Selling Online in Taiwan: Payments, Logistics and Registration (2026)

Selling online in Taiwan: payments, logistics, registration

TL;DR: To sell online in Taiwan you need four things sorted: a place to sell (a marketplace like Shopee, or your own site), a way to collect money (a local gateway such as ECPay or NewebPay, because Stripe and Shopify Payments don't support Taiwan), shipping (mostly convenience-store pickup, NT$65 per parcel through ECPay at 7-Eleven), and registration. Individuals selling under NT$100,000 a month in goods or NT$50,000 in services can hold off on tax registration (thresholds since 1 January 2025). Food sellers with a business or company registration must register as food businesses, and every cosmetic product needs product registration since July 2024. We built this whole chain for three of our own stores; here's the order we'd do it in.

This guide is for people who aren't from here: foreigners living in Taiwan, and founders abroad who want to sell to Taiwanese buyers. Where the official sources stop, we say so.

Is the Taiwan market worth it?

According to Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs, retailers' online sales hit NT$671.6 billion in 2025, up 2.8%, while total retail sales slipped 0.2%. Online was 14.8% of retail in Q4 2025 (MOEA, 23 January 2026↗). In the first half of 2026, online sales reached NT$349.3 billion, up 11.3% year on year (MOEA statistics bulletin↗). The money is still moving online.

Marketplace or your own website?

Shopee is the default marketplace for small sellers. Its 2026 fees, from Shopee's seller help center (article 26470↗, article 18733↗):

We ran the numbers on our own dried-peach store's average order of NT$928 (our calculation, general seller, option 1, non-campaign day, food category at 5.5%): about NT$130 in Shopee fees, or 14.0%.

Now compare that with what our own website paid to get an order. Taolilife, our dried-peach shop, spent USD 1,309.76 on Meta ads between 15 August and 27 September 2026 and got 34 paid orders that we could trace back to Meta. At 31 TWD per USD that's about NT$1,194 per order (our estimate). The full breakdown is in Meta reported 65 purchases, our store had 34.

So we won't tell you that leaving Shopee saves money. For us it didn't. Your own site saves the 14–16% platform cut, but you have to buy your own traffic. It only pays off when your cost per order is lower than that cut: repeat buyers, organic search, a LINE or social following. A common setup is to keep both. Shopee brings in new buyers; your site serves the ones who come back.

If you go the own-site route, you'll probably pick a hosted platform. We compared the main ones from their official pages in SHOPLINE vs CYBERBIZ vs Shopify vs EasyStore.

How do you take payments in Taiwan?

Start with what isn't available:

• Stripe: Taiwan isn't on its list of supported countries (stripe.com/global↗, checked 7 October 2026).
• Shopify Payments: not available in Taiwan (Shopify Help Center↗). Shopify stores here run on third-party gateways and pay Shopify's extra transaction fee on top.

That leaves local gateways. ECPay's official fee page lists, for personal sellers, domestic cards at 2.75% (minimum NT$5) plus NT$1 per card order, ATM transfers at 1% (minimum NT$15) and convenience-store payment codes at NT$31, with 5% business tax added. Foreign-issued cards are for contracted sellers only (ECPay fees↗).

Cards are only one option. When our peach store went live on ECPay, we switched on credit cards, ATM transfers, WebATM, convenience-store payment codes and barcodes, Apple Pay and ECPay's own payment app. Getting there took two gateway changes. First we collected through NewebPay using our other store's merchant account; NewebPay spot-checked it and asked us to separate the two brands. Then we applied to ECPay and were asked to fix two items before approval. Who can apply, what they ask for and why we were rejected are in ECPay in English.

If you're a foreign founder without a Taiwanese entity, check this part first. ECPay's registration page verifies personal accounts with a Taiwanese national ID card and only takes business accounts from entities registered in Taiwan; it says nothing about foreigners either way. If you end up selling into Taiwan through an overseas company and Stripe, you lose ATM transfers and convenience-store codes. We wrote that trade-off up in Stripe for Taiwan sellers via a US LLC.

How do you ship orders in Taiwan?

Convenience-store pickup is the normal way to ship small parcels. The buyer chooses a store at checkout and collects the parcel there. ECPay's fee page lists C2C pickup shipping at NT$65 for 7-Eleven and FamilyMart and NT$55 for Hi-Life (ECPay fees↗). FamilyMart also runs a free seller platform, Hao Mai+ (好賣+), with store-to-store shipping listed at NT$35 (normally NT$60) as a limited-time price (famistore.famiport.com.tw↗).

What we use and what we learned:

One warning. When we switched gateways, the convenience-store map on our checkout broke because one set of parameters wasn't updated. From 31 August to 4 September 2026 we had 21 checkout starts and zero orders. After any payment or shipping change, place a real test order all the way through store selection.

