I make a product in the U.S. and ship to some customers in Canada. Is there a way to know in advance what the extra charges for customs, brokerage, taxes, import fees, etc. will be, in addition to the actual shipping fee I pay to USPS, UPS or DHL? It is getting to be a contensious issue when some customers object to getting hit with these fees that can be almost half the cost of the product.
Hi @bob21 ,
Thank you for getting in touch. Shipping internationally is often a difficult thing to set up and understand for all the reasons you have mentioned, and it often requires a fair bit of research and planning in order to get it right.
In terms of shipping costs, I would recommend first starting by researching the potential different couriers you could use to ship products to Canada from the United States. You’ll typically be able to get price estimates on each courier’s website and this can give you an idea of how much it would cost to ship products across the border and set your own prices accordingly. Please also bear in mind that you can split the Canadian shipping zone into different provinces and territories, meaning that you can offer different shipping rates to different areas of Canada. This might be beneficial if, for example, you were on the western side of the United States and saw that shipping to British Columbia was cheaper than shipping to Ontario or Quebec.
In terms of taxes, you’ll want to determine whether or not you need to register for taxes in Canada prior to accepting sales from Canadian customers, or if this is something you don’t have to worry about until further down the line. This may depend on what products you are selling, how much revenue you are generating, and where in Canada you are shipping to. Our Help Center page on Canadian tax liabilities covers this in more detail.
We also offer plenty of information about collecting international duty and import fees on the Help Center, which I would encourage you to read. Whether or not you are able to collect duties and fees prior to shipping your products over the border, it’s always advisable to be up front with your customers about what fees have been paid and which fees may need to be paid upon the customer receiving their order.
Shopify offers resources aimed at helping merchants navigating selling internationally, including this in-depth blog post on international shipping. However, it is ultimately the responsibility of the merchant to determine how to manage selling to other countries, and we would encourage merchants to seek advice from professionals if they are unsure of their obligations.
I hope this helped but please let me know if you have any further questions.