Mandatory electronic invoicing: is your online store really ready?

What nobody tells you about the upcoming deadline

One of our clients called us in a panic a few weeks ago. He runs an online store selling Norman regional products, 200 orders a month, PrestaShop well in place. His question: “I’ve heard about a mandatory electronic invoicing obligation. Does it apply to me?”

The short answer: yes. And he wasn’t ready.

The long answer is this article.

The electronic invoicing reform in France is not a subject reserved for accountants or large companies. It directly affects your online store, your CMS, your order process. And if you think “it’s for later”, the deadlines have been pushed back — but they are coming, and compliance takes time.

Here is what you need to know, without unnecessary jargon.

What the reform concretely imposes

The Direction Générale des Finances Publiques (DGFiP) has been driving a deep reform of invoicing between French companies for several years. The objective: to move to a system of structured and mandatory electronic invoicing for all B2B transactions carried out between VAT-registered entities established in France.

This is not simply “sending a PDF by email”. A PDF, even well-formatted, does not meet the reform’s requirements. Structured data is needed, in a machine-readable format (Factur-X, UBL, CII), transmitted via a partner dematerialisation platform (PDP) or via the public portal Chorus Pro.

Two distinct obligations coexist in this reform:

E-invoicing covers invoices issued between French VAT-registered companies (domestic B2B). These invoices will have to go through a certified platform.

E-reporting covers transactions that do not go through e-invoicing: sales to individuals (B2C), transactions with foreign companies. The data for these sales will need to be transmitted to the tax authorities according to a precise calendar.

For an e-commerce merchant who sells mainly to individuals — which is the case for the majority of online stores — it is e-reporting that applies first. And this is often the least well understood aspect.

Is your CMS technically capable of meeting this obligation?

That’s the real question. And the answer depends on your stack.

PrestaShop and WooCommerce: two very different situations

PrestaShop has a relatively mature module ecosystem on this topic, and each major version evolves its native capabilities — we have detailed elsewhere what the PrestaShop 9.1 update really changes. Publishers such as Factur-X or third-party solutions already offer compliance modules. But — and this is where our clients are caught off guard — a module is not enough on its own. Your theme, your customer data, and your VAT configuration must be consistent with the format requirements. We have seen PrestaShop stores with 5 different modules installed, and no compliant invoice generated despite all of them.

WooCommerce presents a more variable level of maturity. The richness of the WordPress ecosystem is also its weakness: there are many invoicing plugins, but their compatibility with the required structured formats (Factur-X in particular) is uneven. If you use WooCommerce with a generic invoicing plugin, it is probably insufficient.

The ground truth, as we live it with our clients: the majority of French online stores are not ready. Not because their owners are negligent, but because the reform is complex, the deadlines have shifted, and technical providers have not always anticipated this.

What your store must be able to do

To be compliant, your e-commerce system must be able to:

1. Generate invoices in structured format (Factur-X is the standard adopted in France — it combines a readable PDF and a machine-readable XML)
2. Transmit your B2C transaction data to a PDP or directly to the administration via e-reporting
3. Retain and archive electronic invoices under the legal conditions (duration, integrity, readability)
4. Correctly manage mandatory mentions (SIREN number, VAT mentions, buyer status)

If your store currently generates “homemade” PDFs without an integrated XML structure, you are starting from a long way back. This is not insurmountable — but it cannot be fixed in an afternoon.

The BarkBox case: when identity transcends the product

You may be wondering what BarkBox has to do with an article on electronic invoicing. Bear with us.

BarkBox is an American company that sends monthly boxes of toys and treats for dogs to its subscribers. Its CEO publicly stated: “BarkBox is not a box”. The company does not define itself by its physical product, but by the emotional relationship it builds with its customers — and their dogs.

This positioning has direct implications for their e-commerce model: recurring orders, subscriptions, rich customer data, advanced personalisation. And therefore: thousands of monthly transactions to manage, invoice, and report.

Why is this relevant for you? Because if you sell online with recurring orders, subscriptions, or volume, tax compliance becomes an operational issue, not just an accounting one. BarkBox cannot afford to have shaky invoicing — and neither can you, regardless of the size of your store.