Do you need to register for tax?

Per the Ministry of Finance's National Taxation Bureau of Taipei (press release, 30 October 2025↗):

Note the "per month". If you cross the line, register; don't split sales across accounts to stay under it.

Selling food or cosmetics? There's registration

Food. Since 1 January 2015, food sellers that hold a factory, business or company registration must register as food businesses, whether or not they have a physical shop. Since 30 September 2015, online and mail-order food sellers in the covered categories must put their food business registration number in their standard sales terms. Failing to register after being told to fix it can bring a fine of NT$30,000 to NT$3 million under the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (Ministry of Health and Welfare↗; registration platform: fadenbook.fda.gov.tw↗).

Our own case: Taolilife is a distributor, and the manufacturer holds the food-business registration. Whether a seller also has to register turns on whether it holds a factory, business or company registration, so check your own situation with your local health bureau.

Cosmetics. From July 2024 Taiwan stopped classifying cosmetics into general and "specific purpose" products and moved to product registration for all cosmetics. Product information files and cosmetics GMP are being phased in (Ministry of Health and Welfare↗). If you're importing beauty products to sell, sort this out before your first listing.

Can buyers return anything within 7 days?

Taiwan's Consumer Protection Act gives online buyers a 7-day right to cancel. The exceptions are set out in a separate regulation (law.moj.gov.tw, J0170012↗, Article 2): perishable or short-shelf-life goods, items customized at the buyer's request, newspapers and magazines, opened audio-visual goods or software, digital content or online services provided with the buyer's prior consent, opened personal hygiene products, and international air travel. The catch: an exception only applies if the seller told the buyer about it. Put it on the product page and at checkout.

Setting up as a foreigner: what the official pages say

We haven't set up a Taiwanese company as foreigners ourselves, so we'll only point to official sources:

• Foreign investment into a Taiwanese company is handled by MOEA's Department of Investment Review (moea.gov.tw/Mns/dir↗), which has a section for overseas Chinese and foreign investment. We couldn't find official processing times.
• Entrepreneur Visa. The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Sydney lists the criteria (roc-taiwan.org↗, page undated). Individuals need to meet one of six conditions, such as at least NT$2 million in investment from VCs or international crowdfunding, or starting a government-accredited innovative enterprise with at least NT$1 million invested and being its person in charge. Successful applicants get a 1-year visa that can be renewed.
• Payments: covered above. Stripe and Shopify Payments don't support Taiwan; ECPay's registration page describes Taiwanese national ID cards and Taiwan-registered entities only.

English-language guidance on all this is thin. Most of the official pages we cite are only in Chinese, which is part of why we wrote this.

The order we'd do it in

1. Decide on Shopee, your own site, or both. Work out your cost per order honestly.
2. Check product rules first (food registration, cosmetics registration). They can block everything else.
3. Pick a payment route you're actually eligible for, and confirm eligibility with the provider in writing if you're a foreigner.
4. Before applying, make your website show the same contact details you'll verify with the gateway, plus one clear pricing page.
5. Set up convenience-store pickup and run a real test order end to end.
6. Track your monthly sales against the NT$100,000 (goods) / NT$50,000 (services) lines.

Our three stores, including the numbers that didn't work, are on the e-commerce hub.

FAQ

Can I use Stripe in Taiwan?

Not with a Taiwanese business. Taiwan isn't on Stripe's supported-country list. Some sellers use an overseas entity instead, which works for cards but doesn't give you ATM transfers or convenience-store payment codes.

Do I need a company to sell online in Taiwan?

Individuals can sell online without tax registration as long as monthly sales stay under NT$100,000 for goods or NT$50,000 for services. Payment gateways have their own rules, and ECPay's business accounts require an entity registered in Taiwan.

How much does shipping cost in Taiwan?

ECPay lists convenience-store pickup at NT$65 for 7-Eleven and FamilyMart and NT$55 for Hi-Life. FamilyMart's own seller platform lists NT$35 store-to-store as a limited-time price.

Is Shopee cheaper than my own website?

Often, yes. At our average order of NT$928, Shopee's fees would be about NT$130. Our own site paid about NT$1,194 per order in Meta ads (our estimate).

Do foreign sellers shipping into Taiwan need to register for tax?

According to the Ministry of Finance, when a foreign seller ships goods to buyers in Taiwan and the buyer is the importer, customs collects the business tax and the seller doesn't need to register. Services and other setups are different; ask an accountant.

Want help setting this up?

We've built this chain three times for our own stores and made most of the mistakes along the way. If you're starting a shop in Taiwan, see our e-commerce coaching service or reach us on Telegram↗.

Compiled from official sources as of 7 October 2026. For your own case, check with an accountant, your local health bureau or the relevant authority.

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