Landed Cost: The Number That Decides Whether Your Import Makes Money
The supplier's unit price is the beginning of your cost, not the end of it. Freight, duty and a stack of small fees decide your real margin — here's how to compute landed cost properly before you wire a deposit.
What Landed Cost Actually Includes
"Other fees" is where imports quietly get expensive: port handling, documentation, customs brokerage, inland trucking, insurance. Individually small, they routinely add a meaningful percentage to the order.
Getting the Duty Rate Right
Import duty is set by your product's HTS classification — not by guesswork and not by your supplier's assurance. Look the code up in the official tariff schedule for your import country, or ask a customs broker to classify it. Two similar-looking products can carry very different rates, and anti-dumping duties on some categories can be dramatic.
A supplier telling you duty is 'very low, no problem' is not a classification. If the product is misclassified at customs, you pay the difference and the penalties — always verify the HTS code independently.
Freight Allocation: Per Unit, Always
Freight is quoted per shipment, but decisions are made per unit. Divide total freight by units to see what shipping really adds to each piece — then re-run the numbers for air vs sea. Air freight's speed premium only makes sense when the per-unit difference is small relative to your margin, or when stockout cost exceeds it.