Launching an online store in Spain takes more than picking a platform and uploading products. Before your first sale, you need to settle your tax status, understand which VAT rate applies depending on where the order ships, know what Spain's e-invoicing rules actually require right now (the deadline recently changed), and choose payment methods and a platform that match the volume you expect to handle. Here's that sequence, with the dates and rules in force in 2026.
1. Choose your legal structure: self-employed or a company
To sell online legally in Spain you need to register with the tax authority (Modelo 036 or 037, the business census) and with Social Security. Most stores that start out do so as a self-employed individual, or autónomo: it's simpler to manage, and Social Security tends to treat online retail as a constant activity that requires registration from the first sale. If your project launches with several partners or you expect high revenue from day one, a limited company (SL) may make more sense for the asset protection it offers, though it comes with higher setup and accounting costs. Decide this before picking a platform, since it shapes how you invoice and which accounting provider you'll need.
2. VAT: what rate to charge, and when to declare abroad
Spain's general VAT rate is 21%, applied to most products, with reduced rates for specific categories. As long as you're selling to customers in Spain, you charge Spanish VAT and file it quarterly (Modelo 303). It gets more complex once you sell into other EU countries: up to €10,000 a year in EU consumer sales, you can keep charging Spanish VAT, but past that threshold you must charge each customer's local VAT rate. Rather than registering in every country separately, you can report everything centrally through the One-Stop Shop (OSS, Modelo 369), which avoids multiple local tax registrations.
3. E-invoicing: what's mandatory now, and what VeriFactu changes
There's a lot of outdated information circulating on this point: VeriFactu, the system requiring invoicing software to report every invoice to Spain's tax agency in real time with a verifiable QR code, is not yet mandatory for most self-employed people and small businesses. The government pushed back the deadlines: it now applies from January 1, 2027 for companies subject to corporate tax, and from July 1, 2027 for self-employed people and other filers. That's no reason to wait, though — adapting your invoicing system ahead of time avoids a last-minute scramble, and most invoicing platforms already offer it as an option ready to switch on.
4. Payment methods your customers expect
To accept card payments you need a payment gateway: Stripe is usually the simplest to integrate across ecommerce platforms, while Redsys, the virtual POS run by Spanish banks, is often what local banks push instead. PayPal remains a method a large share of shoppers expect to see, and Bizum is gaining ground as a fast option for person-to-person payments, though its adoption at ecommerce checkouts is still smaller. Any of these gateways will ask for documentation proving your business activity before activating your account, so it's worth applying in parallel with your tax registration.
5. Pick a platform based on your catalog
Shopify is the fastest way to get started: you can have a working store running in hours, with support and updates included, in exchange for a monthly fee. PrestaShop is the most widely used open-source platform among Spanish small businesses with medium or large catalogs, giving you more control over the code but also more maintenance on your side. WooCommerce, built on WordPress, is free at its core, but the real cost shows up in hosting and the plugins you add along the way. The right choice depends less on which platform is "best" and more on how much customization you need and how much technical time you actually have.
What this means for your business
None of these steps is especially complex on its own, but solving them in the wrong order — picking a platform before settling your tax status, for example — tends to create rework. There's no need to rush over VeriFactu either: you have until 2027, but it's worth planning it with the same accountant or provider who'll integrate invoicing with your store. If you want to launch your ecommerce store in Spain without solving this by trial and error, we can help you define the full structure, from the platform to payments, shipping and invoicing integration.