UPS website now guides exporters on customs forms and duties

February 1, 2020: To help simplify international shipping for its small and medium business (SMB) customers in 116 countries, the global logistics player, UPS upgraded its website (ups.com) with insights into required forms for customs clearance and total landed costs, including duties and taxes.

The problem

“Despite the incredible growth of e-commerce sales across the globe, estimated to hit $6.5 trillion by 2023, we know that many companies are hesitant to trade internationally due to the complexity of cross-border shipping,” said Nando Cesarone, president of UPS International. “Small businesses, in particular, cannot afford to lose business due to unforeseen duties and taxes. Most SMBs are not in a position to dedicate the time to learn or afford to pay for the expertise to ensure they are knowledgeable about international customs brokerage requirements. This new UPS solution helps enable SMBs to ship their products around the world.”

The solution

The upgrade to ups.com shipping helps take the complexity out of cross-border trade by providing tools to assist customers with determining harmonized tariff code classification and estimates of duties and taxes. This will allow shippers across the region to notify their customers of any additional costs before their package ships. Shippers will benefit from a more intuitive experience when generating international shipments with helpful information related to cross-border trade and paperwork managed in a streamlined process.

We are making international shipping smarter and easier for small businesses. With only 1% of U.S. businesses exporting, there has never been a better time for your company to go global. Click below to learn more about our smart shipping upgrade.

— UPS (@UPS) January 30, 2020

Other new features in ups.com

While little will change visually on ups.com, the website prompts will automatically appear, helping users by eliminating the need to use multiple databases to determine specific tariff codes for their products, or to learn at an earlier stage whether a recipient’s address appears on any denied parties lists. This tool will help empower shippers to expand its customer base.

Jean-Francois Condamine, president, High Growth and Emerging Markets at UPS said “By making the shipping process more intuitive, we want to show businesses – especially smaller ones – that selling across borders can be as straightforward as shipping at home. Our smart upgrade is designed to help businesses competing in today’s ever-growing online markets avoid surprises that can jeopardize a sale or a customer relationship.”