The True Cost of Buying from the USA: Product, Shipping, Duty and VAT

The price in an American online shop is only the start. Before the thing reaches your door it picks up a local tax, a warehouse fee, the trip across the ocean, customs duty and VAT. With expensive electronics the sum can still come out well. With a cheap T-shirt it almost never does. I worked through three examples line by line, so you can see exactly where the money goes.

What the price of a US purchase is made of

The final price of something bought in the USA has six parts: the goods, US sales tax, the forwarder’s fees, international shipping, customs duty and VAT. The first four you pay in dollars while the parcel is still in America, the last two on import into the EU.

• Sales tax. A tax charged by the US state the shop delivers to. Shipito’s California warehouse is taxed, and the examples use 9.5%. The Oregon warehouse is tax-free but open to Premium accounts only.
• Shipito fees. Processing of each parcel received is $3.25, consolidation $5.50 per parcel (free account).
• Shipping. Depends on weight, dimensions and speed.
• Customs duty. Up to €150 of goods value, expect €3 per item from 1 July 2026. Above €150, duty is a percentage set by the product type.
• VAT at 21% (your country’s rate will be between 17% and 27%). It is calculated on goods, shipping and duty together, from the first euro.

The rules are covered in detail in the guide to customs and VAT from the USA, and the July 2026 change in the article on the end of the €150 duty exemption.

Assumptions behind the numbers

All three examples assume a free Shipito account, the California warehouse, VAT at 21% and the exchange rate of 8 October 2026: $1 = €0.894. Shipping prices come from our overview of shipping costs from the USA to Europe, Shipito’s fees from its price list as verified on 9 October 2026.

The base for duty and VAT is the amount paid to the shop, sales tax included, plus shipping. That is the cautious option. I would rather the result came out a little high than a little low. The fee your carrier charges for customs clearance is not included, because it differs from one carrier to the next. Add it from your own carrier’s tariff.

Example 1: a $25 T-shirt

A $25 T-shirt sent by tracked post lands at about €49, which is 2.2 times the price of the goods. It is a half-kilo parcel with one item, far below the €150 mark.

The T-shirt itself converts to €22.35. More than half the final price is everything around it. One cheap item simply does not pay this way. Unless it is something you cannot get anywhere else, and then price is not the point.

Example 2: a $700 phone

A $700 phone sent by courier comes to about €878, or 40% on top of the price of the goods. Electronics mostly carry zero duty, so the main extra is VAT.

And here Premium starts to make sense. With it the parcel goes to Oregon with no sales tax, and processing costs $2.25. Even after adding $10 for a month of membership, the same phone comes to about €814, roughly €64 less. Whether that beats the price in your local shops depends on the model. It also depends on how much you mind that a US warranty mostly does not apply in Europe.

Example 3: three parcels of clothing for $400

Clothing worth $400 from three shops, consolidated into one 5 kg shipment, comes to about €640, or 79% on top of the price of the goods. The value is above €150, so percentage duty applies, and for clothing I use 12%.

Clothing is the worst of the three categories, because duty and VAT stack up. The gap between the American and the European price has to be really wide for anything to be left after this sum. Consolidation did help, though: three separate parcels would have cost several times more in shipping.

When buying from the USA pays off

Buying from the USA pays off mainly for pricier electronics with zero duty and for goods that are not sold in Europe. The examples show it well: the more expensive and the smaller the item, the smaller the share eaten by the fees around it.

• Cheap goods under $50: fees and shipping double the price. Only if you cannot find it elsewhere.
• Electronics: expect around 40% on top, a little less with a Premium account.
• Clothing and shoes above €150: the mark-up gets close to 80%.

You can run your own combination through the customs calculator. How Shipito works and what each service costs is in the Shipito review and pricing. If you are choosing between several services, see the comparison of forwarding services, and there are shop tips in the guide to buying from US stores beyond Amazon.