International shipping can be an excellent opportunity for brands to increase their sales. As cross-border e-commerce continues to grow worldwide, it becomes easier to reach customers worldwide. Your online store must be ready to meet the demand you have.

So, what about all the requirements and documents you need to import your products into other countries? Preparing your products for shipping across borders can seem daunting and overwhelming. If you already offer international shipping, you must have come across the term “HS code” and how important it is to be compliant to avoid penalties and delays in delivering your products to your customers. If you don’t know about it… don’t worry, after reading this blog, you will learn and understand it.    

HS codes are a fundamental part of international shipping. These codes classify your products and make it easier to fill out any needed international documents. It is important to be aware of the requirements to comply with customs and tax authorities to find a solution that can save you from problems that can cost you money and dissatisfied customers.   

For this reason, we will explain what HS codes are, how customs use them, their relevance to your Shopify store, and how we can help your business remove all the complexity of international growth. 

What is an HS Code?  

Harmonized System (HS) code is a standardized numerical method to classify goods being traded internationally. They are commonly used across the world by customs authorities to identify products when assessing duties and taxes, and to record imported products.  

Each HS code is composed of six digits. The first two digits are chapters, the following two digit headings, and the last two sub-headings. There are 21 sections, 99 chapters, 1,244 headings, and 5,224 sub-headings.   

Summary: key features of HS codes:  

• Six-digit code to classify the goods 
• Defined rules that classify the goods 
• Act as a uniform standard for the classification of goods worldwide 
• Covers 98% of goods in international trade and over 5000 commodities

How do Customs use HS Codes?  

Imagine everyday countries receive a large amount of goods from other parts of the world, and categories vary, as well as name, appearance and size of each product. So, it would take a long time for customs authorities to identify each product manually. Therefore, HS codes are used to identify imported goods more accurately and faster and charge the right amount of taxes and duties.   

It is vital for merchants to classify the imported goods and include this information correctly in the documents presented to customs. If not done correctly, you run the risk of customs opening your parcels and checking the content inside. If the HS codes declared do not match the product, your business might encounter the following issues:   

• Considered non-compliant   
• Extra charges to be paid   
• Fines and charges as penalties   
• Product rejections   
• Delivery delays  
• Unsatisfied customers  
• Lower profit margins in case of paying a higher amount of tax or customer returns    

For these reasons and more, you need a partner and solution to help you with compliance. BorderGuru helps you avoid these risks by accurately mapping and automatically classifying all your products and assigning an HS code. We will be the importer of record and handle customs on your behalf. Once your products are shipped, we will ensure that they navigate customs safely and are seamlessly delivered to your end customers.   

 Why are HS Codes relevant for your Shopify Store, and how can BorderGuru help your business comply with customs?  

As already explained, HS codes are required to ship any product internationally. This can be complex for brands, as not only do products have to be accurately classified to be assigned an HS code, but also the information must be included in most international export documentation, like commercial invoices or certificates of origin.   

Failure to correctly assign HS codes or include all necessary information in customs documents can lead to delays, additional significant costs, and unsatisfied customers.   

It is important to consider all import requirements to offer international shipping in your Shopify store. Without HS codes and export documents, you will not be able to comply with customs, or deliver parcels to your international customers.   

BorderGuru can handle everything for you to correctly comply with all requirements, so that your business doesn’t encounter any issue when its parcels go through customs, and they can be easily dispatched and delivered to your customers around the world.    

We can also calculate and guarantee all landed costs at checkout to give you and your customers the best possible shipping experience.   

Click here to learn more about how BorderGuru can manage the entire process, from start to finish, to expand your business globally without complexities. 

As cross-border e-commerce sales continue to grow, US brands have great potential to reach customers worldwide. However, some aspects that brands must consider to handle international shipping in the best way to avoid headaches for the business and consumers. These include shipping costs, tax and Duty fees, and delivery times. If these aspects are not handled properly, the customer experience may suffer, and the brand may have consequences, such as higher shopping cart abandonment rates, higher shipping costs and lower conversion rates.   

