How do the financial flows work in Germany? (Germany)
Prices for the merchant programme
Merchants don’t pay any basic fees or initial costs (except for the necessary techical connection, insofar as you have to make technical changes in your systems for the use of the marketplace). There are only variable costs within the scope of a so-called commission fee on your sold articles. This means that if you successfully sell products, the percentage fee is due. The amount of this fee is independent of the volumes sold via the marketplace and depends exclusively on the net sales price of the products you sell. All information on the marketplace fees for Switzerland can be found here: Annex 15.1 Sales fees overview marketplace Germany
Settlement of the sales charge for sales and returns (marketplace settlement)
Galaxus issues a consolidated and VAT-compliant invoice for the sales fee on a monthly basis. The invoice includes the sales fees for sales that have taken place as well as accepted returns, which are totalled per day. The invoice is always sent between the 1st and 5th day of the following month. The payment terms for traders are no longer applicable. As the sales fees owed at the time of the customer payment to Galaxus and the open sales fees for accepted returns are debited virtually from the merchant credit (net amounts of sales) on the Stripe Connect platform. The billing documents are available in the Partner Portal under Finance → Settlement Receipts:
Example:
Payments of net amounts
The payout of the amounts due to merchants (sales price - sales fee = net amount) takes place automatically in a rolling rhythm and monthly payout interval. Only net amounts for which a dispatch notification has been triggered and the money is available on the Stripe Connect platform are taken into account for the payout. The dispatch notification is sent by merchants to Galaxus via interfaces or the Partner Portal (order set to "sent"). The money is usually available on the Stripe Connect platform three days after the customer payment. The payout is made as part of a monthly bank transfer from the Stripe platform to the merchant.
Payout report
For each collective payment, a "Payout report" is generated, which contains the completed sales and returns with detailed information. In addition, reference is made to the settlement period of the sales charge. The payout report is available in the Partner Portal under Finance → Payout Overview:
Example:
A detailed description of the columns in the payout report can be found in the following section.
Column Name | Description |
|---|---|
Merchant ID | ID of the marketplace merchant in the Galaxus system |
Galaxus Order ID | Unique order number from Galaxus |
Merchant Order ID | Merchant’s internal order number |
Merchant Product ID | Article number used by the merchant (always provided) |
Galaxus Product ID | Product ID assigned by Galaxus |
Product Brand | Brand name of the product |
Product Name | Product name |
Currency | Transaction currency (e.g., CHF) |
Sales Date | Date the customer placed the order |
Order Placement | Date Galaxus forwarded the order to the marketplace merchant |
Delivery Date | Date the item was delivered to the customer |
Payout Date | Date the payout was made to the merchant |
Quantity | Number of items sold or returned |
Sales Price | Sales price – formally defined as including VAT, but effectively excluding VAT due to platform taxation |
Sales Price excl. (Basis Price for commission rate) | Sales price excluding VAT – used as the basis for commission calculation |
Commission Rate | Applied commission rate (varies by product type) |
Commission Amount | Deducted marketplace fee – aggregated on a daily basis in the payout report |
Deduction on processing costs for returns excl. | In case of withdrawals, marketplace merchants can request a reduction in value via the Galaxus Customer Service if the returned product shows signs of use or is no longer in its original condition. The corresponding amount is charged to the end customer and credited to the marketplace merchant. The column “Deduction on processing costs for returns excl.” shows the excl. VAT amount of this credited reduction in value in the payout report. More information about withdrawals: EU Legal Change: Simplified Right of Withdrawal – Changes Effective from 01.06.2026 (Germany)
|
Deduction on processing costs for returns incl.* | In case of withdrawals, marketplace merchants can request a reduction in value via the Galaxus Customer Service if the returned product shows signs of use or is no longer in its original condition. The corresponding amount is charged to the end customer and credited to the marketplace merchant. The column “Deduction on processing costs for returns incl.” shows the incl. VAT amount of this credited reduction in value in the payout report. More information about withdrawals: EU Legal Change: Simplified Right of Withdrawal – Changes Effective from 01.06.2026 (Germany)
|
Amount paid out | Net payout to the merchant (sales minus commission, excluding VAT) |
Commission Settle | Date of commission settlement (e.g., 07.2025) |
Payout ID | Unique payout ID assigned by Galaxus |
Single payment
Individual payouts are not possible in the EU marketplace.
The German Marketplace billing statement shows the total sales fees for all orders placed on a specific day. These fees are debited automatically.
The sales fees are summarised by calendar day. The settlement document includes sales fees from completed sales as well as from accepted returns and cancellations. Sales are shown as positive amounts, whilst returns and cancellations are shown as negative amounts.
The payout report, on the other hand, lists all orders that were dispatched during the relevant reporting period. This can result in a discrepancy between the billing document and the payout report. The payout report does not include any items that have been ordered but not yet dispatched.
To check the invoice, the marketplace seller must therefore verify which items were ordered on a specific date and which of these have already been dispatched. The order date can be found in the payout report in the ‘Sales Date’ column.
Ideally, the total of the daily amounts should match the corresponding amount on the settlement document. However, if some items from a particular day have not yet been dispatched, a discrepancy may arise. The corresponding amounts will then only appear in a later payout period, once the order has been dispatched.
Galaxus Deutschland GmbH has deliberately chosen not to list all individual order items on the invoice, as this can result in very long documents (100+ pages) depending on the partner.
In the Payout Report, the ‘Commission Settled’ column shows in which settlement document the respective sales commission was settled. This allows you to trace the link between individual items in the Payout Report and the corresponding settlement document.