USA Shipping - What a nighmare!
I don't want this to be a political post, but what a nightmare it has turned into!
If you have been living under a rock, you might have missed that the US have eliminated the de minimus ruling for imports. This means that any item at all, imported to the USA has to have tariffs paid. With the de minimus in place, any item under $800 was exempt from tariffs.
But it gets better! US Customs have declared that the tariff has to be paid for before the items reach them or they will be returned to sender. So this means that to be able to send any orders to the US, we would need to use a carrier that provides DDP shipping, i.e. Duties Paid shipping.
Australia Post, like many other countries has no capability to do this as we have never needed it. These things take time to implement. So when the de minimus ruling expired on 29th August, Australia Post like many other worlwide national postal services, were forced to suspend shipping to the USA.
So this meant I had to turn off sales to the USA. And I was doing so well getting my map coloured in with all the states I had customers in. I only had a handful of states to go. Not bad for my little Aussie based business.
With 30% of my customers based in the US, I needed to find a solution. So I went looking for other carriers. Boy some of them charge like wounded buffalos!
In the end I settled for DHL Express. But I must say, that is still an expensive option. But it is an option if people are desperate for an item. So I have turned on sales again to the USA.
Australia Post are working on a solution and I hope they come through with it soon. From what I have heard, the shipping will resume as before but with a nominal fee on top. Adding the 10% tariff on top as well, will mean a slightly higher price than what we have had in the past, but much much less that the current situation.
If you are a praying person, please pray that this current madness resolves quickly and we can go back to business as normal.
Watch for any new posts with updates about this. Until then, take care and happy stitching.
Narelle xx
