International Shipping for Ecommerce Sellers

Adding international shipping to an existing ecommerce operation introduces a few specific considerations beyond what domestic order fulfilment requires — mostly around documentation, pricing transparency, and setting the right customer expectations.

Documentation changes per order

Every international order needs a commercial invoice and a CSB-V shipping bill (assuming it's a genuine sale, which ecommerce orders always are) — this is different from domestic orders, which need neither. Build invoice generation into your order fulfilment workflow rather than creating it manually per order once volume grows. See Commercial Invoice.

Pricing: decide who pays duty upfront

For a smooth customer experience, ecommerce sellers shipping internationally generally benefit from offering DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) — collecting the estimated duty at checkout so the customer pays nothing extra on delivery. The alternative (DDU, duty collected on delivery) is cheaper to set up but creates a worse customer experience and a higher rate of delivery refusals, particularly for US-bound orders where duty now applies to every shipment regardless of value following the 2025 de-minimis suspension.

Set accurate delivery expectations

International orders take longer than domestic ones, and international customs clearance timing is genuinely outside your control. Quote a realistic delivery window on your product pages (see Delivery Times for typical ranges by service level) rather than reusing your domestic delivery promise for international orders.

Handle restricted-category products carefully

If you sell anything in a commonly-restricted category (foods, cosmetics, jewellery, electronics with batteries), check the specific destination country's rules before listing the product for international sale — see Restricted Items. A product that ships freely domestically can require extra documentation, or be entirely unshippable, to a specific country.

Returns from international customers

International returns involve reverse customs clearance and are often slower and more expensive than domestic returns. Consider whether your return policy needs a specific international variant, and factor return shipping cost into your international pricing rather than assuming domestic return economics apply.

Scaling up

As international order volume grows, the same principles from How Small Businesses Can Start Exporting still apply — the difference at scale is mostly about automating invoice/shipping-bill generation and negotiating better courier rates for volume, not a fundamentally different compliance process.