Bristol-based SaaS company VVAST has unveiled a Shopify-integrated data ingestion and impact reporting platform designed to help direct-to-consumer brands navigate the UK’s incoming Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) modulated fees. From April 2026, businesses that fail to provide complete packaging data will automatically be assigned to the highest fee band, increasing compliance costs. VVAST’s platform addresses this challenge by delivering SKU-level insights that enable brands to identify, manage and reduce fee exposure before orders are placed.
Many growing Shopify brands still rely on spreadsheets or incomplete records to manage packaging and supplier information, leaving them exposed as compliance requirements become more complex. That pressure is expected to intensify with the introduction of the EU’s Digital Product Passport in 2027, which will place even greater emphasis on accurate, accessible product data.
“The cost of compliance is no longer a fixed overhead – it’s increasingly determined by the quality of your data,” said Richie Jones, Founder and CEO of VVAST. “Smaller brands don’t have the compliance teams or enterprise software available to larger organisations, yet they’re expected to meet the same standards. We’ve taken more than a decade of experience supporting ecommerce brands and turned it into software that gives growing businesses those capabilities.”
A certified B Corp focused on ecommerce technology, VVAST has spent the past decade delivering managed services for global direct-to-consumer brands, supporting more than £200 million in gross merchandise value (GMV), including £70 million in FY24. Its underlying technology is already powering operations for a global brand generating around $500 million in annual GMV. The company’s first standalone software product builds on that experience by integrating with Shopify to automate SKU-level product and supplier data collection, transforming it into actionable compliance and impact reporting.
“Our platform allows brands to understand the compliance costs associated with individual products before they commit to production or purchasing, rather than reacting after an invoice arrives,” said Ed Pitt, Co-founder and CTO of VVAST. “By combining automated reporting with our proprietary direct-to-consumer outcome data, we’re giving brands predictive intelligence that generic compliance tools simply can’t match.”
The outdoor sector is serving as the initial launch market for the platform. VVAST is running a pilot built around the European Outdoor Group’s Sustainability Data Exchange (SDEX), the industry’s recognised standard for exchanging product and sustainability data. The European Outdoor Group will introduce participating brands and retailers to the pilot, while existing VVAST customers including VF and Deus are also expected to take part.
“SDEX creates a common language for sustainability data, but brands still need tools that turn that information into meaningful commercial decisions,” Pitt added. “VVAST provides that missing intelligence layer, helping businesses convert complex compliance data into practical insights they can act on.”
VVAST is both B Corp and ISO certified and is currently raising investment to accelerate development of its standalone software platform, with institutional seed investors already monitoring the company’s progress.