Four steps that narrowed cross-border selling into Thailand (2026)

Four changes, all in the same direction

Selling into Thailand from outside the country has changed quietly over the past few years, and always in one direction. It did not close in a single move; it narrowed in four.

Step	What changed	Status
1. Platform registration	Regulated goods need a registration number before they can be listed	In force
2. VAT at 7%	Applied to imports of 1,500 baht or less	From 5 July 2024
3. Import duty	1,500-baht exemption removed, duty from the first baht	From 1 January 2026
4. Flat rate	20–30% flat rate on low-value parcels	Under review, not in force

1. Platforms started checking licences

The Thai FDA held talks with six major platforms — Lazada, Shopee, Grab, LINE MAN, LINE SHOPPING and TikTok Shop — on screening illegal health products, and Lazada and Shopee agreed to remove unregistered products within 24 hours. The Thai FDA monitors Shopee, Lazada and TikTok, and where it finds a violation it asks the platform to take the listing down under the Computer Crimes Act.

Platform policy points the same way. Shopee's official store programme (Shopee Mall) asks for Thai FDA notification documents before approving a cosmetics category.

2. VAT came first

On 5 July 2024 the Director-General of Customs, with the Finance Minister's approval, began collecting 7% VAT on imports valued at 1,500 baht or less as a temporary measure. Until then a low-value item bought from abroad carried no VAT while the same item bought locally did. The measure closed that gap, and it was extended repeatedly through the end of 2025.

3. Duty followed

From 1 January 2026 the duty exemption for goods of 1,500 baht or less was removed. Duty now applies from the first baht whatever the value, with 7% VAT on top. The duty rate follows the item's HS code, and VAT is calculated on the value with duty already added.

Customs signed cooperation agreements with Lazada, Shopee, TikTok Shop, Temu and Shein to link shipment data and declared values, which is why most platforms now show a tax-inclusive amount at checkout.

4. A flat rate is next

A flat rate of 20–30% on low-value parcels is under review. It needs an amendment to the customs tariff legislation and is not in force; what applies today is the ordinary duty and VAT in step 3. The direction, though, is clear — turning case-by-case assessment into a settled rule.

Nothing has been reversed

Taken one at a time, each step is small. Put them in a row and a different picture appears: the conveniences of being a seller located outside Thailand have been removed one by one, and none has come back.

Steps 2, 3 and 4 share a character. They are money. A rate goes up, and you either put it in the price or absorb it in the margin. The arithmetic gets worse; the road stays open.

Step 1 behaves otherwise. Without a registration number the listing does not go up at all. And Thai product registration can only be filed in the name of an entity registered in Thailand, and the number it produces belongs to that entity and does not transfer. Spending more does not pull the date forward; it starts when a party with that name exists.

Which is why step 1 gets deferred longest and then arrives most abruptly. A tax can be reflected in the next order; a registration takes months. Move after the account is blocked and those months are a gap in revenue.

Something closed, something opened

That was the narrowing. Step 3 changed one more thing, and this one runs the other way.

While the duty-free band existed, cross-border only made sense inside it. Split shipments under 1,500 baht carried no tax, so light goods at low unit prices won. Items caught by a mandatory TIS standard — appliances, toys and the like — were never really candidates. The money and months a certification costs could not be recovered on parcel-sized revenue.

On 1 January that arithmetic broke. Splitting shipments no longer avoids anything, so the small-parcel advantage is gone. One question is left: if the tax is paid either way, which costs less — crossing the border per order, or bringing stock in once and selling locally?

Against that question, TIS-regulated categories move position. Assume bulk import and the certification stops being an obstacle and becomes an asset you pay for once and keep using. The cost that used to rule those categories out is now a cost at the start.

The problem was that the certificate is issued to the importer

Here is where it bound in practice. A TISI licence is issued in the importer's name. The same model from the same factory counts as a separate case under a different importer, so every brand entering Thailand, and every distributor taking that brand on, had to certify from scratch. The cost repeated and each round added months. What really kept appliances and toys out of Thailand was not the rate — it was that duplication.

That is the seat hyCommerce takes. With the importer established once and the product certified in that name, the same model can be split across several brands and distributors on a single certification. Adding a vendor does not mean starting over. Stock that clears customs goes straight into the warehouse and out again against Shopee, Lazada and TikTok Shop orders, so certification through to B2C selling runs as one line.

If a category has been parked because Thai certification looked too expensive, this is the moment to redo the sums.

Whatever comes next

Nobody knows what step 5 is. But if steps 1 through 4 all moved the same way, the odds favour the next one doing the same.

On that assumption the choice gets simple. Crossing the border per order has to be recalculated every time the rules tighten. With an importer and stock inside Thailand, steps 2, 3 and 4 settle once per import and step 1 stops being a question. The second route takes months to stand up — start it because the next change pushed you, and you are already late.

Sources

• Thai FDA — talks with six major e-commerce platforms on screening illegal health products, with unregistered listings removed within 24 hours
• Thai Customs Department — temporary collection of VAT on imports of 1,500 baht or less, from 5 July 2024 and subsequently extended
• Thai Customs Department — end of the duty exemption for goods of 1,500 baht or less, from 1 January 2026
• Ministry of Finance proposal for a flat rate on low-value parcels — not in force, pending amendment of the customs tariff legislation