No more checkout surprises. If you're shopping from the United Kingdom or European Union, the only additional cost you pay at checkout is shipping.
We’ve adjusted our local prices to account for VAT, duties and import fees, and we now pay those charges on your behalf. We’re also applying an automatic 5% Tax/Duty Offset at checkout to help reduce the impact of these additional costs.
New Zealand prices continue to include local GST, with duties only applicable on orders above NZ$1,000.
We've also overhauled our international shipping options so your order gets to you faster, with fewer hold-ups, and without any nasty fees landing on your doorstep.
Here's what's changed, why we've done it, and what it means for you.
The price you see is the price you pay
Until recently, Australia was the only country where we showed tax-inclusive prices. If you were browsing from the UK, the EU, or New Zealand, the prices you saw were actually our Australian prices less 10% Australian GST, converted to your currency. In other words, you were looking at genuinely lower prices — but because taxes and duties weren't shown until checkout, it never felt that way. Instead, you'd get to checkout and suddenly see shipping + tax + duties stacked on top. Sticker shock, plain and simple.
We've fixed that. Prices for customers in the United Kingdom and European Union have now been adjusted to account for local VAT, applicable import duties and related import fees. Platatac pays those charges on your behalf, and an automatic 5% Tax/Duty Offset is applied at checkout to help reduce the impact of these additional costs. New Zealand prices include local GST.
What does that mean for you?
- No surprises at checkout. UK and EU customers receive an automatic 5% Tax/Duty Offset, and the only additional cost is shipping. *For New Zealand orders above NZ$1,000, any applicable duties to be paid by you will be shown at checkout.
- Nothing to pay on delivery. Applicable VAT, duties and import fees for UK and EU orders are paid by Platatac before your order arrives.
- A simpler international checkout. You know the cost of your order before it leaves Australia, without an unexpected customs bill or carrier fee on delivery.
For our friends in the United States, prices work a little differently because the US doesn't have a national sales tax built into retail prices. Your checkout will clearly show any applicable duties and the current 12.5% US tariff (which recently replaced the previous 10% rate) before you complete your purchase, all paid up front, so your order clears customs without delays or surprises.
First, a quick primer: DDP vs DDU
You'll see the term DDP a few times below, so here's what it means and why it matters to you.
- DDP — Delivered Duty Paid. Applicable taxes, duties and import charges are settled before your order ships, so your parcel can clear customs with nothing further to pay on delivery. Depending on the destination, these charges may be paid by Platatac or collected from you at checkout. This is now how we ship.
- DDU — Delivered Duty Unpaid (sometimes called DAP - Delivered at Place). You pay for the goods and shipping at checkout, but taxes and duties are collected after your order arrives in your country, usually by the postal carrier, who adds their own customs handling fee (typically £10–18 / €10–15) on top. Your parcel sits in customs until you've paid, and you often don't know the final cost until there's a card in your letterbox.
DDU is where the sticker shock, the delays, and the surprise fees come from. So we've moved away from it entirely wherever we can.
Why we've changed our shipping options
The world of international ecommerce has changed dramatically over the past couple of years. The old days of orders slipping through customs without taxes or duties being collected are well and truly over, every country has cracked down. The US now requires duties to be prepaid before an order even leaves Australia. Several EU countries and New Zealand have introduced low-value import fees and customs handling charges. And postal carriers simply don't have the systems to keep up.
It's become so complex that many small and medium brands in Australia have stopped shipping internationally altogether. We're not doing that, but we have made some changes so that your orders keep arriving quickly and predictably.
The big one: we've removed the Australia Post option where duties and taxes are paid on delivery.
It sounds convenient, but in practice it was the worst option on the table. Customers choosing it were being hit with customs handling fees of around £10–18 / €10–15 on arrival, orders were held up in customs for days or weeks, and some customers, shocked by the unexpected bill, rejected their orders entirely. Nobody wins in that scenario.
Everything is now prepaid. Whether you ship with Australia Post International or DHL Express, applicable import charges are settled before dispatch and your order travels Delivered Duty Paid (DDP). For UK and EU customers, Platatac pays the applicable VAT, duties and import fees. For other destinations, applicable charges may be collected at checkout. Either way, there should be nothing further to pay when your order arrives.
