Asian e-commerce imports plunge after customs duty takes effect
Tuesday 15th September 2026 on 18:30 in
Estonia
Imports of goods ordered online from Asia have fallen sharply in recent months, ERR reported. Omniva and the Estonian E-Commerce Association attribute the decline mainly to a customs duty introduced in July, while warning that changes in logistics routes may mean not all Asian goods reaching Estonia appear in national statistics.
According to the Tax and Customs Board, the volume of goods ordered from outside the European Union fell by nearly 58 percent year on year in July and by 93 percent in August. Imports from China declined particularly sharply.
Tõnu Väät, chief executive of the Estonian E-Commerce Association, said the decline was linked to the customs duty and Temu’s decision to significantly reduce its advertising. He said Temu had cut its advertising volume by about half, and that many purchases generated by the platform had been impulse buys prompted by aggressive advertising.
Sven Kukemelk, Omniva’s commercial director, said the sharp decline had led to more shipments being routed through major airports in Western and Central Europe, where they are increasingly cleared through customs. Goods cleared in another European country do not appear in Estonia’s customs statistics, he said.
Kaari Lainevool, head of customs services at the Tax and Customs Board, said the risk that the statistics do not capture all goods entering Estonia also exists. However, she said it was too early to draw firm conclusions because e-commerce platforms and sellers were reorganising their logistics and making greater use of consolidation warehouses within the European Union.
Experts do not expect the unusually low volumes to remain permanent. Martin Noorkõiv, head of international operations at Omniva, said the current figures reflected an initial shock from the three-euro customs duty and the adjustments platforms were making to collect it. He expects volumes to recover to some extent once those changes settle.
Väät also expects advertising volumes to increase over time, which he said would lead to higher sales, although the eventual level remained difficult to predict.