Offering a DDP shipping solution addresses the top consumer concerns. However, for brands, it can be overwhelming, as every country has import taxes, duties fees, and requirements. Therefore, it is essential to have a solution that provides the best user experience, cost-effective operation and practicality for the business to expand internationally successfully.    

For this reason, we will explain what DDP is, how your company can benefit from it, and how we can help your business offer and handle DDP so your business can provide the best shipping experience for your customers.   

What is DDP?  

Delivered Duty Paid (DDP) shipping is when a merchant takes responsibility for all landed costs (taxes & duties) and charges them to the end customer without paying additional fees or dealing with customs delays.

This means that the merchant is responsible for the entire shipping process, from delivery of the package to payment of taxes and fees to the delivery to the end customer at the final destination. This helps build trust and improve the customer experience, as they have paid for everything up front; there will be no surprise fees when it arrives at the final destination.    

What is the difference between DDP and DDU? 

DDU is when the merchant is responsible for the entire shipping process, from sending to ensuring that the goods arrive safely at a destination. However, once the package is in the final country destination, the buyer is responsible for paying all the necessary import fees.   

The difference between DDP and DDU is that in DDU, the customer may have to pay import taxes without knowing the exact amount until the package arrives. As fees often come as a surprise, it creates a poor customer experience and can lead customers not to accept the goods, financially impacting the merchant.   

What are the benefits of offering DDP?  

The benefits of offering DDP are the following:  

• Be transparent with taxes and duties fees  
• Custom clear orders 
• Avoid delivery delays 
• Avoid extra costs 
• Build trust  
• Enhance customer service  
• Lower cart abandonment  
• Increase website conversion rates 

How can BorderGuru help your business handle and offer DDP on your Shopify store?  

Offering a DDP solution benefits both the brand and the end customer. Brands need to research tax and duty fees and import laws per country and calculate each product that will sell cross-border. If done on your own, this can become very overwhelming and might discourage you as a brand top opening your cross-border channel.  

With BorderGuru, you have a strategic partner that can help your Shopify store offer DDP and handle all import requirements for each country. Our solution takes everything from product mapping to tax filling. You don’t have to worry about import requirements, as we’ll have everything ready for you to ship your products as if it were local shipping.   

Our cross-border solution is a free plug-and-play app that can is integrated into your Shopify store within 10 minutes. It automatically and accurately calculates taxes and duties at checkout and offers your customers competitive shipping rates.   

BorderGuru is, as can be seen, a one-shop-stop solution for international shipping. It allows you to reach your customers regardless of location, as you can choose up to 200 countries to ship to.   

Our solution helps your brand to provide the best possible customer shop experience to increase trust, loyalty and sales.   

Contact us to learn more about how your brand can expand quickly internationally!    

As a Shopify store owner in the US, you are undoubtedly interested in selling your goods to the EU and UK markets. Since e-commerce sales in these markets have grown massively and will continue for years to come, the opportunity for US brands to make a profit is significant. This is also why your company should be informed and aware of IOSS and UK VAT and have a solution to handle compliance for your company correctly.   

What are the current European Union import regulations?

Current EU import regulations are different from those before July 2021. Now US sellers must collect VAT on all goods they sell to the EU customers; the difference was that before, goods valued at 22 euros or less were Import VAT exempted. Therefore, you now need to determine the VAT rates of specific goods for all the EU countries you deliver to.

Additionally, you must declare in-customs all goods entering the EU regardless of their value. This means that when you sell to a customer located in any of the 27 EU members, the parcel must come with a customs declaration form.

What is IOSS and how can BorderGuru help me with cross-border selling to the EU?

The Import One-Stop-Shop (IOSS) is an electronic portal that eases the process of complying with VAT e-commerce obligations on imported goods valued < 150 EUR. With IOSS, you do not have to register in each EU country where you sell your products. Instead, you only pay the country of registration and then the authorities are in charge of distributing the taxes to the local tax authorities in which the customer is located; this makes the collection, declaration and payment of the VAT for US sellers easier.    

Even though IOSS intends to make this process easier for non-EU brands, they still need to deal with VAT registration, finding a local fiscal representative, collecting taxes from customers, recording and filing, etc.  

