Serbia can look deceptively easy from an EU logistics perspective.
A brand already selling in Croatia or Slovenia sees Belgrade a few hundred kilometres away and may assume that Serbia is simply the next regional market: extend the carrier network, translate the checkout, start shipping.
Then the border gets involved.
Serbia is not part of the European Union or the EU customs territory, so goods moving there are entering a separate customs, VAT and regulatory environment. Yet focusing only on customs misses the more interesting part of the market. Serbia is developing quickly as an e-commerce economy, while still retaining customer behaviours that differ noticeably from many EU markets.
For companies expanding through Southeast Europe, that combination makes Serbia less of an extension of an EU operation and more of a test of how well the business can adapt when the commercial region continues but the regulatory framework changes.
The Serbian e-commerce market is moving faster than its stereotype
The numbers are difficult to dismiss.
In the first quarter of 2026, Serbia recorded 32.9 million online purchases paid by card or electronic money, an increase of 39.7% compared with the same period a year earlier. More than nine million of those transactions were made on foreign websites. The number of domestic online stores also rose by more than 20% year on year.
There is an important footnote to those figures: the National Bank of Serbia explicitly states that they do not include cash-on-delivery transactions.
That matters because COD remains relevant in Serbia and across the wider Western Balkans. OECD research published in 2026 still describes cash on delivery as predominant for a substantial part of regional e-commerce, even as digital payments continue to expand.
Serbia is therefore not a market stuck between offline retail and e-commerce. It is a market where digital commerce is growing extremely quickly while older payment habits continue to coexist with it.
For a foreign seller, that makes local flexibility more valuable than simply copying the payment setup used elsewhere in Europe.
A parcel from the EU and a parcel from Serbia are not the same customer experience
This is where the customs border starts affecting more than the finance department.
A Serbian consumer ordering directly from an EU warehouse is receiving an import shipment. Serbia applies VAT to imported postal items, including low-value commercial purchases, while customs duties can also arise depending on the value and type of shipment.
The commercial consequences are obvious. Even if the process works correctly, the customer may encounter import calculations, customs handling or additional steps that would not exist in a domestic delivery.
For a brand with occasional Serbian orders, accepting that friction may still make sense. Moving inventory into another country merely to serve a very small volume can be an expensive solution to a problem that does not yet justify solving.
At higher volumes, the economics begin to change.
UNIQ has local fulfillment capability in Serbia. This allows goods to be imported into the country as inventory and subsequent customer orders to move domestically rather than crossing the customs border one parcel at a time. The import requirements do not disappear; they move to a different point in the supply chain, where they can be managed as part of the stock replenishment process.
That distinction can completely change the customer experience.
Croatia and Serbia can solve different parts of the same expansion
Consider a company already building its business in Southeast Europe.
Croatia is inside the EU. Serbia is not. Commercially, both may belong to the same regional expansion plan, but there is no reason the logistics architecture must pretend that the regulatory border does not exist.
A company can keep its EU inventory in Croatia while introducing a separate Serbian stock position once Serbian demand justifies it. The Croatian operation continues serving relevant EU markets, while Serbia becomes a local fulfillment node for Serbian customers.
That is not necessarily the right model from day one.
If Serbian sales are still experimental, the company may prefer to ship cross-border and learn first. If volume develops, local inventory can be introduced later. An established seller already generating significant Serbian demand may reasonably start with local fulfillment immediately.
The useful part of having both Croatia and Serbia within the UNIQ network is not that a brand must use both. It is that the operational model can change as the business moves from testing to scaling without requiring an entirely new logistics relationship each time.
COD becomes more than a payment button
Serbia also demonstrates why checkout and fulfillment should not be designed independently.
If customers want cash on delivery, somebody has to collect that money, reconcile it and return it through the agreed financial process. Refused deliveries matter differently when the carrier is also carrying the payment. Returns, delivery attempts and reporting become part of the economics of the payment method itself.
UNIQ can support COD in Serbia as part of local fulfillment, and the process can be adapted to the commercial model rather than treated as an exceptional service added at the end.
This is particularly relevant for international brands that are accustomed to markets where COD has largely disappeared. Entering Serbia with a rigid “prepaid only because that is how we operate everywhere else” rule may simplify internal processes while simultaneously removing a payment option that remains meaningful to part of the customer base.
Whether COD should actually be offered is still a commercial decision. The important thing is being able to make that decision based on the customer rather than on a limitation of the logistics setup.
The border also changes the questions a company needs to ask
Once Serbia becomes a serious market, fulfillment is only one part of the setup.
VAT treatment, customs duties, import procedures, registrations and the legal structure of the operation can all affect how the model should be built. A logistics solution that appears attractive before those questions are answered can look very different afterwards.
UNIQ can involve its VAT, customs, legal and registration specialist when a logistics client needs support in those areas. That is particularly useful in non-EU expansion because the warehouse decision and the compliance decision often influence each other.
A company should know what the operational model means before committing stock to it.
Serbia is a useful first lesson in going beyond the EU
There is a broader reason Serbia matters.
For an EU e-commerce business looking towards the Western Balkans, Serbia can be the first market that breaks the habit of treating European expansion as an exercise in removing borders. Here the border is real, but so is the opportunity on the other side.
The answer is not to recreate an entire logistics operation for every new country. Nor is it to insist that every order should continue crossing borders indefinitely because the existing warehouse happens to be convenient.
A company may start by serving Serbia from the EU, move to local Serbian fulfillment once volume develops, and later evaluate neighbouring Western Balkan markets using the same principle: understand the commercial potential first, then decide which parts of the operation should remain regional and which need to become local.
That makes Serbia more than another country to add to a delivery table.
It is a good test of whether an e-commerce business can expand beyond the EU without either overbuilding its logistics too early or forcing a European Union operating model onto a market where the rules — and the customers — are different.