickup

Accounting & Taxes
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Topic summary

A Shopify store in the EU discovered a pricing loophole when non-EU customers select in-store pickup instead of delivery.

The Setup:

  • To maintain uniform global pricing per brand policy, the store created separate EU and non-EU markets
  • EU market: Shopify adds 19% VAT automatically (Base_Price * 1.19 = EU_Total_Price)
  • Non-EU market: Store manually increased prices by 19% to match EU final prices (Base_Price * 1.19 = NonEU_Total_Price)

The Problem:
When non-EU customers choose in-store pickup, Shopify applies the EU base price but adds neither the VAT nor the manual 19% price increase. This results in non-EU customers paying only the Base_Price—significantly less than intended.

Current Status:
The issue appears to be a Shopify bug related to how the platform handles market pricing for in-store pickup orders. One participant plans to replicate the issue in their test shop and report it to Shopify. The price adjustment was implemented through Settings → Markets → [Market Name] → Products and Pricing with a 19% markup matching the store’s local VAT rate.

No resolution has been reached yet.

Summarized with AI on November 10. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

We are operating a shop in the EU. Due to a brand pricing policy, all products must be sold at the same final price, regardless of where in the world the customer is located. Originally, Shopify was deducting the VAT for customers in non-EU countries, which resulted in them having cheaper prices.

We solved this by creating separate Shopify Markets for EU and non-EU and configured a different pricing model for the markets. For the EU market, Shopify automatically adds the VAT. For the non-EU market, we increased the price of the products by to match the price increase of the VAT (since Shopify does not add the VAT for customers in non-EU countries).

Assuming a 19% VAT,

  • EU_Total Price = Base_Price * 1.19 (19% added by Shopify)
  • NonEU_Total_Price = Base_Price * 1.19 (19% added by us)

I have discovered a loophole in this system. If a non-EU customer places a order with in-store pickup instead of delivery, neither the VAT nor our price increase is added to the order and the customer ends up paying the Base_Price. It seems that Shopify is using the EU Price since the shop is located in the EU and not including the VAT because the customer is based outside the EU.

Is this a bug or a feature? Is there any way to have an identical price for in-store pickup using our Shopify Market configuration?

2

Hi Patric,

Very interesting. Shopify has many bugs , but his one is funny. How did you increase the price - did you use Market mark up or you fixed the price for the Market? I want to repeat that mistake and write to Shopify.

3

Hi Rostislav.

Sorry, I just saw your response now.

I increased the price by going to Settings → Markets → MyNonEUMarket → Products and Pricing → Pricing.

I then added a Price Adjustment for an increase of 19%, which matches the VAT of the country in which the shop is located.

4

HI Patrick,

So you use the standard way of doing it. But the bug is interesting . I will try to replicate it in our test shop and inform Shopify