What is dropshipping and how to start it in Bulgaria and the EU

In short: dropshipping is selling online without your own warehouse. The customer orders and pays in your store, and the supplier ships the goods straight to them. In Bulgaria and the rest of the EU it is ordinary distance selling: you need a company, VAT and product safety (GPSR) compliance and a 14-day right of withdrawal. In a sample calculation, a €48 product leaves about €6.50 per order.

This guide is written by the CloudCart team, the Bulgarian ecommerce platform, for founders selling in or from Bulgaria. It is not tax advice: your accountant confirms the setup for your company.

How dropshipping works, step by step

Dropshipping (also written drop shipping) is a retail model in which the supplier holds the stock, packs it and ships it, while the merchant sells, takes the payment and answers to the customer. Three parties are involved: you (the store and the price), the supplier (a manufacturer, importer or wholesaler) and the customer.

For the buyer and under the law, the seller is you: warranty, returns and the promised delivery time are your responsibility, whatever the supplier contract says.

1. Agree terms with a supplier. You get wholesale prices, photos, descriptions and stock levels, ideally as an XML or CSV feed at a permanent URL that updates at least once a day.
2. Add the products to your store. You set your price and rewrite the descriptions.
3. The customer orders and pays. By card, cash on delivery (COD) or bank transfer. Your company issues the sales document.
4. You pass the order to the supplier. By email, in the supplier's portal or as a file, and you pay the wholesale price.
5. The supplier ships. You get the tracking number and send it to the customer.
6. You handle after-sales service. Questions, returns and refunds within the legal deadline.

The model works best for testing a niche and for extending the range of a store that already has stock. How it compares with selling from your own warehouse, manufacturing and subscriptions is covered in ecommerce business models. If you sell your own designs printed after each order, see print on demand.

How much you make with dropshipping: the real numbers for one order

A €48 order (VAT included) leaves a VAT-registered merchant about €6.50, or roughly 16% of the price excluding VAT. VAT, the payment fee, advertising, returns and the platform all come out of the gap between retail and wholesale price.

The sample product retails at €48 with 20% Bulgarian VAT (€40 excluding VAT) and costs €20 excluding VAT. The card fee is the CloudCart Pay standard rate from Jan 1, 2027 (1.29% + €0.05 for consumer EEA cards), and the platform is Baby Pack (€14/month billed annually, excluding VAT) at 50 orders a month.

Line	VAT-registered	Not VAT-registered
Retail price the customer pays	€48.00	€48.00
20% VAT due to the NRA	−€8.00	€0.00
Wholesale price	−€20.00 (VAT deducted)	−€24.00 (VAT included, not deductible)
Supplier handling fee	−€1.50	−€1.50
Card payment fee	−€0.67	−€0.67
Advertising per order	−€9.00	−€9.00
Returns reserve (5%)	−€2.00	−€2.40
Platform	−€0.28	−€0.28
Left before profit tax	€6.55	€10.15

The second column looks better, but it only holds while your company's annual turnover stays below the mandatory VAT registration threshold in Bulgaria (€51,130). Plan your prices with the first column from day one.

Two lines decide whether the business makes money: the wholesale price and advertising. At €15 of ad spend per order, the same product leaves €0.55. Products under €25 rarely cover paid advertising.

Is dropshipping legal in Bulgaria and the EU, and which taxes apply

Yes, dropshipping is legal in Bulgaria and across the EU. It is distance retail, and the same rules apply as to any online store. The only difference is where the parcel ships from.

A company and NRA registration of the store

Regular sales of goods for profit are made by a trader, most often a sole trader (ET) or a single-member limited liability company (EOOD). The legal forms are compared in the article on registering a company for an online store. Under Ordinance N-18 (Bulgaria's sales-reporting rules for online stores), every online store is registered with the NRA (National Revenue Agency) before its first sale. For card payments on the website without a cash register, you issue a sales document for each order and submit a monthly XML audit file by the 15th.

VAT in Bulgaria: when registration becomes mandatory

A company established in Bulgaria must register for VAT when its annual domestic turnover exceeds €51,130. The threshold applies from Jan 1, 2026 and is published on the NRA's VAT page (in Bulgarian, Article 96 of the VAT Act). Two more rules of the same act often surprise dropshippers:

• A supplier in another EU country. A company that is not VAT-registered must register once its purchases of goods from other EU countries (intra-Community acquisitions) exceed €10,000 in a calendar year (Article 99).
• Services from a company in another EU country. Registration is also needed when you receive services on which you, as the recipient, owe the VAT (Article 97a). Ad platforms often invoice from another EU country.

