Customs documentation for international shipments

Before you can create a label for a shipment that needs a customs declaration, each item in the shipment needs the following details:

• A Harmonized System (HS) code of at least 6 digits. Learn more about adding HS codes to your products.
• A country or region of origin, which is where the item was manufactured.
• A description of the goods.
• The quantity of the item.
• The value of the item.
• An item weight.

You can add HS codes and countries of origin on a product's page, during label purchase, with the bulk editor, or with an inventory CSV file. Details that you save to a product are reused on every international label for that product.

Before you ship internationally, review the following considerations:

• A custom item that you add directly to an order has no product page, so you enter its HS code during label purchase.
• United States military and diplomatic addresses are treated as international, so shipments to an Army Post Office (APO), Fleet Post Office (FPO), or Diplomatic Post Office (DPO) address need customs details.
• If you use Managed Markets, then HS codes are assigned to your products for you and can't be edited.
• If you sell regulated consumer products into the United States, then your shipments might also need CPSC eFiling data to clear customs.

The description on your customs declaration usually comes from the item's HS code rather than from your product title. Each HS code carries a standardized description that customs authorities recognize, so the description can be longer or more technical than the name that your customers know. If no standardized description is available for the code, then the product or item name is used instead.

You can edit the description in the Edit customs information section during label purchase. An edited description applies to that label only, and isn't saved to the product for later shipments.

Some carriers shorten a long description to fit the character limits of their own systems, which is expected.

A custom item has no product page to draw from, so its description matches the item name that you entered on the order.

An international shipment can need two kinds of paperwork:

• A customs form declares what's in the shipment. Some shipments need a printed form, and others have the declaration submitted electronically. Learn more about printing a customs form and the considerations for printing customs forms.
• A commercial invoice states the value of the shipment and the terms of delivery. Learn more about creating commercial invoices.

Several carriers submit customs documentation electronically for destinations that support it, which leaves you with only the shipping label to print. To learn which destinations qualify for your carrier, refer to DHL Express, DHL Express in Canada, or UPS.

If a driver asks for a paper commercial invoice for a shipment whose documentation was submitted electronically, then tell them that the invoice was sent to the carrier with the label. If the driver still needs a paper copy, then you can create one with your carrier's own invoice tool.

If a customs declaration prevents you from creating a label, then review the following common issues and solutions.

If you edited the item weights on a customs form and you still can't create the label, then refer to troubleshooting shipping labels.