Selling across the US–Canada border: what your store actually needs

A US store selling into Canada, or the reverse, is not the same business with a different postcode. Duties and taxes arrive after checkout unless you handle them, shipping costs more than domestic, returns cross the border twice, and a price shown in the wrong currency quietly halves conversion. Most of that is solvable in the store setup; the ones that are not are worth knowing before you start.

Price in the customer's currency, and mean it

Showing CAD to a Canadian shopper is table stakes. What matters more is that the price at checkout is the price they pay: no surprise conversion by their card issuer, no duty invoice from the courier a week later. Delivered-duty-paid pricing costs more to build but returns it in fewer abandoned carts and far fewer support tickets.

Duties, de minimis and the paperwork

Thresholds decide whether a parcel clears quietly or attracts fees, and they differ by direction, by the carrier and by what is in the box. What the store has to do is consistent: capture accurate product classification and country of origin per item, pass them to the carrier, and show the customer the total landed cost before they pay. Rules change — build the fields and the logic so a rate or threshold can be updated without a developer.

Carriers and the last mile

• Postal or courier. Postal is cheaper and slower with lighter customs handling; couriers are faster with brokerage fees attached. Most cross-border stores end up offering both and being explicit about the difference.
• Live rates at checkout, not flat guesses. Rates that reflect the destination and weight are the difference between margin and generosity.
• Tracking the customer can read. Cross-border parcels sit still at customs; a status that explains itself prevents most of the "where is my order" email.

Integrating a carrier properly is its own project. We have built that side of it: a Shopify app that books local, international and locker deliveries from the store admin, and the notes on what shipping apps must get right.

Returns are the part everyone underestimates

A return that crosses a border can cost more than the item. Decide the policy before launch: a local return address in each country, a consolidation partner, or a keep-it refund below a value threshold. Then publish it plainly on the product page. Nothing kills a first cross-border order like an unclear returns policy.

Tax registration and thresholds

Selling into Canada can create a sales tax registration obligation; selling into US states creates economic nexus once thresholds are crossed; selling into the UK or EU brings VAT rules of their own. This is accountant territory, not developer territory — but the store must be able to collect the right tax by destination and produce a report your accountant can file. Build for that from the start; retrofitting tax logic into a live store is miserable.

What the website itself should do

1. Detect the country, then let the customer change it. Never lock them in.
2. Show currency, delivery time and landed cost together on the product page, not only at checkout.
3. Offer the payment methods each market expects, and keep card 3-D Secure flows working for both.
4. Publish the returns and duties policy where the decision is made.
5. Keep it fast on mobile data — see Core Web Vitals for e-commerce.

Platform choice

Shopify handles multi-currency and multi-market with less custom work; WooCommerce gives more control if your pricing or tax rules are unusual. We build on both, and the trade-off is set out in Shopify or WooCommerce. For anything with real logic behind it — rules, quoting, routing — read WordPress or custom-built.

Planning a cross-border launch? Tell us which direction you are selling, and we will tell you what it takes — or see our e-commerce work.