Selling to customers in other EU countries: the €10,000 threshold and OSS

A Bulgarian store that ships to consumers in other EU countries charges Bulgarian VAT until its total cross-border sales to EU consumers exceed €10,000 a year. Above that EU-wide threshold, you charge the VAT rate of the customer's country, as set out on Your Europe. You do not need a VAT number in every country: through the One-Stop Shop (OSS) you register once with the NRA and declare and pay the VAT for all EU countries in one quarterly return. The scheme is described on the European Commission's One-Stop Shop page. Setting it up step by step is covered in the article on OSS and EU VAT for cross-border sales.

It works the same in reverse: a seller from another EU country dropshipping to Bulgarian consumers charges 20% Bulgarian VAT above the €10,000 threshold and declares it through OSS at home. When the supplier ships from one EU country and you sell from another, the order is a chain of two sales; agree the VAT treatment with your accountant before the first order.

Product safety (GPSR): what every listing must show

The General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR, Regulation (EU) 2023/988) applies from Dec 13, 2024 to consumer products sold in the EU, including online. Under Article 19, every product page in a distance sale must clearly show at least:

• The manufacturer: name or registered trade mark, plus a postal and an electronic address.
• The responsible person in the EU, with a postal and electronic address, when the manufacturer is not established in the EU.
• Product identification: a picture, the type and any other product identifier, such as a batch or model number.
• Warnings and safety information that must be on the product or its packaging, in a language consumers easily understand. For customers in Bulgaria, that means Bulgarian.

Ask suppliers for full manufacturer data in the feed: a product from outside the EU without an EU responsible person cannot be legally sold to EU consumers.

The right of withdrawal and returns

A consumer in the EU can withdraw from an online purchase within 14 days of receiving the goods without giving a reason (Your Europe). In Bulgaria, under the Consumer Protection Act, the customer then has 14 days to send the goods back, and you refund everything paid, including standard delivery, within 14 days.

These deadlines run against you, whatever the supplier contract says. If the supplier accepts returns only within 7 days or only abroad, the gap is your risk, so put the return terms in writing first. Complaints and warranties are covered in the article on returns and consumer rights.

From June 19, 2026, every online store serving consumers in the EU must also offer an electronic withdrawal function (Directive (EU) 2023/2673, Article 11a; in Bulgaria, Article 52a of the Consumer Protection Act). CloudCart places the withdrawal button in the storefront, confirms the request by email and shows it in “Orders”, linked to the order itself.

A supplier outside the EU: import VAT, IOSS and the €3 duty

Goods imported into the EU from a non-EU country are subject to import VAT. For parcels up to €150, the seller can charge the VAT at checkout through the Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS), and the customer pays nothing on delivery. Without IOSS, the customer pays the VAT at import, often with a courier handling fee.

From July 1, 2026, the EU also charges a temporary €3 customs duty on parcels up to €150 that were previously exempt. The duty is per tariff line in the parcel, not per item: five T-shirts owe €3, while a T-shirt and a watch owe €6. The seller or importer declares and pays it, according to the European Commission's announcement. Duties, VAT and paperwork for orders from China are explained in the article on importing from China.

The low price of a non-EU supplier now carries VAT, duty, fees and the GPSR requirement for an EU responsible person. A parcel the customer has to pay for on delivery is often refused, and the return cost stays with you. That is why most dropshipping stores in Bulgaria work with suppliers in Bulgaria or elsewhere in the EU.

How to choose a dropshipping supplier

Choose the supplier by dispatch time, product feed and return terms first, and by price only after that. The customer blames you for every delay and every sold-out product.

	Supplier in Bulgaria	Supplier elsewhere in the EU	Supplier outside the EU
Delivery time to a Bulgarian customer	1-3 working days	3-7 working days	10-25 days or more
Cash on delivery	yes, with a Bulgarian courier	rarely	almost never
VAT and duty on delivery	none	none	VAT (or IOSS) and €3 duty per tariff line
Your VAT registration	Article 96 (€51,130 threshold)	also Article 99 (€10,000 of purchases)	VAT due on every import
GPSR data	manufacturer usually in the EU	manufacturer usually in the EU	EU responsible person needed
Returns within 14 days	easy, local address	more expensive	very difficult

Many Bulgarian shoppers pay cash on delivery, which a supplier with a Bulgarian warehouse lets you offer. Agree whose courier contract the parcel ships under: the COD amount goes to the contract holder, so with the supplier's contract the money passes through the supplier first. The cost of refused parcels is calculated in cash on delivery or card payments.