Here's the change at a glance:
Old shipping options
- Australia Post Int'l Standard — Duties & Taxes Paid on Delivery (DDU)
- Australia Post Int'l Standard — Duties & Taxes Included (DDP)
- Australia Post Int'l Express — Duties & Taxes Paid on Delivery (DDU)
- Australia Post Int'l Express — Duties & Taxes Included (DDP)
- DHL Express (DDP)
New shipping options*
- Australia Post Int'l Standard — Duties & Taxes Included (DDP)
- Australia Post Int'l Express — Duties & Taxes Included (DDP)
- DHL Express (DDP)
*Orders above your country's threshold (see below), all orders to Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Portugal, and US orders over US$2,500 ship via DHL Express only.
And where postal services can't keep up, we've moved to DHL Express.
Postal delivery in some countries has become less and less reliable, for example in the US. Commercial carriers like DHL are consistently faster and more dependable: your order isn't held up in customs, it's trackable door to door, and because everything is prepaid, you won't pay any more on arrival. Even where DHL costs a little more up front, it's the better deal once you factor in the handling fees and delays the postal route was causing.
What this looks like for your country
Shipping options by destination
| Destination | Australia Post | DHL Express |
|---|---|---|
| Australia | ✔ | ✔ |
| United States | ✔ (up to US$2,500) | ✔ |
| United Kingdom | ✔ (under £135) | ✔ |
| European Union | ✔ (under €150*) | ✔ |
| New Zealand | ✔ (under NZ$1,000) | ✔ |
| Canada | ✔ | ✔ |
| Rest of World | Varies | ✔ |
*See EU exceptions below.
For all the named destinations above, available services ship DDP, meaning applicable duties and taxes are settled before dispatch and there is nothing further to pay on delivery. Rest of World arrangements vary by destination (see below).
The detail, country by country
United Kingdom — Product prices have been adjusted to account for UK VAT, applicable import duties and related import fees. An automatic 5% Tax/Duty Offset is applied at checkout, and Platatac pays the applicable VAT, duties and import fees on your behalf. Orders under £135 can choose between eligible Australia Post International services and DHL Express. Orders over £135 ship via DHL Express. After the Tax/Duty Offset, the only additional cost you pay is shipping, with nothing further payable on delivery.
European Union — Product prices have been adjusted to account for applicable local VAT, import duties and related import fees. An automatic 5% Tax/Duty Offset is applied at checkout, and Platatac pays the applicable VAT, duties and import fees on your behalf. Orders under €150 in most EU countries can choose between eligible Australia Post International services and DHL Express. Orders over €150 ship via DHL Express. After the Tax/Duty Offset, the only additional cost you pay is shipping, with nothing further payable on delivery. Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Portugal ship via DHL Express regardless of order value because of country-specific import and handling requirements.
New Zealand — Prices include NZ GST. Orders under NZ$1,000: choose between Australia Post International and DHL Express. Orders over NZ$1,000: DHL Express, fully prepaid. Any applicable duties will be shown at checkout on orders over NZ$1,000.
United States — All orders attract applicable duties and the current 12.5% tariff, shown clearly at checkout and paid up front. Orders up to US$2,500 can ship via Australia Post International or DHL Express, both DDP. Orders over US$2,500 ship via DHL Express only.
Canada — All orders ship DDP via Australia Post International or DHL Express, with duties and taxes collected at checkout and paid to the Canada Border Services Agency on your behalf.
Rest of the world — Options vary by destination. Where DHL Express is available, duties and taxes can be prepaid at checkout. Where only standard postal shipping is available, any import charges remain payable in your country before delivery.
The bottom line
We ship all over the world, and we intend to keep it that way. These changes are about one thing: making international ordering clearer and more predictable. For UK and EU customers, we now pay the applicable VAT, duties and import fees, while the automatic 5% Tax/Duty Offset helps reduce the impact of those costs. Your order arrives without customs delays or anyone knocking on your door asking for more money.
— The Platatac Team
