Navigating the new Singapore low-value tax schemeWatch the webinar
Countdown to ICS2 release 2: Are you prepared?Watch the webinar
Landed cost quotes with the ability to prepay
Internationalize your platform
Easily harmonize your entire catalog
Shipping carriers, create your own DDP solution
Enterprise-ready cross-border API technology solutions
Gives international shoppers a domestic experience
View our APIs for custom development options
Simple integrations for the most popular platforms
Learn about our APIs and product integrations
Check Zonos system and API status
Cross border made easy
Zonos Decoders are changing an industry, find out how.
Zonos was rated the top workplace in Utah, find out why.
Look at current job postings at Zonos.
Let‘s do something great together.
Zonos‘ mission history and founder‘s story.
Reach out to Zonos sales or support.
Landed cost quotes with the ability to prepay
Internationalize your platform
Easily harmonize your entire catalog
Shipping carriers, create your own DDP solution
Enterprise-ready cross-border API technology solutions
Gives international shoppers a domestic experience
View our APIs for custom development options
Simple integrations for the most popular platforms
Learn about our APIs and product integrations
Check Zonos system and API status
Cross border made easy
Zonos Decoders are changing an industry, find out how.
Zonos was rated the top workplace in Utah, find out why.
Look at current job postings at Zonos.
Let‘s do something great together.
Zonos‘ mission history and founder‘s story.
Reach out to Zonos sales or support.
August 1, 2017 / 0 min read - Last updated: October 19, 2022
There are many pains that ecommerce businesses may experience with international shipping including the following:
This will put your business in the awkward position of needing to contact every customer that places an order to collect extra money for shipping.
Getting billed more than expected by shipping carriers may result in you not hitting your target margins or even losing money on orders.
You may end up losing orders due to not listing international shipping charges and forcing customers to call or email to get a shipping quote. The possibility of losing casual buyers is considerably increased when potential customers can find the same product on another website that displays the international shipping cost.
Rather than worrying about losing orders or money (and dealing with extra work from the potential problems listed above), you can avoid some of these issues by calculating international shipping weight and displaying the cost to your international customers. International shipping weight is calculated differently than domestic shipping weight; international shipments are calculated similarly to domestic overnight or 2nd-day air shipments. This is often a factor that comes into play when businesses are experiencing one or more of the potential pains listed above.
While almost every ecommerce business has its domestic rate, billable weight, and shipping charges calculated correctly, they may not have taken all the factors into consideration that differentiates international and domestic billable weight. Billable weight is the greater of the actual weight and dimensional weight (when applicable). One way to ensure you are always billed the actual weight on your domestic ground shipments is to only use boxes that are below 5,184 cubic inches. You may have to pack one shipment in multiple boxes, but you will save yourself a lot of shipping charges that you would be billed for otherwise.
One of the biggest disconnects in calculating international billable shipping weight vs. domestic billable shipping weight is dimensional weight. Depending on if a shipment is a domestic or international shipment, the dimensional weight will vary because the domestic dimensional weight factor is different than the international dimensional weight factor.
The dimensional weight factor is a value that all major carriers use to calculate the dimensional weight.
length (l) x width (w) x height (h) / dimensional weight factor
The dimensional weight factor for domestic shipping is 164, and the international dimensional weight factor is 139. You may not think that dimensional weight makes much of a difference now, but in the examples below, you will notice how big of a difference the dimensional weight can make in what you need to charge customers and what you will be charged by the shipping carrier.
Example 1 | Example 2 | Example 3 |
---|---|---|
Length: 12" | Length: 16" | Length: 51" |
Width: 12" | Width: 16" | Width: 15" |
Height: 12" | Height: 16" | Height: 12" |
Cubic inches: 1,728 | Cubic inches: 4,096 | Cubic inches: 9,180 |
Dimensional weight: 13 lbs. | Dimensional weight: 30 lbs. | Dimensional weight: 67 lbs. |
Actual weight: 20 lbs. | Actual weight: 7 lbs. | Actual weight: 40 lbs. |
Billable weight: 20 lbs. | Billable weight: 30 lbs. | Billable weight: 67 lbs. |
Example 1 | Example 2 | Example 3 |
---|---|---|
Length: 12" | Length: 16" | Length: 51" |
Width: 12" | Width: 16" | Width: 15" |
Height: 12" | Height: 16" | Height: 12" |
Cubic inches: 1,728 | Cubic inches: 4,096 | Cubic inches: 9,180 |
Dimensional weight: 11 lbs. | Dimensional weight: 25 lbs. | Dimensional weight: 56 lbs. |
Actual weight: 20 lbs. | Actual weight: 7 lbs. | Actual weight: 40 lbs. |
Billable weight: 20 lbs. | Billable weight: 25 lbs. | Billable weight: 56 lbs. |
In writing this blog post, we hope to help give eCommerce businesses the knowledge and tools to properly calculate international billable shipping weight. While it may be a little overwhelming, this is something that can help increase your conversion and revenue by capitalizing on the daily international traffic landing naturally on your site. If you do not have the software or technology in place to calculate the correct international shipment billable weight, you can always meet with Zonos or another third-party vendor to discover the best international solution that fits your business.
Dan is the Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) at Zonos, the leading cross-border technology company and most accurate solution for landed cost. With over 15 years of experience in Sales, Dan’s strategic leadership skills, strong empathy in customer service, and a tenacity for solving problems have helped him become a cross-border trade expert and invaluable mentor on the Zonos team.