Asking for a VAT number in Shopify without Plus
What the checkout can and cannot do, four ways to get the number anyway, what each costs in convenience and certainty, and where Zendat fits.
If you sell to businesses, you need their VAT number: it belongs on the invoice, and since 2026 it is also the address a Peppol e-invoice is delivered to. Without Shopify Plus, no app can add a field to the checkout, and the VAT field Shopify has itself is made for sales across a border. This article sets the options side by side, with their downsides.
What the checkout can and cannot do
The checkout is the most guarded part of Shopify. What is in it, Shopify decides; what an app may add to it depends on your plan.
Shopify's checkout asks for a name, an address, an email address and payment details, and a company name if you switch that on. Since February 2026 you can also switch on a field for the company's VAT number in the checkout settings. That field can only be optional, not required.
It is made for one case: a business buyer in another EU country. If they enter a valid number, Shopify charges no VAT on the order. The field only works when Shopify Tax calculates your VAT in the EU, it does not work in the B2B checkout of company accounts, and Shopify keeps the number on the customer profile. For a sale within Belgium it changes nothing about the VAT.
An app that wants to put a field in the checkout itself may do so only on Shopify Plus: on Basic, Grow and Advanced, the information, shipping and payment steps are closed to apps. That does not change because Shopify has offered B2B features on those plans since April 2026, such as company profiles and payment terms. What apps may use on every plan except Starter are the pages after payment: the thank-you page and the order status page.
Four ways to get the number
All four work. They differ in when the buyer enters the number, what happens to it, and how much work you have.
Shopify's own VAT field
You set the field to optional in the checkout settings. The buyer enters the number before paying, Shopify checks it with VIES, and a business in another EU country pays no VAT with a valid number. It costs nothing and needs no app and no change to your theme.
Downsides. It only works with Shopify Tax. It is made for sales across a border: for a Belgian buyer in your Belgian shop, nothing changes about the VAT. If VIES cannot confirm the number, Shopify simply charges VAT. The number sits on the customer profile. And the field makes no invoice: something or someone still has to turn it into an e-invoice.
A field on the cart page (cart attributes)
Your theme can show an extra field on the cart page that travels with the order as a so-called cart attribute; it then appears on the order in your admin. It takes a small change to your theme, or a form app that does it for you.
Downsides. The field lives on the cart page only. A buyer who checks out straight from the product page, or through an accelerated payment button, never passes it. Nothing checks the number, so typos and made-up numbers land on your invoice as they are. It changes nothing about the VAT Shopify charges. And the number sits on the order as loose text: something or someone still has to turn it into an invoice.
By hand, afterwards
You ask for the number by email after the order, or you work it out from the company name and address and look it up yourself. Then you make the invoice in your accounting software. For a handful of business orders a month that is doable, and it needs no app and no change to your theme.
Downsides. It is work per order, and it waits for an answer that sometimes never comes. Retyping every order into the accounting software is a source of errors. As soon as you have more than a few business orders a month it adds up, and it does not scale.
An app on the thank-you page and the order status page
An app puts a block on the thank-you page, right after payment, and on the order status page the buyer opens later from the confirmation email. The buyer sees the question whether the purchase is for a business and enters the VAT number. That works on every Shopify plan except Starter, and nothing changes in the checkout itself.
Downsides. The number arrives after payment, so the VAT on the order has already been calculated; for a Belgian buyer that makes no difference, for a buyer in another EU country it does. The field is optional: a buyer can skip it, and then you have to follow up. And the block has to be placed once on both pages in the checkout editor.
Where Zendat fits
Zendat is the fourth way, with the invoice behind it.
Zendat puts its VAT number block on the thank-you page and the order status page. It checks the number's format, validates it with VIES, the EU's VAT register, and keeps it on the order in Shopify. If a buyer does not fill it in, you can put the number on the order yourself in the app.
Then Zendat carries on where the other ways stop: it builds the Peppol e-invoice from the order, delivers it through a certified access point, turns every refund into a credit note, numbers consecutively and, if you set it up, mails a copy to your accounting. With automatic sending on, a paid order of a Belgian business buyer is invoiced within minutes of the VAT number being saved.
What Zendat does not do: it changes nothing about the VAT Shopify charges. An order with a VAT number from another EU country goes on its own only when you switch that on: over Peppol when the buyer is found there, otherwise as a PDF mailed to the buyer. Without it, that order is shown to you with the reason, and you send it from the app. How it all works is on Peppol e-invoicing for Shopify in Belgium.
Questions
Can I make the VAT number mandatory?
Not in a way that holds. Shopify's VAT field only knows optional. A required field on the cart page is skipped by a buyer with an accelerated payment button, and would stop your consumer buyers too. On the thank-you page the order has already been paid. What helps: saying clearly on the thank-you page and in your confirmation email that a business buyer needs the number for an invoice, and entering the number yourself when it does not come.
Does the VAT number change the VAT on the order?
Only with Shopify's own VAT field, and only for a business in another EU country. The other three ways do not touch Shopify's VAT calculation. For a Belgian business buyer that is no problem: they pay Belgian VAT and deduct it. When goods go to a business in another EU country, the invoice as a rule carries no Belgian VAT; give that customer a tax exemption in Shopify for their next orders, and ask your accountant what applies to your sales.
Does Zendat take the number from Shopify's VAT field?
No. Zendat reads the number from its own block on the thank-you page and the order status page, or the number you put on the order in the app. If you also use Shopify's field, the buyer enters the number again for Zendat, or you put it in the app.
What if the buyer skips Zendat's block?
Then there is no VAT number on the order and it is not invoiced. You can still enter the number yourself in the app, or point the buyer to the order status page in the confirmation email, where the block is too.
Peppol e-invoices for your Shopify B2B orders, sent for you.
Questions about your checkout or about your shop: write to support@zendat.eu. Every message is answered by a person.