Beyond the Basket - 31/03/26

Tuesday 31st March | #69 | Join Free

Making Tax Digital lands next week, meaning thousands of eCommerce sellers and small business owners are about to swap their once-a-year tax scramble for quarterly reporting whether they’re ready or not. Shoppers are calling for the £135 import loophole fuelling Temu and SHEIN to be closed, Debenhams is quietly proving the asset-light marketplace model can actually make money, and eBay’s push into live shopping is irritating the sellers it depends on. Busy start to the week. Let’s dive in 🤿 — Mike

In the basket today:
💷 Making Tax Digital: What eCommerce sellers need to know right now
🛒 Shoppers want the de minimis loophole closed
📈 Debenhams proves the stock-lite marketplace model actually works
🇪🇺 EU AI labelling rules are coming
📺 eBay's live shopping push is annoying sellers and buyers
🛍️ Meta adds eBay to its affiliate commerce programme

+plus five events and dates you need to add to your calendar this week.

Please note this piece is informational only. Not tax advice, please speak to a qualified accountant about your specific situation.

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (MTD for ITSA) becomes mandatory for the first wave of sole traders from 6 April 2026, next Monday.

The big change: annual → quarterly
Instead of one Self Assessment return per year, you'll now submit income and expense summaries to HMRC every quarter, plus a year-end final declaration. Record-keeping needs to be live throughout the year, not pieced together in January.

Are you in scope? Check your turnover, not your profit
Thresholds are based on gross income (turnover), not profit, a crucial distinction for eCommerce businesses with high cost of goods.

A seller with £55k in sales and £15k profit is in scope now. HMRC uses your 2024/25 Self Assessment return to determine eligibility.

2026/27 quarterly deadlines

Software is now a requirement
Spreadsheets alone won't cut it. You'll need HMRC-compatible software (Xero, QuickBooks, FreeAgent, Monzo and Sage all have options). For eCommerce sellers, the key question is whether your selling platform connects cleanly to your accounting software, if it doesn't, the quarterly cadence could create real pressure fast.

One grace period to know about
HMRC won't apply penalty points for late quarterly updates in year one (2026/27). But that grace does not cover the final year-end declaration on 31 January 2028.

Even if you don’t fall into the first wave, it’s best to start preparing now so you’re ready for the email/letter from HMRC when it comes.

→ For official guidance: gov.uk/making-tax-digital-income-tax

TLDR: New research from the Retail Technology Show finds 54% of UK shoppers want the government to change the £135 de minimis threshold that allows cheap overseas parcels to dodge import duties.

Why it Matters: Temu and SHEIN captured nearly half (45%) of all UK online shoppers last year, with SHEIN's UK sales surging past £2 billion, overtaking Boohoo and closing in on ASOS. The government has indicated the £135 threshold is unlikely to change before the next phase of customs reforms expected later in the decade, despite heavy lobbying from the BRC, Primark, Currys and Next, meaning domestic retailers face this asymmetry for at least three more years.

Your Move: Waiting for regulation to fix the Temu problem is a risky strategy. The government moves slowly; marketplaces move fast. Audit your product pages against equivalent Temu and SHEIN listings now, benchmark against price, delivery time, returns policy, and identify the trust signals you lead with that they can't replicate.

Read More>

TLDR: Debenhams Group reported adjusted EBITDA of £53m for FY26, a 36% year-on-year increase, as its pivot to an asset-lite, capital-light marketplace model starts delivering real numbers.

Why it Matters: The Boohoo-operated brand has shed warehouse costs, rightsized its stock base and rebuilt on a technology platform designed around marketplace margins. H2 EBITDA was up 76%, GMV showed three consecutive quarters of improvement (now just 5% below the prior year), and the group is forecasting double-digit EBITDA growth in FY27. CEO Dan Finley was direct: "Our pivot to the stock-lite, capital-lite, highly profitable marketplace is working."

Your Move: If you run a multi-brand or multi-category operation, study how Debenhams Group shed onerous fulfilment costs while continuing to grow its Debenhams, Karen Millen, Boohoo, MAN and PLT destinations. The Debenhams turnaround is essentially a case study in removing inventory risk from fashion eCommerce, and the playbook is now well documented.

Read More>

TLDR: Under Article 50 of the EU AI Act, businesses selling into Europe must clearly label AI-generated or AI-manipulated product imagery, or face fines of up to £13 million or 3% of global turnover.

Why it Matters: UK sellers have been free to use AI image tools without any disclosure requirements, but those selling cross-border into Europe no longer have that option. The practical challenge isn't just legal, it touches image production workflows, marketplace listings, metadata and customer-facing copy. The UK has no equivalent regulation yet, creating a compliance gap that's manageable today but will widen as EU enforcement ramps up. In practice, enforcement will likely come through marketplaces first. Expect Amazon, Zalando and others to require sellers to declare whether images were AI-generated.

Your Move: If you sell into any EU market, audit which of your current product images were AI-generated or substantially edited with AI tools, and start mapping out what a labelling and disclosure workflow would look like before enforcement creates urgency.

Read More>

TLDR: eBay's "48 Hours of Drops" livestream event (26–27 March) caused widespread confusion and frustration, with homepage takeovers disrupting regular listings and sellers reporting traffic drops and disrupted search visibility during the event.

Why it Matters: eBay is pushing hard to compete with Whatnot and TikTok Shop, but the execution backfired badly. eBay Live modules flooded search results, the homepage showed little else, and push notifications fired even for users who'd opted out. Most sellers aren't eligible to participate in eBay Live at all, meaning the format's aggressive rollout actively harmed organic visibility for the majority of the seller base.

Your Move: Check your eBay traffic and conversion data for 26–27 March against your usual baseline, if you saw a dip, you now have a plausible cause. Keep monitoring: if eBay continues to push Live this aggressively, the knock-on effects for organic search visibility could be significant.

Read More>

TLDR: eBay is joining Meta Platforms' affiliate commerce programme, allowing creators on Instagram and Facebook to earn commissions by linking directly to eBay listings.

Why it Matters: Social platforms are racing to bridge the gap between discovery and purchase, and eBay joining Meta's programme gives the marketplace a foothold in creator-led commerce it has so far lacked. For eBay sellers, this could gradually bring new traffic from social referrals, but the bigger story is the direction of travel: the lines between social media and marketplace are blurring fast.

Your Move: If you're an active eBay seller, start thinking about which of your listings are most shareable, visually strong, niche interest, or strong value, and whether optimising for social discovery should become part of your listing strategy.

Read More>

April 2nd - eBay Business Seller Meetup - Portsmouth, UK - The eBay Business Seller Meetup is an event designed to connect eBay business sellers, eBay staff, and experts in the e-commerce space.

April 3rd - 6th - Easter Bank Holiday - Prepare for slower than usual delivery windows.

April 5th - End of 2025/26 tax year - Final day of the current tax year. Ensure all income and expenses are recorded.

April 6th - Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax starts - Sole traders and landlords with income over £50,000 must use MTD-compatible software and submit quarterly updates.