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Selling internationally often requires you to provide customs information to the carrier for each shipment. This page explains how to provide the customs information needed for compliant shipping labels when sending outside the EU from a WooCommerce store.
The Smart Send WooCommerce plugin will make sure to include a product’s customs information when booking shipments.

Learn more about customs

Read our detailed article for tips and guidance on customs requirements and best practices.

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Add product customs information

To clear customs you need to provide standardized customs information for each product. This includes the Harmonized System (HS) code and the country of origin. HS codes are internationally recognized numbers that classify traded products. Some countries require country-specific tariff codes, which often extend the standard HS code system. Bare-bones WooCommerce does not include fields for HS codes or country of origin. The Smart Send WooCommerce plugin adds product attribute fields for both values, so you can store this information directly on each product and have it included automatically when shipments are booked.
We recommend adding a general 6-digit HS code to all products you ship internationally.

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Set the values on a product

Once the Smart Send plugin is installed and activated, the HS code and country of origin can be set as product attributes on each product.
1

Open the product

In the WordPress admin, go to Products and open the product you want to edit.
2

Find the Smart Send product attributes

Locate the product attribute fields added by the Smart Send plugin for HS code and country of origin.
3

Enter the values

Enter the HS code and select the country of origin for the product, then save the product.
When the product is included in an order and a shipping label is generated, Smart Send uses these values to populate the customs declaration sent to the carrier.

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Selling DDP (Delivered Duty Paid)

The other side of selling internationally is collecting the correct tax during checkout so that orders can be sent DDP (Delivered Duty Paid). With DDP, the customer pays applicable duties and taxes at checkout instead of being charged on delivery, which avoids surprise fees and failed deliveries. WooCommerce does not calculate destination-country duties and import taxes out of the box. There are plugins that can help:
  • Customs Fees for WooCommerce lets you configure customs fees manually. It works well for shops with only a few different product types, but is not viable for shops with many product types that need to be kept up to date.
  • Stripe Tax for WooCommerce is a more automated solution that calculates tax at checkout based on product and destination.
Tax and duty rules change over time and vary by destination. Whichever plugin you choose, review the configuration regularly to keep collected amounts accurate.