New EU Product identifiers supported on Shopify Shipping & Managed Markets labels
By Steven Van ·
Shopify will block EU-bound labels for parcels of €150 or less if items lack the identifiers customs requires from November 1, 2026.
From November 1, 2026, the EU requires product identifiers for every item in a parcel sent to an EU customer from outside the EU, where the parcel is worth €150 or less. Shopify now supports these identifiers on Shopify Shipping and Managed Markets labels. A parcel missing them can be held or rejected at customs, and the merchant may be charged return-to-origin fees.
The three identifiers
- M-PID (merchant product identifier): No action needed. The product variant's ID is used.
- S-PID (standardized product identifier): Add a barcode to the variant with the type GTIN, EAN, UPC or ISBN. A barcode saved with the Custom type is also accepted if it is a valid GTIN of 8, 12, 13 or 14 digits.
- NS-PID (non-standardized manufacturer product identifier): Add the manufacturer's model number, part number or style code as a barcode with the type NS-PID.
If a variant has no NS-PID barcode, Shopify falls back to another identifier in this order: its standardized barcode, any other barcode, its SKU, and then the variant's ID. A variant that already has a GTIN or a SKU meets the requirement.
Products with no standardized identifier
For items not registered under any barcode standard, such as handmade or one-of-a-kind goods, a product or variant can be marked as having no standardized identifier. The setting is called Has no standardized identifier, under EU customs declaration in the Shipping section's More details card. It should be used only when the product truly has no GTIN, EAN, UPC or ISBN. When it is on, no standardized identifier is sent to customs for that item, even if one is saved on the variant.
Exemptions and bulk edits
The EU does not require identifiers for some goods, including unprocessed agricultural and perishable goods in HS chapters 01 to 15, certain handmade and artisanal goods, and antiques, collectibles, works of art, stamps and coins. Shopify applies the exemption from the variant's HS code, and merchants cannot mark a product as exempt themselves, so accurate HS codes matter. Barcodes and declarations can be updated for many products at once with a CSV import or the bulk editor.
Buying labels
Identifiers saved on products are added to the customs declaration and sent to the carrier when a label is bought in the Shopify admin. From November 1, a label cannot be bought for an item in a parcel worth €150 or less if it lacks a standardized identifier and the no-identifier declaration is not turned on. The missing details can be entered from the label page under Edit customs declaration. For items linked to a product, those entries are saved back to the product. Custom items keep them on the customs declaration only.
Merchants who buy labels outside Shopify should contact their carrier, broker or fulfilment partner about how to supply the identifiers.
