International Shipping & DDP
DDP refunds and reconciliation
When a customer returns a DDP order, duties are refunded back to you. The reconciliation cron catches drift before it adds up.
How duty refunds work on a return
When a customer returns a DDP order, the merchant has already paid the duties up front. Those duties are refundable from customs (with the carrier acting as broker), and Zonos handles the reclaim on your behalf. ShipWave triggers the Zonos refund request as soon as the return is marked received. The refund posts to your Zonos balance and is reflected in the next settlement.
Proportional refunds for partial returns
For partial returns—say, the customer returns one item from a three-item cart—ShipWave computes a proportional duty refund based on item value share. If the returned item is 40% of the cart value, 40% of the duties refund. The formula respects de minimis thresholds: if removing the returned item pushes the order under the country’s duty-free threshold, the entire duty amount refunds, not just the proportional share.
Daily reconciliation cron
Every morning, the
reconcile-landed-cost cron pulls the previous day’s Zonos settlement report and matches every line back to a ShipWave order. It flags any line that does not match—quote-not-found, amount-mismatch, or stale-refund. Reconciliation lives at Admin → Landed Cost → Reconciliation and shows a pass/fail summary plus drill-down into discrepancies.Drift detection
Two thresholds trigger an owner alert: any single order off by more than $1, or any month off by more than 1% in aggregate. When drift fires, ShipWave emails the owner with the failing lines and a recommended fix (usually re-quoting the order or filing a Zonos support ticket). Catching drift early matters—a 1% leak across 10K international orders is real money.
Landed-cost reporting dashboard
The dashboard at Admin → Reports → Landed Cost shows quotes given, conversion rate (quotes → paid orders), refund rate, average duty per order, and country mix. Use it to spot countries where DDU might out-perform DDP, or where a duty surcharge is suppressing conversion. Export to CSV for ad-hoc analysis. See DDP and landed-cost shipping with Zonos for the conceptual model behind these numbers.
FAQs
How long does a duty refund take?
Typically 7–30 days from when ShipWave triggers the reclaim. Most customs authorities settle within two weeks; a few are slower.
What if the return arrives damaged and we deny it?
No duty refund fires. The original duty is keptwith the customs authority. Mark the return <em>denied</em> in the dashboard—ShipWave skips the Zonos reclaim.
Can I see per-country profitability?
Yes. The reporting dashboard splits revenue, duties paid, duties refunded, and net margin per country.
What happens if Zonos reports a quote we have no record of?
Reconciliation flags it as <em>orphan-zonos-line</em>. Usually means a quote fired but the order never converted—safe to ignore. Repeated orphans suggest a widget misconfig.
More in International Shipping & DDP
- DDP and landed-cost shipping with Zonos
Show international customers a single all-in price at checkout—duties, taxes, and fees paid upfront, no surprises at the door.
- Configuring DDP and broker accounts
Plug in your Zonos key, link your UPS/FedEx/DHL brokers, and pick DDP-eligible countries country-by-country.
- Adding the landed-cost widget to Shopify
Drop a single script tag into your theme and shoppers see real-time DDP duties and taxes right in the cart.
- Shipping electric scooters and e-bikes (lithium batteries, UN3556)
A scooter with its battery installed is dangerous goods. Here is how to classify, label, and document it—and why it is UN3556, not UN3481.