Shipping Apparel Internationally

When a package crosses a border, the destination country may charge duties and taxes. Someone has to pay them. In general terms there are two models.

Apparel customers who are asked to pay a surprise fee at the door often refuse the package. A refused package can travel back at your cost or be abandoned. Whichever model you choose, say it clearly on your shipping page and at checkout.

Which models your carrier and store setup support is something to confirm with your 3PL and your store platform. OC3PL does not publish its duties handling, so ask a strategist.

International shipments generally need a description of the contents, a declared value, the country where the goods were made and a tariff classification. For apparel, fabric content and whether a garment is knit or woven can affect how it is classified.

• Keep a clean product record for every style: plain description, fabric content, country of origin and declared value.
• Make sure the values match what the customer paid, including discounts.
• Ask your customs broker or carrier how to classify your products. Do not guess.
• Review the data whenever you add a new style or switch factories.

If the data lives in your store platform, it can travel with the order to the warehouse system. Ask your 3PL which fields it reads and test them with a real order.

Returns are part of selling apparel, and international returns are slow and costly. Decide in advance whether you accept them, who pays the return label, and whether you offer store credit or a refund.

Some brands accept international returns only for faulty items, and handle fit issues with a partial refund or store credit. Whatever you choose, write it down and publish it. When returns do arrive at OC3PL, they follow the same process as domestic returns. Returns are processed and logged within 48 hours of receipt, and many are handled the same day. Each item is inspected and restocked, discarded or donated by the rules you set.

1. Look at your traffic and order data by country. Start where demand already exists.
2. Choose a duties model and write your international shipping and returns policy.
3. Clean up product data: descriptions, fabric content, origin, values.
4. Ask your 3PL to confirm country coverage, documentation and how duties are handled for your setup.
5. Run international test orders through your live store and check paperwork, tracking and costs.
6. Launch to a few countries first, then review returns, refusals and support tickets before expanding.

Your account manager is the person to walk through this with. Your account manager works on site at our Anaheim fulfillment center, in the same building as your inventory. When something is urgent you call and talk to a person who can walk to the shelf and fix it. Call anytime. We are here. We got you.

Overseas customers judge you on the same things domestic customers do, with less patience for surprises. A few details make the difference:

• A clear landed price, or a clear warning that duties are due on delivery.
• A realistic delivery range on the product page and at checkout, not a domestic transit time.
• Tracking that works the whole way, and a carrier the customer recognizes.
• Size guidance written for international shoppers. A size chart in inches only confuses customers who think in centimeters.
• A returns policy that says plainly what happens if something does not fit.

Every one of those is a decision for your store and your policies. The warehouse’s part is to ship the order accurately and on time once it arrives.