As the merchant, you may not want to hit your customer with surprise fees on an international delivery. If you would like to cover the cost of customs duties, taxes and fees for the shipment, also known as Delivery Duty Paid (DDP), you'll need to enable the Bill Int’l Duties to Payor of Shipping Charges option during label creation. For accounts outside of the US and Canada the option is listed as Delivered Duty Paid.
There are a few things to know about DDP:
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The merchant is responsible for all the costs associated with shipping.
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Not all carriers or services provide this option, but many do.
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For US-Based Accounts: When shipping with certain ShipStation Carriers we offer a Pre-Paid Duties and Taxes Guarantee for accounts based in the US. This guarantee is available when using DDP on supported UPS from ShipStation, Fedex from ShipStation, and DHL Express from ShipStation shipments. This means ShipStation will guarantee the cost of duties for these shipments during label creation.
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For US-Based Accounts: When shipping with supported Your Carrier accounts, you may see Duties and Taxes (Estimated) as an additional line item in the Cost Review pop-up. The final cost, which may vary, will be invoiced directly by the Carrier.
The option to bill duties to the payor is only available when shipping with certain carriers.
If a carrier supports DDP, the option to use it will appear in ShipStation in the Configure Shipment Widget , under Label Options. If this option is not present in the Other Shipping Options section after you have selected a service, this means that the carrier does not support DDP.
🇺🇸 US Carriers:
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DHL Express
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DHL Express from ShipStation
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FedEx
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FedEx from ShipStation
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UPS
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UPS from ShipStation
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USPS
DDP is only available for First Class, Priority, or Priority Express International shipments under 4 lbs from the US to Canada. These shipments will automatically receive Global Advantage Program (GAP) labels, which have a domestic sorting facility address. Please review our help article about GAP for more details.
For USPS international shipments to Canada, use the Duties/Taxes drop-down menu to pre-pay duties instead of the Bill Duties to Payor option.
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GlobalPost Plus Smartsaver (subject to eligibility)
GP+ is DDP by default, so there is no need to enable the Bill Duties to Payor/DDP option in ShipStation. However, your Stamps.com account must first be enabled for GP+. Contact Stamps.com to inquire about eligibility and enable on your account.
🇨🇦 Canada Carriers:
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DHL Express
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FedEx
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Purolator
🇬🇧 UK Carriers:
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DHL Express UK
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FedEx
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Hermes Corporate
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UPS from ShipStation
🇦🇺 Australia Carriers:
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DHL Express
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FedEx
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StarTrack
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UPS
In ShipStation, you can enable DDP on all international orders by default in your international settings. Also, you can manually apply DDP to individual orders, or you can create an automation rule that will automatically do it for you.
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Select a supported carrier from the Service dropdown under Configure Shipment section.
This example shows FedEx International Ground as the selected service.
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Tick the box to Bill duties and taxes to Payor of shipping charges that now appears in the Other Shipping Options section.
Please note: If your account language setting is not set to English (US & CA), this option will read Delivered Duty Paid (DDP).
Bill Int’l Duties to Payor of Shipping Charges is one of the actions available for automation rules. You can set up your criteria based on the destination country, carrier, customer, or other necessary limits.
This automation rule will enable the Bill Duties to Payor/Delivered Duty Paid (DDP) option for a shipment automatically when qualified orders import into ShipStation.