UK online retailer Zavvi has gone into administration, leaving many customers out of pocket. On March 9th 2026 the site began taking money up-front for pre-orders, which likely hastened the site's demise as that's not considered a good sign.
From the website:
Administration is a formal insolvency process. As a result of the Company’s financial position, the Company has ceased trading with immediate effect.
The Company is unable to fulfil any outstanding orders or pre-orders. Customers should not place any new orders through the Company’s website.
Please also note that we are unable to accept any returns for items of any kind.
We appreciate that customers who have paid for goods that have not been received will be concerned about their orders and payments.
Customers should contact their bank, card issuer or payment provider promptly to establish whether they may be entitled to recover their payment. Depending on the payment method and the circumstances of the transaction, customers may be able to make a claim under section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, request a chargeback, or use another buyer-protection process.
The joint administration has set up a mailbox for customer enquiries, but also states this will merely trigger a FAQ reply and they will not communicate with customers directly.
Obviously Zavvi ran a lot of Collector's Edition exclusives with Anime Ltd, as well as regular promotions for Crunchyroll, so they may be affected more than other UK anime distributors. Having spoken to Tony Allen at MVM I've been assured they were only mildly affected and little turbulence has been caused there.
Obviously this is terrible news if you had paid pre-orders with Zavvi, and we'd encourage you to contact your bank to see if you can get a refund as soon as possible.
More as it develops.
