Shipping to the US with Royal Mail PDDP

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Shipping to the United States: As of August 29th 2025 the removal of the USD$800 de minimis means that all shipments to the US are subject to import duties, additional tariffs and taxes.

Royal Mail’s Postal Delivered Duties Paid (PDDP) service allows UK merchants to send duty and tax paid shipments through the postal network to recipients in a number of countries including the United States. To facilitate this, merchants must collect accurate tax and duty amounts at checkout. Our Landed Cost Calculator, provides the precise, real-time landed cost calculations needed to support PDDP.

Benefits of using Dutify for Royal Mail PDDP

• Compliance & accuracy: Dutify eliminates discrepancies with overseas customs by providing precise duty and tax calculations based on up-to-date global tariff data.
• AI powered product classification: Dutify automatically assigns validated HS codes to your products, ensuring accurate customs declarations for every shipment.
• Transparent checkout experience: Your customers will see an all-in price including product cost, shipping, taxes, duties, and handling fee - eliminating any surprises charges and speeding up delivery.
• Flexible fee configuration: Allows you to incorporate carrier handling fees to cover Royal Mail's £0.50 handling fee - ensuring your margins are protected.
• Streamlined integration: Easy to implement API and prebuilt ecommerce plugins for WooCommerce and Shopify.

Step-by-step integration guide - WooCommerce & Shopify

1. Set up and configure your account

• Sign up for a plan with API access and obtain your API key via Account → API Access.
• Confirm eligibility and set up PDDP for needed Royal Mail services (e.g. Tracked, Tracked Heavier, Untracked as appropriate for your parcels).
• Set up a handling fee on your Dutify account to reflect Royal Mail’s £0.50 PDDP handling fee.

2. Install the WooCommerce or Shopify plugin

• Contact us and our team will send through the relevant plugin.
• Follow the setup guide for WooCommerce, orShopify.

3. Display and collect at checkout

• Show the breakdown clearly to your customer (e.g. “Product £X + Shipping £Y + Duties & Tax £Z + Handling £0.50 = Total £…”).
• Collect this full amount - covering Royal Mail’s PDDP requirements so customers pay nothing at time of delivery.

4. Generate accurate customs data

• When creating shipping labels or customs declarations via Royal Mail, include:
  • Dutify provided HS codes
  • Product value and total charges collected at checkout

5. Finalize shipment and reconciliation

• Ship using Royal Mail’s PDDP-eligible product codes (e.g. MPR, MTV, BYD, DE6).
• Royal Mail will handle the duties & taxes with customs partners and bill you - covering the amounts you already collected via Dutify, including the handling fee.

Getting started - API

1. Set up and configure your account

• Sign up for a plan with API access and obtain your API key via Account → API Access.
• Confirm eligibility and set up PDDP for needed Royal Mail services (e.g. Tracked, Tracked Heavier, Untracked as appropriate for your parcels).
• Set up a handling fee on your Dutify account to reflect Royal Mail’s £0.50 PDDP handling fee.

2. Landed cost calculation

• Optionally pre-classify products via GET /api/v1/product_classifications or allow auto-classification.
• From your cart or checkout send a POST /api/v1/landed_cost_calculator request including:
  • Origin country, destination country
  • Product information (e.g. descripton, value, weight, classification)
  • Shipping and insurance cost
• Parse the response for:
  • Duties, VAT/GST, import taxes breakdown
  • Total “landed cost” (i.e. all charges combined)
  • Notes on thresholds, exemptions, or trade agreements

3. Display and collect at checkout

• Show an itemized breakdown or the combined duties and taxes to your customer.
• Collect this full amount to cover Royal Mail’s PDDP requirements so customers pay nothing at time of delivery.

4. Generate accurate customs data

• When creating shipping labels or customs declarations via Royal Mail, include:
  • Dutify provided HS codes
  • Product value and total charges collected at checkout

5. Finalize shipment and reconciliation

• Ship using Royal Mail’s PDDP-eligible product codes (e.g. MPR, MTV, BYD, DE6).
• Royal Mail will handle the duties & taxes with customs partners and bill you - covering the amounts you already collected via Dutify, including the handling fee.

Example flow

References

• More information on Royal Mail's PDDP offering is available on the Royal Mail website.
• Our Landed Cost Calculator API capabilities, integrations, and setup here.
• How we calculate duty and tax here.
• More information on our global trade data here.