12 European countries are under emergency lockdown! Are all Black Friday ads cancelled? !

While everyone has been paying attention to the US election these days, a second outbreak of the epidemic has begun in Europe. This outbreak is swift and severe. The number of newly confirmed cases in European countries is skyrocketing every day, already exceeding the first outbreak in March and April.

At the end of last month, the number of confirmed cases in France reached an incredible peak. At that time, more than 60,000 people were confirmed in a single day. It should be noted that France has a total population of more than 60 million. The daily increase is close to one thousandth of the total population , which is equivalent to 1.3 million new confirmed cases in a single day! This terrifying growth rate has caused European countries to scramble and quickly introduce blockade policies.

On October 31, the British Prime Minister held a press conference and announced that the second full lockdown would be implemented in England from November 5 , which would last at least until December 2. During this period, all non-essential facilities and institutions would be closed except for supermarkets selling daily necessities.

On October 28, the French president also announced in a televised speech that France will once again "lock down" the entire country from the 30th. Non-essential business premises will be closed, non-essential travel by the public will be prohibited, and universities will be closed and online teaching will be conducted.

Germany's disease control department also officially began to implement the second round of nationwide lockdown on November 2. All restaurants only provided take-out services, and cultural and entertainment venues ceased operations.

European countries including Italy, Spain, Belgium, Greece, and Austria have recently implemented lockdown orders of varying degrees, the shortest of which will last about a month.

The biggest impact of the lockdown is that offline stores are closed , and consumers cannot buy some non-essential items offline. However, November is the most important offline shopping season in the West, with Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and even Christmas shopping concentrated in November. If you can't buy offline, then you must go to e-commerce platforms like Amazon, and a large number of consumers will go to Amazon for holiday shopping.

For this reason, the French government even came out to condemn Amazon, saying that the lockdown forced offline entities and businesses to close and prevent them from participating in the Black Friday promotions, while Amazon could promote its own Black Friday events and make a lot of profit from them, which was seriously unfair to the real economy.

Amazon then made a special promise, saying that it would withdraw its Black Friday promotion in France , but the Black Friday promotion would still be held as usual. In fact, even if Amazon stopped the Black Friday promotion in France, it would not stop the explosive sales of stores in Europe.

Sellers who have experienced the epidemic in the first half of the year should have some impression. At that time, all offline stores were closed, and those who wanted to buy non-daily necessities could only go to e-commerce. Orders on all e-commerce platforms are rising, especially on Amazon. This time, the second lockdown in Europe coincided with the holiday shopping season, and there must be a large amount of consumer demand pouring into e-commerce platforms . European sites and sellers who want to enter European sites must seize this opportunity.

However, the tax compliance of European sites is very strict. Compliance is a general trend. If you want to expand your business in Europe, you must think carefully about VAT tax issues.

Especially after Brexit, the UK officially withdrew from the EU's remote sales policies. Cross-border transportation and storage of goods require sellers to provide the VAT number of the relevant country or region, and after January 1, 2021 , the UK and the EU will need two independent EORI customs clearance numbers for goods transfer.

The lockdown of various countries caused by the European epidemic will inevitably slow down the validity of VAT tax numbers. Users in need are advised to prepare in advance and comply with regulations as soon as possible.