Selling to Somebody in Another Country

The charge nobody warned them about

An order goes to another country, the customer pays your price, and the parcel arrives.

Except that before it arrives, the courier contacts them for import duties, sales tax, and a handling fee of their own.

The customer did not expect any of it, the total is now considerably more than they agreed, and the business they blame is yours.

A proportion refuse the parcel, which returns to you at your cost, and most of the rest do not order again.

Who actually pays

By default, the recipient, and this surprises sellers as often as buyers.

Goods crossing a border may attract duty, depending on what they are and where they were made, and almost always attract the destination country's sales tax above a threshold.

The courier pays those on the recipient's behalf and adds a handling or brokerage fee for doing so, which is frequently the largest single line.

Thresholds vary considerably by country and have been falling, so the assumption that small parcels pass without charge is less reliable than it was.

None of that is optional or negotiable, and the only real decision is who carries it and whether the customer was told.

The two arrangements

• Charges on delivery: the customer pays.
• Charges prepaid: you collect and pay.
• Prepaid costs more and surprises nobody.
• On delivery is cheaper and produces refusals.
• Either is fine if stated clearly.

The second is what larger retailers use, and several carriers and platforms now offer it to small senders as well, which is worth asking about before assuming it is unavailable.

Say it before checkout, not in the terms

Since the entire problem is a surprise rather than a charge.

A line on the product page and at checkout, visible when an international address is entered, saying that import charges may apply and are payable by the recipient.

Where you can estimate the amount, do, even roughly, since a customer who knows can decide.

Where you cannot, say that plainly and point at the destination country's own information rather than guessing.

Customers accept import charges routinely and do not accept discovering them from a courier.

That distinction is the whole of this subject.

A worked example

A shop began receiving occasional orders from abroad and fulfilled them the same way as domestic ones.

Three parcels in two months were refused at the door and returned, costing the outbound and return shipping with no sale.

Two other customers complained after paying charges roughly a third of the order value.

They added a clear notice at checkout for international addresses, restricted shipping to four countries they understood, and stated their customs declarations accurately rather than vaguely.

Refusals stopped, and international orders continued at a similar rate, since the people put off were the ones who would have refused the parcel.

Declare it accurately

Because the paperwork is where the other problems come from.

The customs declaration needs an honest description, value, and country of origin, and vague descriptions are what cause delays.

Understating the value to reduce the charge is a false declaration, and it also voids most insurance on the parcel.

Marking a sold item as a gift is the same problem in a more common form, and customers do ask for it.

Where you sell anything with restrictions, such as food, cosmetics, batteries, or liquids, check the destination rules before shipping rather than after.

A parcel held or destroyed at a border is a worse outcome than a refused delivery.

Choose the countries deliberately

Rather than shipping anywhere because the platform allows it.

Pick the handful where you get real demand, understand the charges, and have a carrier with reasonable rates and tracking.

Turn the rest off, which is a setting and removes a category of problem entirely.

You can always add a country when demand appears, and dealing with one unexpected order well is easier than handling all of them badly.

Also check the return position for each, since an international return is frequently more expensive than the item and needs a stated policy.

Price the shipping honestly

Since underpricing international delivery is common and expensive.

Rates vary enormously by destination and by weight bands, and a flat international rate loses money on the heavier orders.

Use the carrier's actual rates by destination where your platform supports it, or set bands that reflect the real cost.

Include the cost of the occasional refused or lost parcel in your thinking, since both are more common across borders.

And do not offer free international shipping on a threshold set for domestic orders, which is the single most common way this goes wrong.

Expect it to take longer than you think

A practical point about timing, since it affects what you should promise.

Customs clearance adds days that no tracking page predicts well, and a parcel can sit at a border for a week with no visible movement.

That is normal and it looks broken to a customer watching tracking that has not updated, which produces messages you have no answer to.

Quote international delivery as a wide range rather than a date, and say plainly that customs clearance is outside your control and can add time.

At this time of year, that means an international order placed in December is a gift for next year rather than this one, and saying so before checkout is kinder than explaining it in January.

The counter-case

International orders are worth having.

They frequently come from people who cannot get what you sell locally, which makes them less price-sensitive and more loyal than domestic customers.

The problems above are all manageable with a notice, a country list, and accurate paperwork, none of which is difficult.

And for some businesses the international market is larger than the domestic one, which is not obvious until a few orders arrive.

Say who pays, restrict to countries you understand, declare accurately, and price the shipping properly.

What to do

1. Say at checkout that charges may apply.
2. Say who pays them.
3. Ask your carrier about prepaid options.
4. Restrict to countries you understand.
5. Declare value and contents accurately.
6. Check restricted goods before shipping.
7. Price shipping by destination, not flat.

Step one prevents almost all of the damage, since customers accept import charges routinely and do not accept learning about them from a courier.

The domestic version of this is covered in taxes on an order going to another province.

Frequently asked questions

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.