With BorderGuru, compliance with EU tax authorities becomes a simple task for your business. BorderGuru imports into the EU, which helps your company eliminate the complexity of selling and sending to the EU. Here are some benefits of using BorderGuru: 

• We represent you before EU tax authorities  
• We provide you with an IOSS number  
• We provide HS codes   
• We calculate taxes and duties to be paid at the checkout by your customers   
• We file your business` taxes on your behalf and keep a record  
• We offer custom cleared orders 
• We guarantee the accuracy of our calculation at checkout

What about UK VAT and how can BorderGuru support you?  

Since the UK separated from the EU, it has import tax regulations. HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is responsible for tax collection and regulation. If the products you sell to UK customers cost more than135 GBP, you must register your business and pay taxes to HMRC.   

BorderGuru helps you make this process easy for your business, so you do not have to worry about dealing with it on your own and instead focus on selling and connecting with more UK customers.   

We provide you with the same benefits as with the EU, such as UK VAT number, we calculate, file and record taxes and duties, and provide your customers with custom cleared orders. We guarantee the accuracy of our calculation at checkout.   

BorderGuru offers a complete cross-border solution that helps you with IOSS and UK VAT compliance and allows you to ship to 200 countries at a competitive price, calculating tax and duties at checkout and providing customs cleared orders. Additionally, it is effortless to integrate into your Shopify online store.   

If you want to bring your cross-border sales to the next level, get in touch with us! 

The goal of any online shop owner is to generate sales and delight customers through that channel, whether they are new customers or existing ones. Website traffic and conversion come into play here, as both go hand in hand. Without traffic to their website, there is no other way to get leads to turn into actual customers.  

Traffic can increase your business’s chances of growing, expanding your product line, selling to other countries, and developing more services or products. On the other hand, keep in mind that traffic itself does not create sales, and this is when conversion plays an important role.

Before we go deeper into how to increase your traffic conversion, we will start by defining web traffic and conversion. 

What is Website Traffic? The simple definition is the number of visitors a website gets. Years ago, website traffic alone was a crucial metric. Now it is known that this is only part of the equation, as the first step is getting visitors, but they cannot count as customers/sales until conversion happens.   

What is Conversion? Conversion is when website visitors complete a desired action, whether purchasing a product, signing up for a service, downloading content like white papers, or completing a web form.   

How do you calculate your website conversion? This process consists in knowing if your online shop is giving results, it is essential to measure your website conversion. 

The following is the formula to calculate your website’s conversion rate: 

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO): 8 Ways To Get Started (hubspot.com)

Suppose you have different calls to action within your website, such as downloading content, subscribing to your email list, and purchasing a product. In that case, you can calculate the conversion rate of each, but make sure you only count the number of visitors on the websites where the offer is listed. 

 It is important to implement strategies that can lead to sustainable growth to convert your new and existing traffic and leads. We present you with the top 10 ways to increase your store conversions. 

Top 10 ways to increase your website’s conversion  

1. Tell your customers why they should buy from you 

This information is essential to differentiate your brand from your competitors. Nowadays, consumers care not only about the product but also about the purpose and background story of the brand. Identify value elements for your customers, and excel on at least one of these elements to connect with your target market. Once it has been identified, focus on it wherever you can, from the homepage to the About page, etc. 

2. Simplify the user experience 

In order to engage your visitors and have a higher chance of converting them into your customers, it is vital to have a simple homepage to understand and navigate and with a clear call to action. For example, you can display your best sellers, discounts, or new collections. This way, you can attract your audience and drive them to make a purchase. 

It is also essential to have a search feature: This is helpful for visitors who know what they are looking for and tend to use this feature. This may prevent customers from bouncing out of your website because it is difficult to find what they want.   

3. Test your page loading speed  

The performance of your website is a make-it-or-break deal for your business. If your website takes too long to load, your visitors will bounce out immediately, and you will miss out on them finding out about your brand and products. There is also a high possibility that they will leave with a wrong impression, and it could be harder to get them to visit again.  

