A store in the Canaries is not the same as one in Madrid
Most guides on starting an online store in Spain are written for the mainland. The Canary Islands have their own tax and customs rules. They are not a barrier, but you need to know them before building the store, because they affect prices, checkout, invoices and shipping.
Below is the order I recommend. Always confirm tax matters with your gestor or accountant; I cover the technical and sales side.
Step 1: IGIC instead of VAT
In the Canaries, sales to consumers are subject to IGIC, not Spanish IVA. The general rate is 7%, with reduced rates and a zero rate for some goods. Your store should:
- show prices with IGIC included, as consumers expect,
- apply the right rate per product, not a single rate for the whole catalogue,
- issue invoices with the tax itemised and the buyer's details,
- tell apart customers in the Canaries, on the mainland and abroad.
Ideally these rules live in the store configuration rather than being typed into every price. Then changing a rate or adding a product with a different one needs no rebuild.
Step 2: Payments, including Bizum
In Spain people pay online mainly by card and, more and more, with Bizum, the phone payment linked to a bank account. For many customers, no Bizum at checkout is a reason to abandon the order, especially on mobile.
What to enable:
- card payment (Visa, Mastercard) through a reliable gateway,
- Bizum, usually offered through your bank's or payment provider's virtual terminal; check conditions and fees with your bank,
- bank transfer or cash on delivery only where it makes sense (small local orders),
- Apple Pay and Google Pay as extras, if your gateway supports them.
Compare provider fees: with low sales the difference is small, with higher volume it starts to cost real money.
Step 3: Shipping from the islands to the mainland and the EU
This is the most underestimated part. The Canaries are part of Spain but sit outside the EU customs territory and VAT area. In practice, a parcel from Tenerife to Madrid or Warsaw goes through customs formalities and takes longer than a shipment within the continent.
When planning delivery, settle:
- Which carrier you use and whether it handles customs paperwork (declaration, pro forma invoice). Some include it in the price, others charge extra.
- Delivery times: usually several working days to the mainland, longer for smaller islands or goods that need extra checks.
- Who pays import taxes: an EU customer may be charged on delivery, which ruins the experience. In some cases simplified distance-selling procedures exist; discuss this with your accountant.
- Shipping cost at checkout: show it early. A high delivery fee at the end is the most common cause of abandoned carts.
- Returns: a clear policy and a return address, preferably in the same country you ship from.
If you only sell on the islands (café, crafts, local produce), the customs issue disappears and you can add in-store pickup.
Step 4: Legal requirements for the store
A store aimed at consumers in Spain needs the following in Spanish:
- a legal notice (aviso legal) with the company details,
- a GDPR-compliant privacy policy,
- cookie information and consent before analytics tools run,
- terms of sale with the right of withdrawal (14 days for consumers),
- clear prices including tax and delivery costs before the order is placed.
These are normally prepared once and maintained in three languages alongside the store.
Step 5: Language, SEO and conversion
A store selling in Spain should be in Spanish from the first product: descriptions, checkout, confirmation emails, error messages. A Polish version helps if you also target Poles living on the islands, and an English one if you sell to tourists. I cover this in more depth in the article on whether to translate a website or rewrite it.
What helps conversion most:
- fast loading on mobile,
- product photos from several angles,
- visible reviews and contact details (phone, WhatsApp),
- a short checkout that does not force account creation,
- clear delivery times to the islands and the mainland.
Platform: off-the-shelf or custom-built
At small scale a subscription platform is enough. With a large catalogue, custom IGIC rules, warehouse integration or unusual delivery options, a custom store pays off. I compare costs and upkeep in the article on what a website costs in Spain and the Canaries. If you are considering your own solution, I build online stores for businesses in the Canary Islands with IGIC, Bizum and delivery set up from the start. You will find indicative ranges on the pricing page.
Summary
A store run from the Canaries needs three decisions up front: how to apply IGIC, which payment methods to enable (Bizum matters) and how to ship to the mainland and the EU with customs in mind. Add the legal texts and the language your customer buys in. The sooner you settle this with your accountant and your developer, the fewer costly fixes after launch.
Want to launch an online store in the Canary Islands? Get in touch, tell me about your catalogue and the countries you want to ship to, and I will reply with a proposed scope and a quote.
