App to calculate estimated duties and taxes on international orders?

Laurie_Nickerso
Excursionist
27 0 9

Hello! 

Is there an app that will display the estimated duties and taxes on international orders? I don't want to collect the tax, just show my buyers what they can expect to pay when the box reaches them. 

Thanks, 

Laurie 

Replies 7 (7)

Kimi
Shopify Staff
1511 169 258

Hi, @Laurie_Nickerso!

In order to show an estimate of duties and taxes cost for an order at checkout, you will need to:

  1. Edit your product details to include the country or region of origin and the HS code
  2. Enable a third-party app from the Shopify app store to display and/or charge these taxes at checkout to customers. Examples of such apps include Zonos Duty and Tax, and Easyship. Just a note however that these apps are made by third-party developers outside of Shopify. So if you have any questions about them I would recommend getting in touch with the app developers, as they are best equipped to answer app-specific queries.

As you are selling internationally, you might also want to consider advising customers ahead of time that duties and import taxes might be charged upon delivery. This can be added into your Shipping Policy, or elsewhere on your store. If customers aren't notified ahead of time, they might refuse to pay the unexpected costs and shipments may be returned.

Have you also signed up to our Shopify Markets early access? Our new Shopify Markets feature introduces new functionalities to help stores develop and manage global sales, all from one store! This includes a new duties and import taxes feature, which allows Shopify to automatically calculate duties and import taxes based on the available product information on your store. This feature is only available through the Shopify Markets early access only, so if you haven't already I highly recommend applying for the early access here.

If you're specifically interested in our duties and import taxes feature within Shopify Markets, you can review the eligibility criteria here, as well as considerations for using this feature here. Once reviewed, and if you believe that your store is a good fit for Shopify Markets, you can get in contact with our Support Advisor team by visiting our Help Centre here, and provide more context to our team so that we can nominate your store internally for consideration. This doesn't guarantee that you'll be selected for early access, but can help to increase your chances!

Kimi | Social Care @ Shopify 
 - Was my reply helpful? Click Like to let me know! 
 - Was your question answered? Mark it as an Accepted Solution
 - To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Shopify Blog

Laurie_Nickerso
Excursionist
27 0 9

Thanks Kimi!

I requested early access to Shopify Markets, but I guess I wasn't selected for the pilot program. I am actually a little bit shocked that Shopify has not really stepped up to make international selling easier. Particularly after the new EU VAT rules that took effect on July 1. So, hopefully when they officially launch Shopify Markets it will make the process simpler. In the meantime, sellers are left pulling our hair out. It has been a nightmare navigating the new rules and I feel like Shopify really left us high and dry. 

Kimi
Shopify Staff
1511 169 258

@Laurie_Nickerso

Ah I see! In terms of access to Shopify Markets, our team is incrementally increasing merchant access as we speak, and although we don't have a timeline to share, it will eventually be available to all merchants. Just a note on this, merchants who are selected for early access will be notified by email when the feature is enabled on their store.

I appreciate you sharing your thoughts and feedback on your experience in selling internationally. We understand how complex it is to sell cross-border, and this is the reason why we have launched / are in the process of fully launching Shopify Markets. This will hopefully help stores more effectively manage selling globally, and also allows us to better guide merchants on their international expansion journey.

Kimi | Social Care @ Shopify 
 - Was my reply helpful? Click Like to let me know! 
 - Was your question answered? Mark it as an Accepted Solution
 - To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Shopify Blog

Shopngo
Tourist
9 0 3

Hello,

Further to Kimi, I found that obtaining the right HS code for the country I'm shipping to, for the duty calc app, is the hardest part. What makes it worse is that the last 2 or 4 digits of the code varies across countries.

I've used HS Code lookup tools on shipping and postal service websites, but they simply search a digital copy of the HS books, and is not very helpful.  Also, they don't include the explanatory notes which is kind of missing the point!

Try to use an intelligent classification tool like www.tarifftel.com or there is a Canadian one I use sometimes too but can't remember the name right now.

Anyway, make sure you use the correct HS code or you might advise the customer of too high a rate of Import duty and put them of a sale. Duty rates vary from 0% up to >200%

Good luck! 

Bigshop
Visitor
1 0 1

Great tip, thanks for advice.

Tarifftel was really easy to use.

Laurie_Nickerso
Excursionist
27 0 9

Thanks Shopngo! Since the new tax rules hit on July 1 it just seems like everything is all of a sudden broken. It's a total mess. I appreciate the info! 

 

Kimi
Shopify Staff
1511 169 258

@Shopngo

Thank you so much for sharing this! It's such a handy external tool to use and I'm sure it'll be extremely beneficial for fellow merchants alike.

Kimi | Social Care @ Shopify 
 - Was my reply helpful? Click Like to let me know! 
 - Was your question answered? Mark it as an Accepted Solution
 - To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Shopify Blog