The ecommerce industry is booming. But with great opportunity comes great competition. How can your business capture more than its fair share of the global ecommerce opportunities?
Growing into international markets is a great way to accelerate growth.
And ShipEngine is here to help.
This month, ShipEngine released Total Landed Cost API for international shipping that can help platforms, brands and third-party logistics companies take advantage of new opportunities and serve new markets in other countries.
Here’s a deeper look at the challenges of international shipping, plus more details on our suite of tools and what it can help your ecommerce business accomplish.
Cross Border and International Shipping Challenges
Most ecommerce businesses start by serving consumers in their home countries. It’s the simplest way to go to market, after all — especially from a shipping standpoint.
But there are only so many consumers to serve in any given country. Over time, for an ecommerce business to grow, it must start to look overseas.
That’s when things get complicated.
Selling into new countries means using additional carriers. Selling into new countries means identifying the proper harmonized tariff schedule codes. And selling into new countries means calculating duties and taxes (multiple times if your parcels are going to pass through multiple countries). Get the codes wrong or miscalculate duties and taxes … and your shipment could get returned or sit in customs indefinitely.
As an added challenge, selling into new countries means deciding how to pass new costs along to new international customers.
For example, the postage for shipping one of your products to a foreign country may cost $15. No problem, right? But what if duties and taxes increase the shipping cost by 50–100%. Suddenly it’s much more difficult to serve your customers overseas. Plus, each product in your inventory will have a different harmonized tariff code, and multi-product shipments will have multiple codes.
Managing the fully landed cost for all of your shipments (and ensuring your international business is working from a revenue standpoint) becomes nearly impossible.
ShipEngine solves these problems.
How ShipEngine Solves Your International Shipping Problems
Wouldn’t it be nice to know the fully landed cost of shipping an order to a foreign country? When you integrate with ShipEngine, you can now shop rates and generate a fully landed cost that includes the cost of postage plus all relevant duties and taxes.
All you need to get started are the harmonized tariff codes related to the products you’re shipping. You can then create rules to select the fastest or least expensive shipping option, or you can allow your customers to choose their best shipping options — while providing transparency into a customer’s shipping expense.
Our fully landed cost feature is available to users shipping from the United States, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. Learn more in our documentation about how fully landed costs, cross border and international shipping work within ShipEngine.
In the coming months, we’ll expand our cross border and international shipping tools to include harmonized tariff code generation. Users will be able to send a list of their products, and we will return the related codes in less than 24 hours.
Also, we’ll soon offer the ability to take advantage of these international shipping tools no matter what country you’re shipping from.
Start Using Our Total Landed Cost API for International Shipping Now
Are you ready to start seizing opportunities in foreign markets? Check out our International Shipping Playbook to reveal industry best practices and market potentials in regards to cross border commerce.
And, when you’re ready to take action, ShipEngine’s Total Landed Cost API for international shipping is ready for you to enjoy. Both new and existing users can contact our sales team to learn more about getting started.
Contact us today and start shipping internationally.
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