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08th Jan 2021

Debanhams closes online store in Ireland

Cassie Stokes

Looks like Brexit could be affecting more of our online shopping habits.

Debenhams has closed its online store in Ireland to avoid Brexit tariffs. The website was taken offline on Christmas Eve.

Debenhams closed their stores in Ireland back in April but customers were still able to purchase products via the website.

Now if you log on to the site, a message that reads: “We are currently unable to deliver orders to the Republic of Ireland, due to uncertainty around post-Brexit trade rules.”

The note also said the company “made the difficult decision to temporarily switch off Debenhams.ie”.

With the new Brexit rules companies will be taxed more for goods that are coming from outside of the EU and sold into the EU. Trade in goods between the UK and the EU will not be subject to tariffs but goods imported into the UK from places like China or India will have to be charged.

Sam Lowe from the Centre for European Reform explained to ITV News: “Goods imported from Asia and re-distributed to the EU are not from the UK – they are from China or Bangladesh or wherever.

“That good will now be subject to a tariff when entering the UK and then again when entering the EU.” This could mean that there may be a lot more retailers pulling their websites and not allowing Irish customers to buy from them.

There are fifty major UK retailers who are looking closely at the new regulations for international purchase now that they’ve left the EU.

Not all companies will close their sales to Ireland as Irish customers are too valuable to them, but there will likely be a few more following in the footsteps of Debenhams.

Marks and Spencer and Tesco are just some of the companies who are currently looking through their products to see which new tariffs they will be subject too and how that will effect their business.

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