Skip to main content

International Shipments & Exports

Updated

bc42e026-4c81-4927-b0fa-4fd070906eeb.pngInternational Shipping Overview

Overview

This article explains how Impress Designs handles international small parcel, LTL, and truckload shipments, including duties, taxes, customs charges, carrier fees, third-party billing, customer-provided labels, and other international shipping-related charges.

International shipping can require additional handling, documentation, planning time, customs information, carrier coordination, and post-shipment billing adjustments. Customers are responsible for confirming that their goods may legally be exported and imported into the destination country.

Supported International Shipping Methods

Impress Designs supports the following international shipment methods:

  1. Small parcel shipments to the United States, Canada, and Mexico
  2. Customer-provided shipping labels and customs documentation
  3. Shipments sent to the customer, customer’s 3PL, distribution center, freight forwarder, or shipment handler
  4. LTL or truckload shipments arranged by the customer or end user
  5. DDU/DAP international shipments
  6. Approved third-party UPS or FedEx billing accounts

Impress Designs does not offer DDP, or Delivered Duty Paid, shipping.

Small Parcel Shipments

Impress Designs will ship small parcel shipments to the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

Canada and Mexico shipments have a $10.00 international handling fee per shipment.

For small parcel shipments outside of the United States, Canada, and Mexico, customers have the following options:

  • Provide shipping labels for the shipment
  • Provide any required customs documentation that must be applied to the shipment
  • Have Impress Designs affix the provided labels and documents to the boxes and supply them to the carrier
  • Request that packages be shipped to the customer, customer’s 3PL, distribution center, freight forwarder, or shipment handler to process shipments outside of North America

When a customer provides shipping labels or customs documentation, Impress Designs is not responsible for the package after it has been handed over to the carrier.

LTL and Truckload Shipments

International LTL and truckload shipments must be arranged by the customer, the customer’s end user, freight forwarder, broker, or other shipment handler.

Impress Designs will prepare the shipment and load it onto the customer’s carrier using documentation provided by the customer, end user, freight forwarder, broker, or shipment handler.

The customer is responsible for ensuring that all required export, import, customs, carrier, broker, and destination documentation is complete and accurate.

DDU/DAP Shipments

International shipments are generally processed as DDU/DAP unless approved third-party billing instructions are provided.

DDU/DAP means the shipment is sent internationally, but duties, taxes, VAT/GST, customs fees, brokerage fees, advancement fees, and other import-related charges are not prepaid by Impress Designs.

Under DDU/DAP terms, the recipient, importer, or receiving party may be contacted by UPS, FedEx, the carrier, customs broker, or destination country’s customs authority to pay applicable duties, taxes, VAT/GST, brokerage fees, customs clearance fees, or other import-related charges before the shipment is delivered.

Third-Party Shipping Accounts

Impress Designs generally prefers to ship international shipments using approved third-party UPS or FedEx accounts when available.

Customers may provide a valid third-party UPS, FedEx, or carrier account for international shipping charges. Depending on the carrier account setup and carrier rules, this may apply to freight, duties, taxes, import charges, or other shipping-related fees.

The customer is responsible for confirming that the third-party account is:

  • Valid
  • Active
  • Authorized for international billing
  • Authorized for the destination country
  • Approved for the specific charges being billed to the account

Unless instructed otherwise and accepted by the carrier, duties, taxes, and import-related fees may be billed to the provided third-party account.

If the third-party account is rejected, corrected, reversed, charged back, declined, or otherwise not accepted by the carrier, any resulting charges billed to Impress Designs will be billed back to the customer after Impress Designs receives them from the carrier or applicable shipping-related source.

Impress Shipping Accounts

Impress Designs may ship using an Impress Designs shipping account when approved.

However, using an Impress Designs shipping account does not mean the shipment is being sent DDP or that Impress Designs is accepting responsibility for duties, taxes, customs fees, brokerage fees, import charges, or other international shipping-related costs.

Duties, taxes, customs charges, brokerage fees, advancement fees, carrier adjustments, correction fees, chargebacks, and other shipment-related fees may be billed after the original shipment has been processed or invoiced.

Any duties, taxes, customs charges, brokerage fees, carrier fees, chargebacks, corrections, adjustments, or other charges related to the customer’s international shipment that are billed to Impress Designs will be billed back to the customer after Impress Designs receives the charges from the carrier or applicable shipping-related source.

The customer may be required to prepay estimated duties, taxes, customs charges, fees, or other costs, or keep a credit card on file before Impress Designs ships an international order using an Impress Designs shipping account.

DDP Not Offered

Impress Designs does not offer DDP, or Delivered Duty Paid, shipping.

