Calculating landed costs can be complex, but it is necessary for businesses to budget and price their products accurately. In this article, Intersoft explains why having transparency on a customers landed costs will improve the consumer experience, and why they are an essential component of international trade.
Landed costs are an essential component of global trade that every retailer and consumer should be aware of. In simple terms, landed costs refer to the total cost of importing a product, including freight, insurance, taxes, customs duties, and other related expenses.
Calculating these costs can be complex, but it is necessary for businesses to budget and price their products accurately. Additionally, having transparency on a customers landed costs will inevitably improve the consumer experience, and in this article, we will explain why.
Showing landed costs to international customers is crucial for online retailers as it can significantly improve the customer experience and prevent abandoned baskets.
Landed costs include all expenses associated with delivering a product to the buyer, such as shipping, handling, taxes, customs fees, and other charges. By providing transparency on landed costs, retailers can ensure accurate pricing and prevent customers from encountering unexpected fees or charges post checkout.
Ultimately, understanding and showing landed costs can help ecommerce businesses improve their profitability and provide a more positive shopping experience for their customers.
In short, landed costs are a concern because they add to the cost of a consumer making a purchase when buying internationally. A retailer can ignore the issue and leave the consumer to deal with additional payments and delivery delays, but this can only lead to a poor consumer experience. By providing visibility and clarity as early as possible in the checkout process, the retailer can ensure the consumer knows the full cost of purchase and ensure a smooth delivery experience by collecting the additional charges at the point of sale and allowing the goods to transit through customs smoothly and provide clarity on expected delivery times.
Calculating the full landed cost is a complex process with detailed knowledge of tax and duty rates used by different countries a key part of understanding the full cost – as well as knowing the detailed classification details of all the different goods being sold.
Finding a dependable, trusted partner to help ensure the calculations are accurate is the easiest way to ensure both the sellers compliance and the consumers post purchase experience is as desired.
Intersoft have partnered with Hurricane to provide a cost effective and simple to access solution with a credible, global partner whose key focus is ensuring they keep pace with the changing global commerce rules and regulations. The suite of API’s allow Intersoft customers to ensure the right classification of their goods to ensure the landed cost calculations are accurate and trusted.
Benefits of a global trade data system partnership:
Retailers need to focus on the post-purchase experience to provide a positive buying experience and promote brand loyalty. More than half of customer complaints to UK retailers are attributed to issues with the post-purchase experience, from the moment a customer clicks the buy button to the item’s arrival at their doorstep.
Offering complete transparency of the landed cost can prevent customers from facing unexpected fees, which can result in their dissatisfaction and a decline in their loyalty towards the brand.
Retailers should display landed costs throughout the buying journey to enhance the consumer experience. This practice avoids unpleasant surprises for customers and decreases the possibility of items being returned. It also enables customers to compare prices accurately and make informed decisions, increasing transparency and trust between retailers and customers. By providing full visibility of landed costs, retailers can improve customer satisfaction and retain loyalty.