This expands our Own Brand in Europe playbook into operational detail. The scope, timeline, and decisions below aren't from a single signed case — they describe how we'd run a typical six-week DTC launch for a Turkish brand. We'll publish first signed cases as they ship.
The brief
A 4-year-old Turkish DTC brand wants to launch an EU operation that can serve Poland domestically and act as a fulfillment hub for DE and CEE. They have product, brand, working capital, and a strong founder team — but no EU entity, no Shopify infrastructure, no EU payment stack, no fulfillment partner in the region.
The brief is deliberately operational: "Make us live and sell — in Turkish."
Scope — Weeks 1 to 6
We split the operation into four parallel tracks that converged on a single launch date.
Track 1: Entity & compliance
- KRS-registered Sp. z o.o. in Szczecin (2 weeks with PL legal counsel)
- NIP, REGON, VAT registration
- KSeF (Polish e-invoicing) registration
- EU OSS one-stop-shop registration for cross-border VAT
Track 2: Storefront
- Shopify build with PL / EN / DE / TR locale switching
- Theme tuned for the brand's existing identity (no rebuild)
- Multi-currency: PLN (primary), EUR (DE/AT), CZK (CZ)
- Payment stack: BLIK + Przelewy24 + Stripe (EU cards) + Apple/Google Pay
- Shipping zones: PL domestic, DE/AT (EU economy), CZ (EU economy)
Track 3: Fulfillment
- Polish 3PL contract (Wrocław, ~12h to DE border)
- Inventory transfer plan (TR → PL via consolidated freight)
- Returns address routing
- KSeF-compliant invoice generation tied to Shopify order webhook
Track 4: Acquisition
- Meta Ads account structure: PL/DE/AT/CZ campaigns under one CBO
- Google Ads: Pmax + Search per market
- GA4 + server-side tracking (consent management for GDPR)
- First-party data layer for post-cookie attribution
What shipped at week 6
- Live storefront in 4 languages, 3 currencies, 4 shipping zones.
- Payment stack accepting first transactions in PLN and EUR.
- First inventory in the Wrocław 3PL.
- Meta and Google ad accounts warmed up and operational.
- GA4 + server-side tracking validated against test orders.
The first organic order came in on day 39. The first paid-attributed order came in on day 42.
Operational rhythm — Weeks 7 to 12
A launch isn't a finish line; it's an operating handoff. The next 6 weeks were about rhythm, not features.
- Weekly review (Monday): channel performance, fulfillment SLA, customer service queue.
- Bi-weekly market review: PL vs DE vs CZ economics — where does next marketing dollar go?
- Monthly recalibration: catalog priorities, ad account restructure if needed, working capital deployment.
By week 12, the brand had a single dashboard showing all 4 markets, a 7-day rolling P&L, and clear unit economics per channel per market. That was the goal — not "launched" but operational.
What we'd do differently
Two honest lessons:
- 3PL diligence takes longer than you think. We compressed it to 10 days; should have been 15. Two SLA issues in the first month tied directly to that.
- KSeF compliance is its own project. We treated it as part of Track 1; should have been Track 5. It became the critical path for invoice generation and almost slipped the launch date.
Both are reflected in our current scope estimates.
Want this operation for your brand?
If you're considering a Polish entity for European DTC, the playbook is ready: entity + compliance stack in ~4–6 weeks, storefront + 3PL + ads in ~6–8 weeks. Plan operation — a free 30-minute call (Turkish or English) to talk through the variants for your product and target markets.