How to Calculate Your International Shipping Cost?
Calculating shipping costs and determining the appropriate carrier services for each purchase are necessary steps in determining what to charge customers. International shipping rates are by far the most complex and uncertain charges to manage while running an e-commerce business. Getting orders to international clients may be a confusing, expensive, and excruciatingly long process. Even to neighboring countries, free shipping is practically never an option. Using a shipping calculator, such as ReachShip, is the ideal solution because it gives you precise international shipping rates and expected arrival times in real-time. We’ll go over this in more detail later, but first, let’s go over some of the specifics of international shipping that can end up costing you and your customers a lot of money.
What affects the cost of International Shipping?
Shipping costs may appear to be straightforward because they are simply the costs of getting your products from one location to another, but this is far from the case if you run an eCommerce business that needs to ship internationally in bulk on a regular basis. If you want to remain profitable in the long run, you’ll have to take all of the following factors into consideration:
Distance between shipping zones
Geographical areas are divided into “shipping zones” by shipping service providers. Shipping carriers charge shipping costs depending on how many zones the product travels through during transit. The greater the distance between the origin and the delivery addresses, as one might imagine, the higher is the shipping cost. Because each carrier has its own shipping zone map, shipping zones can seem extremely different in some regions.
Dimensional weight
Volume and weight are obvious factors in transportation costs, but many shipping carriers must additionally calculate the DIM or dimensional weight. Dimensional weight is a pricing method that considers the size and dimensions of an item when calculating ultimate shipping charges. This is the volume-to-weight ratio of your package. As a result, larger, lighter shipments are charged more, while smaller, heavier parcels are charged less.
Shipping Methods and Speed
The cost of different shipping methods can vary substantially. Because you’re shipping internationally, you’ll additionally need to factor in the cost of ocean freight and air freight. Finding an equilibrium between the speed of delivery you want to offer and the shipping rates you’re ready to pay is the ideal strategy.
Taxes and Customs Duties
You must also account for country-specific taxes in addition to shipping zones, especially while shipping across borders. Import taxes and tariffs on certain products are common examples. Taxes and Customs Duties are two of the most significant expenditures you’ll face when shipping internationally.
Fuel Prices
You’ll have to consider fuel prices regardless of the mode of transportation you choose. Although a rise in fuel prices is unforeseeable, it will have a significant impact on your overall shipping expenses when shipping overseas.
Weather
You can bet the weather will play an influence on your shipping charges, as it is one of the only things less predictable than fuel expenses. You can expect to incur the cost of any delays if your chosen method of transport has to spend extra time on standby or out on deliveries due to adverse unpredictable weather conditions.
Holidays and Festivals
Many shipping companies charge an additional shipping fee throughout the Holiday season or even during sales; you must account for this when calculating shipping costs.
Calculating International Shipping Costs for USPS, UPS, FedEx, and DHL
All of the major shipping companies typically have dedicated shipping calculators that allow you to determine international shipping prices as well.
Calculate USPS international shipping cost
Calculating international shipping charges for USPS is a simple process. On the retail postage price calculator offered by USPS, you can simply enter your destination country, the zip code of your origin and delivery addresses, the date and time at which you want to mail the item, and select the packaging options to calculate the shipping cost.
Calculate UPS international shipping cost
UPS, like USPS, has an in-built shipping calculator that may be used to calculate international shipping costs. To find the most cost-effective shipping service, simply enter the origin, destination, and weight of your shipment to compare services, then sort your choices by time or cost.
Calculate FedEx international shipping cost
You can calculate international shipping costs by entering your to and from addresses and shipment details right into the FedEx shipping calculator.
Calculate DHL international shipping cost
By entering your package details, address details, and pickup details into the DHL’s ship online page, you can calculate international shipping costs in no time.
How can ReachShip help you calculate and save money on international shipping costs?
ReachShip is an excellent shipping calculator for estimating shipping rates. You can determine how much your shipments will cost to be shipped, as well as how much to charge by comparing different shipping services and picking the best shipping carriers based on the most cost-effective shipping price and delivery speed. ReachShip works with UPS, USPS, FedEx, and DHL. It provides a complete solution for all your shipping needs, and once you have picked your shipping carrier and method, you can go ahead to create a shipment, add insurance, and schedule pickups, and also track shipments from a centralized platform. In just a few clicks, you can address all of your international shipping concerns!
To Conclude
Trying to figure out international shipping costs can seem quite overwhelming initially, but we hope this guide has answered some questions you had regarding calculating international shipping costs. If you have any questions regarding international shipping, please let us know in the comments section below.
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