Landed Cost & Margin for Importers
Tariffs and marketplace fees quietly eat reseller profit. If your pricing ignores duty and fees, a healthy-looking markup can hide a loss. Here's how to price around them.
Landed cost = product cost + freight + duty (your product's tariff rate × its customs value) + CBP fees (Merchandise Processing Fee 0.3464% + Harbor Maintenance Fee 0.125% ≈ 0.47%). Net profit = selling price − landed cost − marketplace/payment fees − other per-unit costs. Margin is profit ÷ price; markup is profit ÷ cost; ROI is profit ÷ landed cost.
What landed cost really includes
Landed cost is what one unit costs you delivered and cleared: the supplier price, international freight and insurance, the import duty (your product's tariff rate applied to its customs value), and CBP fees — the Merchandise Processing Fee (0.3464% of goods value) and, for ocean shipments, the Harbor Maintenance Fee (0.125%).
Duty and the CBP fees are charged on the goods' customs value, not on freight or insurance when those are stated separately. Find your product's duty rate from its HTS code at hts.usitc.gov.
Margin vs markup vs ROI
Margin is profit as a percentage of your selling price; markup is profit as a percentage of your cost; ROI is profit against the cash tied up in inventory. A 50% markup is only a 33% margin, so mixing them up is a fast way to underprice.
Your break-even price isn't simply your cost, because marketplace fees are a percentage of price — the higher your price, the higher the fee. Solve for the price where profit is exactly zero before setting a target margin above it.
Try Free Web Tools Mentioned in This Guide
Seller Margin & Tariff Calculator
Turn supplier cost + tariff + fees into your true landed cost and net margin.
Markup vs Margin Calculator
Stop confusing markup and margin — see both, side by side, from any two values.
Sales Tax / VAT Calculator
Add tax to a price, or remove tax from a tax-inclusive total.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I find my product's tariff rate?↓
Look up its HTS code at hts.usitc.gov; the rate shown is the duty percentage. A licensed customs broker can confirm the classification if you're unsure.
What are MPF and HMF?↓
US Customs fees: the Merchandise Processing Fee (0.3464% of goods value) and the Harbor Maintenance Fee (0.125%, ocean shipments only) — roughly 0.47% combined.
Is margin the same as markup?↓
No. Margin is profit ÷ selling price; markup is profit ÷ cost. The same profit shows a larger markup number than margin number.