Questions to ask before you sign

1. Is there a product feed and how often does it update? XML or CSV at a permanent URL, with price, stock, barcode or product code, photos and the manufacturer data GPSR requires.
2. What is the cut-off time for same-day dispatch? And how the tracking number reaches you.
3. Does the supplier ship without its own prices and flyers?
4. How are returns handled? The terms must cover your 14 + 14 days under the law, including who pays the courier for a defect.
5. How is the supplier paid, and is there an invoice? Per-order fees, prepayment or credit, and a VAT invoice for each delivery.
6. Can you order a sample? Order 2-3 products as a customer to check packaging, speed and quality.

Dropshipping sites with ready-made catalogs usually ship from outside the EU. Ask wholesalers and importers in your niche in Bulgaria and the EU whether they work with online stores and have an XML feed, and keep a backup supplier for your best sellers.

What products to sell with dropshipping

The products that sell best are priced between €25 and €150, small and sturdy, and solve a clear problem.

• A clear need or hobby. Ads are easy to target.
• No sizes, or an accurate size chart. Clothing and shoes bring the most returns.
• No licenses and no risky categories. Medicines, food supplements, unverified cosmetics and branded goods without permission bring trouble with authorities and ad networks.
• Complete safety data. Toys, electrical and children's products need full GPSR information; without it, leave the product out.

How to build a dropshipping store in CloudCart

In CloudCart, dropshipping runs on three admin tools: XML Sync for the supplier's products, the Suppliers app for wholesale prices, and the “Products by orders” view for the orders to each supplier.

Products arrive and update on their own: XML Sync

In Apps → XML Sync you create a task with the feed URL and the tag that wraps one product, choose how products are matched (SKU, barcode or ID) and map the fields. If you tick only price and stock for updates, the descriptions you rewrote are never overwritten.

The sync runs the feed on a schedule (every 12 hours by default), updates prices and stock and creates new products. With “Disable missing products”, products that disappear from the feed become inactive, and “Enable exists products” brings them back when they return in stock. The number of products in the sync depends on the plan: 100 in Baby Pack, 2,000 in Starter Pack, 7,500 in CC Pro and 25,000 in CC Master, according to the pricing page.

If the supplier only sends a spreadsheet, products are uploaded through CSV import or from Google Sheets in the catalog. Which import fits which case is compared in the guide to importing products from CSV and XML. Some suppliers have a ready-made connection: the Brands Distribution app imports the catalog, stock and prices of the Italy-based fashion distributor, so you resell without holding inventory.

Which supplier has each product: the Suppliers app

The Suppliers app stores each supplier's name, email, phone and address, and for each product and variant the supplier's price, code and stock status. One product can have several suppliers.

In Suppliers → Products by orders, the quantities sold are grouped by supplier for a chosen period, status or order number. The table exports, so each supplier gets exactly its share. The platform does not send the order to the supplier on its own. To automate it, the store sends a webhook for every new order, and an AI assistant with a PAT token can collect the orders by supplier every morning.

Documents, payments and 0% commission

The invoice and the sales document are issued from the order, and the N18 Audit app prepares the monthly XML file for the NRA. Everything about it is on the invoices and Ordinance N-18 page. CloudCart takes no share of your sales: 0% commission on every plan. At a €6.55 margin per order, a platform with a 2% commission on €48 would take another €0.96, almost 15% of your profit.

You can also build the store with an AI assistant such as Claude Code, ChatGPT/Codex or Gemini CLI and a PAT token from the admin: you describe what you sell in one sentence.

How to start dropshipping in Bulgaria: a plan for the first week

1. Day 1: niche and numbers. Run the calculation from the table for 3-5 products. Drop those that leave less than €5 per order.
2. Day 2: suppliers. Write to 3-5 suppliers in Bulgaria or the EU with the questions above, and order samples from two of them.
3. Day 3: company and accountant. Register an ET or EOOD and discuss VAT: Article 96, Article 99 for an EU supplier, Article 97a for advertising and OSS if you sell to other EU countries.
4. Day 4: store. Connect the domain, couriers and payments, upload the terms, the withdrawal form and the withdrawal button, and register the store with the NRA.
5. Day 5: products. Start XML Sync with only price and stock ticked, check the GPSR data on each product page and rewrite the descriptions of the 10-20 products you launch with.
6. Day 6: test order. Go through payment, forwarding, delivery and a return yourself.
7. Day 7: first customers. Launch ads with a daily budget and a cost-per-order ceiling.

The most common dropshipping mistakes

• Sold-out products in the store. Without stock sync, you take orders for goods that are gone.
• The supplier's descriptions left unchanged. The same text sits in dozens of stores. Google shows one of them.
• Prices without VAT in the calculation. The margin disappears with the first VAT registration or import duty.
• Missing manufacturer data. A listing without the manufacturer's contact details or an EU responsible person breaks the GPSR, and marketplaces and authorities can remove it.

Frequently asked questions

Have a question about your store or your supplier's feed? Write to us at support@cloudcart.com.