You may or may not have heard the terms DDU and DDP before. Both are important for both senders and receivers to understand. In essence the difference, when shipping with ParcelWorks, is whether you as the send wish to prepay any duty due or not.
A DDP shipment means Delivered Duty Paid (Obligations of the seller). DDP means that the seller of the goods will cover all expenses of the parcel being shipped including duty or tax. The goods in which are sold must include all of the expenses necessary for the parcel to reach the final mile delivery without additional cost to the customer. Using DDP means that’s buyers can relax and that the seller will have full liability of the parcel through the delivery and has full responsibility of all expenses of transportation, customs clearance, handling expenses and all other charges at load port and destination port to reach the goods at importer’s premises.
Sellers will often pass on the cost of any duty that may be due to the consumer via charging at checkout or they often just choose to absorb the average cost within the price of their goods.
Our ParcelWorks Plus services allow the sender to classify their goods and pay any duty & taxes due. More often than not (depending on value and destination) there are no charges due for single items. Shippers still prefer this method as it streamlines the customs process and there are not commercial invoices to complete.
DDU means Delivery Duty Unpaid (Obligations of the buyer.) The seller will have full responsibility of the delivery until it arrives in the country in which the customer has asked for it to be shipped to. The seller will have to calculate the duty and import taxes that the item requires when sending the parcel. These additional costs will not be included in the item price to the customer therefor the seller will be liable to pay these. Using a DDU shipment means the seller has full responsibility of the parcels transportation, custom charges and all other shipping charges of the parcel. However when the item is shipped and arrives in the country of the buyer the parcel then becomes the buyers responsibility and they will have to pay for any further taxes or duty if applies.
With “consumer pays duty” type services there will be a commercial invoice to be completed and attached to a parcel. Shippers using ParcelWorks will find these will be completed within the platform and you will need to print and attach to the parcel.
It is important for shippers to understand that they have a responsibility to inform the consumer that they may have to pay duty & taxes when they receive their parcel. Many retails find this is a barrier to selling internationally as consumers like to know in advance what the total landed purchase cost will be. In these cases we suggest using the ParcelWorks Plus service.