🎯 In 30 seconds: An export price is your domestic price plus every cost between your door and the handover point in your Incoterm. Build it as a ladder, one line per cost, then estimate what the buyer will pay on top (duty, taxes, local delivery). That last number, the landed cost, is what decides whether they buy.
Start from the right base
trade.gov describes two starting points. Cost-plus takes your domestic cost and adds everything else, which is simple but can price you out of the market. Marginal cost pricing treats your direct out-of-pocket cost as a floor and prices to the market above it. Most small exporters start cost-plus, then check the result against what the buyer can already get locally.
Leave out costs that do nothing for the export sale (your US advertising, for instance), and leave in the ones that do (special packaging, labels in another language, forwarder fees).
The quote ladder
- Product cost per unit, times quantity.
- Your margin. Decide it before freight, so freight never eats it.
- Export packing: cartons, pallets, wrapping, marks and labels.
- Inland freight from your door to the port, airport or forwarder.
- Forwarder and documentation fees, including AES filing if they do it.
- Terminal or port handling at origin.
- Main freight (only if your Incoterm says you pay it).
- Cargo insurance (required under CIP and CIF, optional otherwise).
- Payment costs: letter of credit fees, wire fees, or credit insurance premium.
Each step up the ladder matches an Incoterm. Stop after step 6 and you have an FCA or FOB price. Add steps 7 and 8 and you have CIP or CIF.
Worked example: a pro forma invoice
A buyer in Melbourne asks for 200 insulated bottles. All figures are made up for illustration; your forwarder gives you the real freight numbers. Your cost is $30 a unit and you want $15 a unit gross margin.
| Line | Detail | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Goods | 200 units at $45.00 (HS 9617.00) | $9,000 |
| Export packing | 2 pallets, wrap, labels | $250 |
| Inland freight | Truck to forwarder, Los Angeles | $650 |
| Forwarder and documents | Booking, AES filing, certificate | $300 |
| Origin terminal handling | Port charges | $200 |
| Subtotal | FCA Los Angeles, Incoterms® 2020 | $10,400 |
| Ocean freight | Shared container to Melbourne | $1,800 |
| Cargo insurance | Clauses A cover | $70 |
| Total | CIP Melbourne, Incoterms® 2020 | $12,270 |
Also on the page: your name and address, the buyer’s name, address and reference number, unit and total weights and dimensions, payment terms (for example, “30% deposit, 70% before shipment”), estimated ship date, and a valid until date. trade.gov notes the buyer may need this document to apply for an import license or open a letter of credit, so do not change it later without their consent.
The buyer’s landed cost
Your buyer adds their side: import duty, any sales or value-added tax, destination port charges, customs broker fee, and delivery to their warehouse. Many countries calculate duty on the CIF value (goods plus freight plus insurance), not just your product price.
Continuing the example with made-up rates: a 5% duty on $12,270 is $613.50, destination charges and broker $350, local delivery $400. Landed cost before local tax is about $13,634, or $68.17 a bottle. If a similar bottle sells wholesale in Australia for $60, your price needs work, whatever your margin says.
Look up the real duty with the free Customs Info Database or the FTA Tariff Tool on trade.gov (see the classification and trade agreements pages).
Habits that protect your margin
- Get two forwarder quotes for every new lane.
- Put a validity date on every quote (freight rates move).
- Price samples and small first orders separately; per-unit freight is much higher on tiny shipments.
- Keep a spreadsheet of each line above, per country, so the second quote takes ten minutes. Your budget tools work for this.