This means Impress Designs will not prepay, guarantee, absorb, or act as the responsible party for duties, taxes, VAT/GST, customs clearance charges, brokerage fees, carrier advancement fees, import fees, or similar charges on behalf of the customer or recipient.

International shipments must be handled as either:

  1. DDU/DAP, where the recipient/importer is responsible for duties, taxes, and import-related charges; or
  2. Third-party billing, where approved charges are billed to a valid third-party carrier account provided by the customer.

Duty and Tax Estimates

Impress Designs cannot guarantee duties, taxes, customs fees, brokerage fees, or import charges before shipment.

These charges are determined by the destination country’s customs authority, carrier, customs broker, or other party involved in processing the shipment. Charges may be based on the declared value, product classification, item description, country of origin, destination country, tax rules, customs regulations, and other shipment details.

Any estimate provided before shipment is only an estimate and is not guaranteed by Impress Designs.

Chargebacks, Adjustments, and Post-Shipment Charges

The customer is responsible for any chargebacks, carrier adjustments, customs charges, duties, taxes, VAT/GST, brokerage fees, advancement fees, correction fees, address correction fees, storage fees, return shipping charges, abandoned shipment fees, re-delivery fees, customs handling fees, refused shipment charges, documentation fees, or other charges related to the international shipment.

This includes charges that are billed to Impress Designs after the shipment has been processed, delivered, returned, abandoned, corrected, rejected, refused, or otherwise handled by the carrier, customs broker, customs authority, freight forwarder, or other shipping-related provider.

If Impress Designs receives any additional charges, chargebacks, corrections, adjustments, fees, or other costs related to the customer’s international shipment, those charges will be billed back to the customer after they are received from the carrier or other applicable shipping-related source.

The customer is required to pay those charges within the standard payment terms on their account unless otherwise agreed in writing.

Additional Information Required for International Shipments

International shipments may require additional information before they can be processed.

Required information may include, but is not limited to:

  • Complete recipient name and address
  • Recipient phone number and email address
  • Importer of record information
  • Tax ID, VAT number, EORI number, or other destination-specific tax/import identification
  • Broker or freight forwarder information
  • Country of origin
  • Product description
  • Declared value
  • Harmonized tariff code or product classification, if required
  • Customer-provided customs documents, when applicable
  • Customer-provided shipping labels, when applicable

If an order includes international shipments, the customer should notify Impress Designs as early as possible so proper time can be allowed for review, documentation, planning, and shipping coordination.

Export and Import Responsibility

Many goods that have been imported into the United States may not be eligible for export to other countries. Some brands, products, materials, licensing restrictions, trademarks, or destination country rules may prohibit or restrict export.

It is the customer’s responsibility to check with their freight forwarder, customs broker, carrier, brand owner, or other qualified party to confirm:

  • Whether the goods may legally be exported from the United States
  • Whether the goods may legally be imported into the destination country
  • Whether the goods will be released by customs at the final destination
  • What documentation is required for export or import
  • Whether any brand, licensing, trademark, product, or destination restriction applies

Impress Designs is not responsible for confirming export legality, import legality, foreign documentation requirements, customs release requirements, re-importation requirements, brand restrictions, or destination-specific import requirements.

Responsibility After Shipment

Impress Designs is not responsible for international shipments after they have been handed over to the carrier, freight forwarder, broker, shipment handler, or other shipping provider.

If an international shipment is delayed, held, refused, returned, abandoned, lost, seized, rejected by customs, or not delivered for any reason, Impress Designs will not be responsible for the shipment, replacement costs, fines, fees, penalties, delays, or related expenses.

The legality of international shipments is the responsibility of the customer. Impress Designs is not responsible for any fines, fees, penalties, delays, storage charges, return charges, seizure, abandonment, loss, or other expenses related to international shipping.

Brands That May Restrict Exportation

Some brands may prohibit or restrict exportation. The following list is provided only as an example and is not complete or regularly updated:

  • Nike
  • Alternative Apparel
  • Carhartt
  • The North Face
  • Eddie Bauer
  • New Era
  • OGIO
  • Cotopaxi
  • TravisMathew
  • WonderWink

Customers are responsible for confirming whether any export restrictions apply to their specific goods, brands, products, or destination countries.

Summary

International shipments through Impress Designs are generally handled as DDU/DAP or billed to an approved third-party carrier account.

Impress Designs does not offer DDP shipping and does not prepay or guarantee duties, taxes, VAT/GST, customs fees, brokerage fees, import charges, or other international shipping-related charges.

Any duties, taxes, carrier fees, customs fees, brokerage fees, chargebacks, adjustments, corrections, refused shipment fees, return fees, storage fees, or other shipping-related charges billed to Impress Designs will be billed back to the customer after they are received from the carrier or applicable shipping-related source.

Related articles

Powered by Zendesk