What countries require electronic customs?
Electronic customs became mandatory for certain international destinations on January 1st 2019, and as of January 2021 electronic customs are required for all international destinations. If you have provided the required data, Click & Drop will send this information automatically whenever you pay for your labels (Personal accounts) or manifest your orders (Online Business Accounts).
Failure to include this information may result in delays or rejections during customs clearance in the destination country.
From January 2021, if you are posting international orders, all countries must have customs data supplied. You can enable customs documentation in Click & Drop from your label format settings page.
What information is required?
The minimum required fields for all international destinations are:
- Customs description
- Extended customs description
- Customs code (HS code, harmonised system or tariff code)
- Country of origin
- Quantity
- Unit price
However, requirements vary between customs regions and customs schemes.
How to include customs information in your spreadsheet
This guide will cover orders imported manually, via Dropbox, or via Click & Drop desktop.
For the basics on how to import an order via spreadsheet, please see the following guide: How to import/upload orders.
If you wish to add electronic customs information via an order import, please ensure you map the following fields
Product SKU and/or Product name: The unique identifier or name of the item you are sending, ie 'Blue T shirt'
This data is required by Click & Drop so we can store electronic customs information against your individual products/items.
Quantity: The quantity of that item you are sending, ie '4'
Product customs code: The 6,8, or 10 digit customs (HS, harmonised system, or tariff code) code of the item you are sending, i.e. '22003948'
For more information, please see the following page: https://www.gov.uk/trade-tariff
Customs description: A brief description of the item you are sending. This description is used by customs officials to assess your items. Please ensure the description is concise and relevant, ie 'Blue cotton T-shirt'
Extended customs description: A full description of the item you are sending. This description is used by customs officials to assess your items in greater detail. Please ensure the description is accurate and complete, i.e. Extra large navy blue short sleeve v-neck T-shirt, 90% cotton 10% polyester, materials from India, manufactured in Thailand.
Unit weight: The weight per single unit in kilograms, ie, 0.05
An example spreadsheet containing the minimum required data for two different orders to two different customers.
For a sample spreadsheet containing the minimum required fields for an order with electronic customs, please click to download: Sample xlsx spreadsheet.
In addition to this information, there is a large variety of additional optional fields you can add to your spreadsheet, such as package size, service, and further shipping enhancements. For more information on the available fields and the data they can contain, please see the following guide: Order import field specifications.
What if my customer's order contains more than one different product?
If your order contains more than one type of product, you will need to include multiple rows in your spreadsheet per order.
Each line will contain the same name and address data, but the fields for product data will be different.
In order for Click & Drop to recognise that different lines in your spreadsheet belong to the same order, you will need to ensure that each line contains the same order reference number.
In our example below, two lines in the spreadsheet contain the same name and address data, but the product data is different. As we have mapped the Order reference number field, and both lines have the same Order reference value, Click & Drop will add both lines of product data to the same order.
Our created order now contains product details for all three of the T-shirts that John Smith has ordered.