How to Roll Out Marketing Materials to Stores Across the EU

A new campaign is signed off, the print run is booked and the install date is fixed. Now the posters, window graphics and point-of-sale kits have to reach every store on the list, often hundreds of them across a dozen or more countries, all in the same week.

Since the UK left the EU, every box crossing the Channel is an import, and every import needs someone at the receiving end to answer customs. Store teams are rarely set up for that. Here is how to plan a rollout so the stores never have to deal with customs at all.

Take the Stores Out of Customs

When each store is sent its own parcel from the UK, each parcel is cleared into the EU separately, and the store is treated as the importer. Customs and carriers then come back to the store with questions: its VAT or EORI number, who will pay the import VAT, a signed authority for the carrier to act on its behalf, or proof of what the goods are for.

Store teams usually cannot answer. The details sit with a head office, a finance team or a parent company in another country, the manager may not recognise the delivery, and the email goes unanswered while the parcel waits in a customs queue. On a rollout of hundreds of stores, even a small share of stuck parcels means stores missing their install date.

The way round this is to pack each store's kit in the UK, consolidate the boxes onto pallets and send them in bulk to a hub inside the EU. The whole consignment is cleared through customs there in one import entry, with one importer of record handling the declaration and the VAT. From that point the boxes are already in the EU, so they travel on to each store through the carriers' road networks like any domestic parcel. The stores simply receive their boxes, with nothing to sign, pay or answer.

This is not always the cheapest way to reach a handful of stores, because it adds a trunk journey and a hub clearance. Its value is reliability: it works whether or not the stores can provide clearance information, and that is what keeps a large rollout on schedule.

The importer of record needs an EU EORI number and takes responsibility for the import and the VAT. Agree who that will be before the first pallet moves, and make sure the commercial invoice names them.

Start With a Clean Store List

Most failed deliveries on a rollout come from the address list, not the carrier. Before anything is printed, check every store record carefully.

• A store number on every line, so each box can be traced back to its store
• The full street address, not just the shopping centre's name
• Postcodes in the local format, including leading zeros and letters where a country uses them
• The correct town for that postcode
• A delivery contact and phone number the carrier can actually reach
• Delivery notes such as the loading bay, service entrance or hours goods are accepted

Carrier systems typically allow three address lines of around 35 characters each. Long shopping-centre names and unit numbers can push an address past that limit and stop a label being created, so shorten them in the list rather than discovering the problem on despatch day.

Pack Each Store's Kit With the Carrier in Mind

Box sizes have a direct effect on cost. Carriers add surcharges for boxes over certain lengths or girths, for very heavy boxes and for items that cannot go on their conveyors, such as tubes, unboxed displays and wrapped boards. A flat pack that is only a few centimetres over a limit can cost far more than one that sits just under it.

• Share the box sizes and weights for each kit before packing starts, so the quote reflects what will actually ship
• Allow for bulging: a packed box is often larger than its flat dimensions
• Use rigid boxes rather than wrapped items wherever possible
• Keep each store's kit together and label every box with the store number

Watch the Places That Are Not Quite the EU

Some destinations look like part of the EU but are treated differently for customs and VAT. The Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla are outside the EU VAT area, so goods for those stores cannot simply ride along with the EU hub delivery. They need their own customs clearance, usually by express service directly from the UK.

Countries such as Switzerland and Norway are outside the EU altogether and need their own clearance too. Pick these stores out of the list early so they are planned separately and not discovered at the last minute.

Get the Paperwork Right First Time

Customs delays almost always come down to missing or vague information. For a marketing rollout, the commercial invoice should show a clear description of the goods (for example, printed advertising posters rather than "marketing materials"), the correct commodity code, the country of manufacture, a realistic value and the exporter's and importer's EORI numbers.

Printed advertising material is usually free of import duty in the EU, but import VAT still applies. Decide in advance whether the goods move with duties and taxes paid, so the stores are never asked to pay on delivery.

Work Back From the Install Date

A rollout has a fixed finish line, so plan the timeline backwards from the day the materials need to be in store.

• Last-mile delivery from the EU hub, usually one to three working days by road
• Customs clearance at the hub
• The trunk journey from the UK to the hub
• Collection from the printer and consolidation onto pallets
• Printing, packing and label production

Add a buffer for the countries furthest from the hub and check public holidays in every destination country during the delivery week. A holiday in one country can hold back a whole region's deliveries by a day.

Track Every Box, Not Just the Pallets

Once the pallets are cleared and broken down, every box should carry its own carrier label and tracking number. That lets you see, store by store, what has been delivered, what is on the way and what needs attention.

Ask for tracking reports grouped by campaign rather than a list of tracking numbers. A summary that shows how many stores have received their kits, which deliveries are only partly complete and which have a problem makes it far easier to keep store teams and clients informed, and to act before an install date is missed.

Make Store Rollouts Routine

With a clean store list, sensibly sized kits, one customs clearance and clear paperwork, an EU rollout becomes a repeatable process rather than a scramble each time a campaign goes out.

Equator Worldwide manages store rollouts for printers and marketing agencies every week: collecting from your printer, producing a label for every box marked with its store number, consolidating into the EU through a hub in the Netherlands, delivering to every store and reporting progress by campaign. If you have a rollout coming up, call our team on 020 8363 9999 and we will help you plan it.