This article explains what the import fee is, how it's calculated, and how it's applied to your orders.
What is the import fee?
The import fee is a standardised cost component that covers additional fees charged by carriers and customs authorities when shipments clear customs. These include clearance fees, processing fees, brokerage fees, disbursement fees, and handling charges. Terminology varies by carrier, but these costs are common across international shipments.
How the import fee is calculated
The import fee is calculated per order:
$1 flat fee + 1.5% of the order's duties and taxes
How the import fee appears
The import fee is not shown as a separate line item at checkout. It is added to the duties and taxes within the shipping line, and appears in your merchant billing and order exports. The customer's checkout experience is unchanged, except for a potential adjustment to the shipping total if the fee is passed on.
Who pays the import fee?
You can choose whether to absorb the fee or pass it to the customer. This will be decided during your onboarding, but if you wish to change the setting at any time you can reach out to our Support team.
Merchant absorbs (default)
The fee is charged to your account.
The customer sees no change to the shipping total at checkout.
Fee passed to the customer
The fee is included in the shipping total shown at checkout.
The customer sees a slightly higher shipping rate.
The fee is not shown as a separate line item.
Free shipping
If you offer free shipping, the import fee must be absorbed by you. Customers continue to see $0 at checkout, and the fee is added to your billing.
Example
Shipping rate: $50
Duties and taxes: $100
Import fee: $1 + 1.5% of $100 = $2.50
Fee passed to customer | Fee absorbed by merchant | |
Customer sees at checkout | $152.50 | $150 |
Merchant is billed | $152.50 | $152.50 |