What is DDP and DDU?

"Incoterms" is the official term to describe which party will be responsible for paying any taxes, customs, duties, tariffs, and/or other fees associated with the shipment. For ease of reference, we'll collectively call these duties and taxes (D&T). For shipping to ecommerce customers, the two options are DDP and DDU.

Delivery Duty Paid (DDP) is an international clearance in which the seller (you) will cover all D&T. While DDP provides a smooth, hassle-free delivery experience for the customer, it can result in higher costs for you as the seller.

With DDP shipping, you might consider collecting estimated D&T during checkout for customers with shipping addresses outside the US. Or, you may consider pricing your product with enough margin to cover D&T.

Amplifier will ship your order to the customer and the D&T will be paid to local authorities by the carrier, who in turn will bill Amplifier for these D&T amounts. Amplifier will then invoice you for these D&T amounts. These are pass-through costs and no markup is added. For accounting purposes, it's important to note that the D&Ts are almost always billed on a separate invoice than the freight charges.

Delivered Duty Unpaid (DDU) is when the buyer (customer) is responsible for paying the D&T upon arrival in the destination country. Once the shipment clears customs, the local carrier will contact the recipient to collect these charges before completing delivery.

For DDU shipments, it's important to clearly inform your customers that the carrier may reach out to request payment for D&T before delivering the package. Providing accurate contact information—a phone number and email address—with the shipment details, is essential to ensure timely communication. If the carrier is unable to collect payment after multiple attempts, the shipment will not be delivered and depending on the country, may be returned to Amplifier or may be destroyed in-country. In some locations, D&T must be paid to get the package returned.

DDU is the default setup when shipping from Amplifier to international customers. Amplifier must inform the carrier to expect shipments of your commodity. Therefore, before sending your first international order to Amplifier, please email help@amplifier.com so we can register your account with the carriers.

*It is your responsibility to know which countries you are shipping to that don’t accept DDP. If a destination doesn’t allow DDP, the shipment will typically default to DDU.

Countries Your Business Will Be Shipping To:

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