Loading speed is important and should take an average of three seconds to enter your website. Make sure you test the loading speed of your website on every device, as it should perform the same or about the same; otherwise, you may miss visitors who use a mobile phone or tablet. According to Google, 53% of mobile visitors leave a website if it takes more than three seconds to load.   

4. Optimize your products page 

When consumers browse for a product, many website options come out, so this is when you have to set yourself apart. The best way to do it is by making sure your product pages have the following:   

• Craft concisely and short descriptions of your products, highlighting the primary information   
• Use quality images, preferably professional 3D   
• Educational videos (How to use your product)   
• Showcase product reviews   

 5- Implement trust boosters  

Nowadays, with many brands and product options on the Internet, it can be challenging to know which site to trust unless you are a well-known brand like H&M, Nike, etc. The best way to build trust among your visitors is to show that your existing customers are loyal and what they think about your brand and your products.   

Social proof can give a big tust boost. You can display product reviews on your website in writing, images, or videos, but make sure they are accurate and that you have permission to publish them publicly. You can do this also on social media. Our recommendation would be to use the stories or live features so that you can engage better with your audience and build a stronger trust bond.   

6- Display clear information regarding price, shipping, extra fees, and out-of-stock products 

According to Baymard Institution, one of the top reasons for cart abandonment is that extra costs are too high. To reduce cart abandonment, it is important not to mislead your customers and be upfront regarding all the fees incurred, including shipping, taxes & duties, delivery information and out-of-stock products. Having clear information on your site and checkout page will also help you build trust that can be converted into sales.   

 Suppose your business encounters high shipping costs and unclear information on tax and duties. In that case, we recommend you look for a cross-border solution that can provide you and your customers with a smooth shipping experience. BorderGuru is a suitable option for you, as we offer competitive shipping costs and calculate taxes & duties fees, displaying all fee information clearly at checkout. This helps to be transparent and expedite delivery, as all items are customs cleared.     

7- Simplify your checkout process   

The checkout feature is the last step customers go through to make a purchase, so it must be as flawless and easiest as possible to avoid unfinished transactions. It is essential to provide different checkout options, such as Member Checkout, Guest Checkout and PayPal Checkout. Simplifying the tour checkout process will help reduce the chances of your customers abandoning their carts at the last moment.   

Another way to maximize the checkout process is to include two or more checkouts on your website, for example, at the top and bottom. As they scroll, the checkout option moves along, and they can easily click on it.   

Remember to consider your customers’ experience and put yourself in their shoes to understand their wants and needs, to check whether improvements need to be made to improve their experience and increase your sales. 

8- Offer free exciting content for your audience  

Having a designated space within your website to offer content related to what you sell, exciting and relevant to your audience, can be an excellent opportunity to drive traffic to your website and convert visitors into actual customers. Don’t forget to add calls-to-action to your content so that it can actually help increase conversion rates.   

It is also important to constantly update your blog, as it helps keep customers coming back for more and building loyalty.   

9- Display coupon codes, promotions and real-time purchases  

As soon as users enter your homepage, you have a few seconds to build excitement and drive them to your products. So, you have to be mindful and develop a strategy to attract them immediately and create the urgency to buy your products. This can be done by displaying discounts, promotions, or pop-ups that offer a coupon for their first purchase in exchange for their email. To create urgency and trust, you can also display real-time purchases on your homepage. 

10- Send personalized emails and notifications  

Personalization can be an effective strategy to increase customer retention and loyalty and boost your conversion rates. All you need is information regarding your customers and visitors, such as pages visited, products bought in the past, where are they from, etc. 

Once you have the information, you can work on personalized content, for example sending discounts on the products they have looked into or bought before and emails with relevant and helpful information about the products they are interested in or topics related to these products. For example, if a customer is interested in summer dresses, you could send promotional emails or information about summer fashion. Remember to maximize the use of the information you have about your customers and visitors,to turn it into a positive result in your business.   

 All the recommendations above have one thing in common; they all focus on the user. This means that before you decide to change or add something to your website, you should research your target market and current visitors to improve and grow your business. 

