What it costs to land a product in the US

Every cost, in the order you pay it

Each line comes out of the price before a cent is left for advertising.

Item and shipping

Treat the supplier’s price and its delivery to a US address as one number: what leaves your account per order. The median AliExpress listing we measured on October 2, 2026 charged $1.99 to ship to the US and quoted 6 to 14 days for delivery from China. A cheap item with dear shipping is not cheap.

US import duty: the layers on every order

A parcel worth under $800 used to enter the US without duty. That ended for goods from China on May 2, 2025 and for every country on August 29, 2025, mail lost the exemption on July 24, 2026, and the law repeals it for good on July 1, 2027. So every order you ship from China owes duty, charged on the value the supplier declares, never on your retail price. As of October 2026 a China-made product carries up to three layers:

• Base duty: the “General” rate for the product’s 10-digit HTS code, 0% to about 6% for most consumer goods and far higher for clothing and shoes.
• The Section 301 China lists, in force since 2018 and 2019: 7.5% on List 4A (most consumer goods, clothing, shoes), 25% on Lists 1 to 3 (machinery, electronics, furniture, many household goods), and more on a few strategic goods, such as lithium-ion batteries at 25% from January 1, 2026.
• The 2026 Section 301 layer: 12.5% on China-origin goods since July 24, 2026, on top of the lists, except on Section 232 goods (steel, aluminum, copper, vehicles, wood, semiconductors).

Two charges from the headlines are gone: the IEEPA tariffs, struck down by the Supreme Court on February 20, 2026 and being refunded by CBP, and the 10% Section 122 surcharge, which expired on July 24, 2026. All of this is the shape of the cost, not your product’s rate. The real rate comes from its HTS code, which you can look up at hts.usitc.gov, or from a customs broker.

Who pays it, and how much by route

You do, not your customer. When the carrier asks the customer to pay at the door, often with a clearance fee on top, many refuse the parcel, and you refund the order and lose the product. Pick the supplier’s import-charges-included option and price it in. How much it is depends on the route:

• AliExpress Choice collects it at checkout. On the Choice orders SpotPeaks has checked out to US addresses it added about 10.5% of the item, with nothing more due at the door, and SpotPeaks counts 11%. Choice is most of the catalogue: 86.9% of the AliExpress listings we measured on October 2, 2026.
• A standard listing shipped from China owes the duty for what the product is. Without an HTS code, SpotPeaks estimates it by kind of product: 15% for simple plastic and household goods, 25% for general merchandise, 28% for anything with a battery or a motor, 35% for clothing, bags and fabric, 40% for metal, batteries and tools. Each sits toward the upper middle of its likely range, so a real rate usually comes back lower.
• A US warehouse owes nothing per order.

How US-warehouse stock changes the picture

Stock in a US warehouse owes no duty per order: the supplier paid it when the goods came in. You usually pay for that in a higher item price, so compare item, shipping and duty together. In the example below the duty is $6.34, so a US-stock version of the same product costing up to $6.34 more, shipping included, comes out level.

It is faster too: on October 2, 2026 the median listing quoted 3 to 8 days from a US warehouse, against 6 to 14 from China. The catch is supply. Only 6.4% of the AliExpress listings we measured had US stock (set the ship-from filter to the United States to find them), so most products you price will come from China.

Customs user fees: when you import stock yourself

SpotPeaks prices a dropshipped order with the import charge the supplier collects and no separate customs fees. Those fees start to matter when you bring in your own stock, say a pallet for a US warehouse. As of October 2026 (the fiscal 2027 fees, in force from October 1, 2026), that shipment pays duty on the factory price, which is what you paid without the international freight, plus:

• A processing fee: $2.77 on an informal entry of goods worth up to $2,500. Above that, 0.3464% of the value, at least $34.58 and at most $670.86.
• A harbor fee of 0.125% of the value if it comes by sea. Air freight pays none.
• A customs bond for a formal entry above $2,500, plus a broker’s fee, the freight and delivery to the warehouse.

The US landed cost calculator adds these up per unit in its bulk mode, against dropshipping the same product.

Payment fees and returns

The payment processor keeps a share of every sale, charged on the price the customer pays: $4.80 on the $149.99 sale below, a little over 3%. The Shopify fee calculator and the PayPal fee calculator give the figure for your processor.

Returns are the line beginners forget. A refund hands the customer back the whole price, while the item, shipping, duty and the ad that sold it are already paid for. You will not know your own rate until you have orders, so read any profit figure without a returns line as the best case.

A worked example: an LED face mask at $149.99

This was the SpotPeaks product of the week for the week of October 12, 2026, priced for a US store with the lines every SpotPeaks product shows.

The duty is 11% of the $57.62, the same share AliExpress Choice collects at checkout. At the 28% SpotPeaks estimates for a product with a battery or a motor on a standard listing, it would be $16.13, and the sale would keep $13.04, or lose $4.48 if ads cost 30% more. The route alone can decide whether a product works.

The breakeven ROAS is 149.99 ÷ 81.23 = 1.85x: ads must bring in $1.85 of sales for every dollar spent before this product makes anything. Delivery was quoted at 8 to 13 days. There is no returns line, so $22.83 is the best case, and the last row shows how little room there is. The breakeven ROAS guide explains the number.

The rule of thumb

Before you test a product, take item and shipping, duty and the payment fee off the price. What is left must still cover the estimated ad cost per sale with 30% added to it. If it does not, raise the price, find a cheaper route such as US stock, or pass.

Until you have the product’s HTS rate, count the duty as about 11% on Choice, the category estimate on other listings from China (15% to 40%, or 25% if you are unsure), and nothing per order from a US warehouse. The face mask passes, just: $81.23 left against $75.92 of ads at 30% over the estimate. Run your own product through the US landed cost calculator.

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