The first month on a new marketplace is less about sales than about settings. What you set up now, you live with for months: delivery times, returns, prices, the VAT registration for each country, and how quickly you answer buyers. If you sell from outside Germany, or from outside the EU, a few of those settings need more thought than the Seller Portal suggests.
This checklist goes through the first 30 days week by week. Every Kaufland rule in it comes from Kaufland’s own pages, read on 30 September 2026; the sources are listed at the end.
Before day 1: registration
Kaufland has one registration for all its marketplaces. You start at kaufland.com/join, pick a subscription (Basic €39.95 or Plus €59.95 a month, plus VAT) and state whether you sell as a natural person, a partnership or a legal entity. Have these ready:
- Identity document of the person registering.
- Business registration and a commercial register excerpt no older than four weeks, each file at most 4 MB.
- The VAT ID of your headquarters. Kaufland requires it from every seller.
- An authorised representative in the EU if you sell CE-marked products made outside the EU. Without one, you cannot offer those products.
If your details are complete, Kaufland activates the account within three working days. You then choose your primary sales channel. Further channels can be added at any time, free of charge.
Decide on VAT before you pick countries
For every sales channel, Kaufland asks for a VAT registration. An EU-based seller enters either an OSS registration or a local VAT ID for that country. A seller based outside the EU, for example in the UK, the US or China, needs a country-specific tax registration and VAT ID for each channel. Those registrations take time, so choose your first countries with that in mind. Our article on VAT and OSS for Kaufland sellers goes into the detail.
Stock outside the EU
Since 15 June 2026, Kaufland has deactivated offers with a net value under €150 that ship from a warehouse outside the EU. You also have to enter every warehouse outside the EU in the Seller Portal, including those of fulfilment or drop-shipping providers. If your cheaper items sit in a UK or Chinese warehouse, plan EU stock for them first.
New to Kaufland? With the code SELLGRIP26 you pay no base fee for your first three months. You can register up to and including 30 November 2026. How it works
Week 1: finish onboarding
After activation, Kaufland’s onboarding has eight steps for each sales channel: shipping groups, offers, tax information, legal texts, company details and EPR, returns address, warehouse, and going live.
- Legal texts in the channel’s language. Terms, cancellation policy, privacy policy and legal notice must be in the national language of each channel and follow that country’s law. Kaufland can translate your legal texts and transfer them to your other channels for free (Shop settings, Legal texts). A translation is not an adaptation to local law, though, so have the texts checked for each country.
- EPR per channel. For Kaufland.de, Kaufland asks for your WEEE number, battery number, LUCID number and proof of participation in a dual system; for Kaufland.pl, your BDO number. For Kaufland.cz and Kaufland.sk, no EPR details are currently required. For France, Italy and Spain, Kaufland offers an EPR service at €1.90 a month per product category, plus the statutory contributions.
- Warehouse and returns address. Enter every warehouse you ship from, and a returns address for each channel. You can reuse one address for several channels.
- Watch the clock. If you do not click “Publish now” yourself, Kaufland publishes your offers automatically within 24 hours of completing onboarding. Make sure prices and stock are right before you finish the last step.
Week 1: shipping and delivery times
The delivery time a buyer sees is your processing time (set on the offer) plus the transport time (set in the shipping group). Kaufland counts working days only: Saturday and public holidays do not count.
- Shipping groups go under Settings, Shipping settings. You need at least one before you can create offers. A uniform shipping group covers several sales channels at once, and shipping costs are shown in each channel’s currency.
- Cut-off time. “Time for same-day shipping” is the time by which an order must arrive to leave with the carrier the same day.
- Honest transport times. Cross-border parcels take longer. A delivery time you miss costs you in your performance figures later, so build in the real transit time to each country.
Week 1: returns settings
- Return period: 14 days by default, adjustable per marketplace.
- Who pays: above a purchase price of €40.00 (990 Kč, 175 zł), excluding shipping and customer discounts, you pay for the return.
- Kaufland’s DHL and DPD return programmes both need a return address in Germany. Without one, you handle returns by message or ticket.
- First reply: since 1 February 2026, your first reply to a return request must contain a valid return option. More in our article on Kaufland returns; the return cost calculator shows what one return costs you.
Week 2: offers, product data and prices
- Product data in the national language. Kaufland translates product data free of charge between most of its channel languages, but not into German. For Kaufland.de and Kaufland.at you need German product data of your own.
- Check your EANs. The reports “Not found EANs” and “Invalid items” show what Kaufland cannot list. Invalid items are not visible to buyers. The free EAN checker catches a wrong check digit before you upload.
- Know your break-even per product. Commission is charged on the gross price including shipping and VAT, per category. The profit calculator works it out per country.
- Minimum prices. Entering a minimum price switches on Kaufland’s Smart Pricing. Set it only once you know your break-even.
Weeks 2 and 3: the first orders
- Mark every item as shipped, with tracking. Without a shipping confirmation, Kaufland cannot release your revenue. Kaufland expects at least 80% of your shipments each month to be trackable.
- Answer tickets within 48 hours. Kaufland expects 100% of tickets answered within 48 hours on working days.
- Do not cancel. Seller-related cancellations should stay under 1% a month. Between 1% and 2.99%, Kaufland charges 7% of the total price of the cancelled transactions; over 3% it is 15%.
- Keep stock accurate across platforms. “Goods not in stock” is the first reason on Kaufland’s list of seller-related cancellations.
In Sellgrip, Orders shows what still has to ship, with the deadline, and you can mark items as shipped from there, one by one or in bulk. That works on every plan, including Free, which covers one Kaufland country; Pro covers three and Business all nine.
Week 4: money and first numbers
- Bank details per channel. Enter them under Settings, Shop settings, Payment details, once for each sales channel.
- Release of revenue. Kaufland releases your revenue 14 days after delivery (with a tracking number) or 21 days after the order is marked as shipped (without one). An open ticket pauses the period. The payout date calculator works out a single date.
- Payouts. You transfer released funds yourself, at any time, in the Accounting section of the Seller Portal. Payouts are in the channel’s local currency; for Czechia and Poland you can choose euro.
- Your first Kaufland invoice. The monthly invoice appears on the 1st. The base fee runs a month behind: September’s fee is booked on 1 October and appears on the invoice of 1 November. It is charged in the currency of the channel you chose for it.
What to know by day 30
After a month you have enough data for three questions. Which products make money after commission, VAT, shipping and returns? Do your delivery times hold in every country you ship to? And how close is your cancellation rate to 1%? Write the answers down on day 30, and ask the same questions on day 60 and day 90.