The example illustrates a simple truth: e-commerce companies that succeed over the long term are those that treat their technical infrastructure — including tax compliance — as a competitive advantage, not a constraint to endure.

What our audits systematically reveal

On the e-commerce projects we have carried out and audited over the past few years in Normandy and beyond, three problems come up systematically when we address invoicing compliance:

Incorrectly configured VAT. Rates applied at the product level with no consistency with territoriality rules, incorrectly coded exemptions, intra-community VAT rules ignored. Result: invoices generated with incorrect data, even if the format is correct.

Non-existent archiving. Invoices are generated on the fly and stored in the WordPress uploads folder or in an unsecured PrestaShop directory. No guarantee of integrity, no traceability. This does not comply with legal archiving obligations — and it will not with the reform either.

The accounting / technical divide. The accountant knows their obligations. The developer knows their CMS. But nobody has built a bridge between the two. The invoicing module was installed by a service provider three years ago, nobody has checked whether it is still maintained, compatible with the current CMS version, or compliant with the new requirements. This is exactly the kind of blind spot that a proper website maintenance contract is supposed to cover — and almost never does.

“Tax compliance for an online store is 30% technical and 70% organisational. The CMS can do everything — but it still needs to be correctly configured and someone needs to be responsible for maintaining it.”

How to prepare your store: the concrete steps

No miracle checklist. Here is what we actually do when we support a client on this topic.

Step 1: audit of your current configuration

Before touching anything, we carry out an assessment. Which CMS, which version, which invoicing plugin, what the current output format is, how invoices are stored, who has access to what. This diagnosis generally takes half a day. It prevents spending money on unsuitable solutions.

Step 2: invoicing module upgrade

We identify the most suitable solution for your stack. For PrestaShop, certain specialist modules can generate Factur-X natively. For WooCommerce, the selection is more delicate — we test before deploying. In some cases, an external solution (ERP or invoicing software connected via API) is more robust than a native plugin.

Step 3: choice of dematerialisation platform

You will need a PDP (Partner Dematerialisation Platform) or to use Chorus Pro depending on your profile. This choice depends on your transaction volume, your legal structure, and your existing accounting ecosystem. Your accountant must validate this choice — our role is to make your store technically compatible with the chosen platform.

Step 4: testing and validation

We generate test invoices, check the compliance of the XML embedded in the Factur-X, and validate the transmitted data. This step is non-negotiable. A format that “looks good” visually may contain structural errors that will make the invoices non-compliant.

Step 5: documentation and training

Your team needs to know what to do if something goes wrong. We always deliver short, operational documentation adapted to your technical level. Not an 80-page manual — a 5-page guide that answers the real day-to-day questions.

What you need to remember

Three actionable points, without detour:

Check your invoicing module right now. Which version? What output format? Is it actively maintained by its publisher? If you don’t have the answer in 5 minutes, nobody is looking after it — and that’s a problem.

Talk to your accountant before talking to your developer. Tax compliance is defined first on the business side, not the technical side. Your accountant must tell you what you need to produce. Your developer tells you how to produce it. In that order.

Don’t delay. The deadlines have moved several times, it’s true. But each delay has been accompanied by a complexification of requirements, not a simplification. The longer you wait, the more expensive compliance will be — technically and organisationally.

Compliance is not a constraint, it’s an infrastructure

BarkBox is not a box. And your online store is not just a website. It’s a commercial infrastructure that must work over the long term, within a legal framework that evolves.

E-commerce companies that treat compliance as a technical priority — on a par with load speed or security — are those that avoid last-minute crises, tax audits, and emergency migrations at €3,000 carried out in 48 hours because the deadline is tomorrow. This is a requirement we integrate from the very creation of your e-commerce store, not as an afterthought.

At GDM-Pixel, we support PrestaShop and WooCommerce stores on these compliance upgrades. Technical audit, upgrade, connection to dematerialisation platforms, documentation. No miracle package — an honest diagnosis, transparent pricing, delivered on time.

Is your store ready? If you’re not sure, it probably isn’t yet. Contact us for a compliance audit — we’ll tell you what’s missing, without selling you a full rebuild if it isn’t necessary.

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Sources: DGFiP — electronic invoicing reform; Chorus Pro official documentation; FEVAD — France e-commerce figures 2024.