Bonded warehouse in Europe, duty deferred until you sell

An authorised facility where imported goods are held with import duty and VAT suspended until the goods are released for sale. It is a customs regime, so the operator maintains customs records of what is stored. Duty and VAT fall due when stock leaves bond for the EU market, not when it arrives at the border.

Mainly cash flow. Instead of paying import charges on an entire shipment the day it clears customs, you pay duty and VAT only as stock is actually released, which can be much later. It frees working capital that would otherwise sit paid-out against unsold stock, and it adds re-export flexibility for goods that may leave the EU again.

Goods held in bond that are subsequently re-exported outside the EU can leave without EU import duty ever becoming payable, because the duty was suspended, not paid, while they were in bond. This is useful if you use an EU location as a hub to distribute to non-EU markets. Your partner and a customs adviser can confirm how it applies to your goods.

Yes — a 3PL that operates bonded warehousing can hold stock in bond and pick, pack and dispatch orders as goods are released for sale, accounting for duty and VAT at that point. This combines the cash-flow benefit of bond with normal ecommerce fulfilment. Confirm a partner runs both, since not every bonded operator fulfils direct-to-consumer orders.

It depends on your import volumes, how long stock sits before selling, and whether you re-export. The benefit grows with the value of duty and VAT you would otherwise pre-pay and how long that cash would be tied up. For high-value or slow-moving imported stock, or an EU distribution hub, it can matter a lot; for fast-selling low-duty goods, less so.