BorderGuru offers you a hassle-free international shipping service and a pleasant experience for your customers at checkout. Contact Us Now and start converting your traffic into customers.  

Shipping costs have become a key factor for e-commerce businesses. In 2018 alone, US companies spent $1.49 trillion on shipping, while mid-size companies overspend around 13% on shipping annually. This article shows how important it is for online shops, especially small-medium size companies (SMEs), to research and create a shipping strategy that suits their business needs.    

For SMEs, international shipping is sometimes a big challenge rather than an opportunity to grow their business. Before creating or changing any strategy to offer international shipping, companies should research and look into different shipping options to find a profitable way to grow their business internationally and deal with the hurdles of cross-border shipping.    

Here are five suggestions for businesses to save on shipping costs:  

Shipping rates

Shipping rates can be a make-or-break factor for online stores, especially SMEs; it is essential to look into different carriers’ options and cross-border solutions to find the most suitable for their business and customers.  

 Although the most common carriers like USPS, USP, and FedEx offer rates for small businesses, they may not be the best deal. Using third-party logistics brokers may offer better rates for smaller volumes could be a better option.  

BorderGuru, on the other hand, is part of Hermes, a global logistics champion base in Germany and offers competitive rates for cross-border shipping for online stores. BorderGuru is not a broker; it is a one-stop-shop solution focused on online stores that consolidate thousands of online orders from different stores and ship them to 200 countries worldwide. Getting to a specific volume to get a good deal is not a problem with BorderGuru.

Packing supplies  

Packing supplies are also essential to consider, and if not thoroughly planned, businesses can waste a lot of money on them. Nowadays, there are many hacks to save on this; here are some tips:    

• Get an affordable shredder machine and recycle old boxes, paper bags, or paper sheets as a protective material for packages.  
• Get packing supplies at wholesale (bubble-wrapped paper, mailers, and dunnage).  
• Look for free packaging or discounts that some carriers offer. 

•  Weight and dimensions of the package  

Weight and dimensions play an important role in the shipping cost. Being wise in choosing the right packaging size for the product can make a significant difference. For example, using mailer envelopes or poly bags for small non-fragile items like clothing can be a better cost-effective idea rather than using boxes. 

For businesses that sell heavy or bulky items, the most cost-effective option is to look into offering a flat rate. Since rates are calculated based on weight and dimensions, shipping certain things would be more expensive using a variable rate.   

Insurance   

Another way to save is by cutting extra services. Depending on the product’s value, one of these additional services could be insurance. It is helpful to evaluate if shipping insurance is necessary based on the product’s value and the loss/damage rate that the business has experienced. If the rate of loss/damage is too low and the product’s value is not significantly high, then it is not worth spending money on insurance. 

Some cross-border solutions like BorderGuru have less than a 1% loss/damage rate, making it possible for businesses to add that percentage to their loss/damage concept in their budget and save by not paying extra fees on insurance. 

Suppose your business needs to have shipping insurance. In that case, third-party package insurers are usually cheaper than the options offered by shipping carriers, so please be sure to evaluate different options before making any big commitment. In the end, businesses should choose the most cost-effective option.  

Educate customers about shipping costs and delivery times   

Displaying clear and concise information about shipping costs, delivery times, tariffs, and taxes will help businesses avoid cart abandonment, extra costs, and unsatisfied customers. Being transparent will build trust with customers, avoid misunderstandings about shipping fees and delivery times, and not miss repurchases. 

Borderguru, as a cross-border solution, can help businesses optimize the customer’s checkout experience by displaying clear information on the shipping fees, taxes, duties, and delivery time. Also, since customers pay all fees upfront, the delivery experience is smooth, as the package is already customs clear, increasing the chances of customer retention and repurchases.  

Shipping costs are inevitable, and as e-commerce continues to grow, these costs may also increase. Businesses need to do their research and optimize these costs without losing sight of their customers’ needs, so they can reinvest in other aspects of their business and remain competitive. 

Is your Shopify business looking for an efficient solution for shipping internationally? Then try BorderGuru and discover the endless possibilities for your business to grow!