The volume shift: How Asian online retailers move from individual parcels to bulk inventory

The landscape of international trade and e-commerce logistics across Europe has undergone a fundamental structural realignment. For years, the European Union’s long-standing low-value customs duty exemption—the de minimis threshold—allowed billions of individual parcels valued under 150 euros to flood into member states from Asian manufacturing hubs completely free of standard import duties. This mechanism served as the bedrock for the direct-to-consumer (DTC) models deployed by ultra-fast-fashion giants like Shein and Temu.