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Shipping Delivery Duty Paid (DDP) or Unpaid (DDU/DAP)
Shipping Delivery Duty Paid (DDP) or Unpaid (DDU/DAP)

Ship goods internationally with delivery duty paid (DDP), or delivery duty unpaid (DDU/DAP)

Updated over a week ago

You can use Shippit to deliver goods around the world with delivery duty paid (DDP), or delivery duty unpaid (DDU/DAP), using Smart Routing International, or a range of international carriers.

This article shows you how to turn on DDP in your Shippit account, and discusses creating orders with DDP enabled.


Delivery duty paid (DDP) and landed cost guarantee

Delivery duty paid (DDP) offers you smooth customs clearance. We handle all customs procedures, and pay the import duties and taxes on your behalf, so that you get a seamless clearance at the destination. Because DDP ensures that customs formalities are taken care of in advance, you can minimise delays caused by clearance processes, meaning that your customers get their orders faster.

Thanks to our international shipping partners, Shippit offers a landed cost guarantee for DDP Shipping when you ship with FedEx International, or Seko. That means that as long as you provide accurate product and parcel information required by customs to calculate taxes and duties, then we can guarantee the provided upfront quote. No extra charges or nasty surprises later on for you, or your customers.

Delivery duty unpaid (DDU/DAP)

Delivery duty unpaid (DDU), sometimes referred to as delivered at place (DAP), gives you more control over the final delivery costs, because your customers are responsible for paying the import duties and taxes. DDU/DAP shipping can be a cost-effective solution for businesses and customers, especially when dealing with low-value or duty-exempted goods.

DDU/DAP also helps to reduce complexity. Shippit assists with necessary documentation and provides guidance to ensure a smooth customs process for your shipments.

Duty and tax estimates for BYO rates

If you are using BYO carriers, and you have negotiated DDP rates with them, you can continue to ship DDP with those carriers, as long as your contractual arrangement permits it. You can use Shippit to provide estimates of duty and tax and give you an idea of what the total landed cost could be. This can help you compare your BYO rates with other quotes, and allows you to use live quoting at checkout for supported e-commerce integrations.

⚠️ Important: If you are using Shippit to provide total landed cost quotes for BYO carriers, the quotes are estimates only, and they might not match what you end up getting billed by your carrier.

If you are using Shippit to provide quote estimates for DDP, it does not change your contractual arrangement with your carrier. If you have agreed to DDU with your carrier, then the shipment is still booked as DDU, meaning any duties or taxes levied by customs are still payable by your customer.


Enable DDP shipping

You can enable DDP as your default preference for international shipments.

Enabling DDP shipping in Shippit

  1. Log in to your Shippit account.

  2. Open the drop down menu in the top right of your screen, and click Settings.

  3. Click International Shipping to go the international settings for your store.

  4. In the Default international customs details section, select a default product category, goods type, and country of manufacture. These are used if details are not included in an order. Having a default for these details can help prevent your orders being held up in customs.

  5. In the Taxes and Duties section, toggle on Delivery Duty Paid (DDP): Quote inclusive of taxes and duties.


Add your tax identifiers

It is possible for you to ship to some countries even if you don't have a registered tax ID for the country you want to ship for. Shippit has partnered with Zonos to allow you to ship to the United Kingdom, European Union, and Norway using the Zonos tax ID. This allows you to take advantage of Shippit's partner rates and landed cost guarantee to ship DDP to more regions across the globe.

If you already have your own tax ID for a region, you can add it in your Shippit account. However, if you want to take advantage of Shippit's partner rates, enable the Zonos Tax ID.

Adding your tax identifiers in Shippit

  1. Log in to your Shippit account.

  2. Open the drop down menu in the top right of your screen, and click Settings.

  3. Click International Shipping to go the international settings for your store.

  4. In the Tax identifiers section, for each region you want to ship to, click Add to add your Tax ID. For regions where a Zonos partner tax ID is available, you can choose to enter your own tax ID, or to use the tax ID provided by Zonos.

  5. Optional: If you choose to use the Zonos tax ID, follow the prompts to agree to the Zonos terms and conditions. You only need to agree once.

  6. Click Save to save your changes.


Modify international orders

When you create an international order, you can choose how you prefer taxes and duties to be handled. Shippit defaults to your selected settings, but you can also manually change individual orders to be either DDP or DDU/DAP.

From the New Orders page, select an international order to see and edit the International Shipping details. For DDP orders, click the See breakdown caret to expand the total fees, and see what customs and duties have been calculated for this order.

The modify orders flyout, showing International Shipping options, with "Paid by sender (DDP)" selected, and the cost breakdown expanded.

For DDU orders, there is no breakdown of the fees. Instead, the order is marked as "Paid by receiver (DDU)".

A small portion of the order details, showing the International Shipping option set to "Paid by receiver (DDU)"

If you are using Shopify live quoting, there is no need to manually adjust the Shipping cost to recipient field. All Shopify live quote orders use the carrier quote. If you use flat rate shipping, you might want to adjust this setting to Flat fee instead. This is especially useful if you are shipping to a country that calculates duties and fees on a CIF (cost insurance and freight) basis, which includes the shipping costs in the calculation, such as Canada.

⚠️ Important: To ensure that your taxes and duties quotes are as accurate as possible, make sure you have accurate product details recorded, including the correct HS (harmonised system) codes. If these are not accurate, your orders might need to have taxes and duties recalculated by customs, which could lead to unexpected additional charges.


Manifests and labels for international orders

Manifests, labels, and commercial invoices for international orders reflect the incoterms for the shipment, and specify if the order is DDP or DDU.

For more information about incoterms, see the Understanding incoterms article.


Import fees

Import fees are levied to cover the cost of additional handling by the carrier. They can vary by carrier, and are subject to change. Smart Routing International calculates import fees on DDP orders as a maximum of 3% of duties & taxes, with a minimum of US$1. Where duties and taxes are not charged, Smart Routing International does not charge import fees.

For more information about import fees, check with the individual carrier.


Display DDP quotes in your Shopify checkout

If you have Shopify integrated with your Shippit account, you can display DDP quotes at checkout for your customers. For more information about modifying your Shopify account for international orders, see the Integrating Shopify article.

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