Many sellers and exporters to EU countries might be unaware of the recently introduced changes in EU regulations and how they will impact their sales and exports.
As you know, it is important to pay the duties and other charges when you ship products internationally. Many sellers depend on the popular shipping carrier DHL because of its fast and on-time delivery.
DHL is concerned about their customers and they are already prepared to comply with all the regulations introduced by European Union countries including Norway and Switzerland. But, as a seller, you need to prepare a number of things and pass it to DHL for ensuring smooth and barrier free shipments to EU countries.
Importance of Complying EU Regulations in your shipping
It is necessary and critically mandatory to obey and fulfill all requirements demanded by the EU government to ship products to EU countries. Also, you have to comply with the rules for shipping products from EU countries to the UK and vice versa for smooth shipping legally.
Obeying these new regulations will help you to:
- Screen the products securely and safely.
- Reduce clearance and transit time.
- Assess the taxes, duties, and other fees accurately.
- Reduce the risks of penalties and fines.
Moreover, following all regulations while exporting products to EU countries will make your overall export process smooth and safe.
If you are worried about how to generate the documents demanded by the EU regulations, here is the solution!
ELEX WooCommerce DHL Express / eCommerce / Paket Shipping Plugin
As you know, ELEX WooCommerce DHL Express / eCommerce / Paket Shipping Plugin helps to ship your products domestically and internationally. You can easily generate packages, create shipments, print labels, and get commercial invoices with this plugin. [To know more about the plugin and its specifications, refer to its documentation.]
If you are using this plugin, you do not need to be concerned about the EU regulations and mandatory documents required for smooth customs clearance. Since this plugin is up-to-date with its features, it contains all specifications to generate information and documents required by the EU government.
In this article, let us check how the ELEX WooCommerce DHL Plugin complies with all the latest regulations to make your shipment hassle free.
What are the recent changes in EU regulations, and how does the ELEX DHL plugin help to comply with them?
There are 3 major changes in the EU regulations based on Brexit, ICS2 and VAT de Minimis.
They are:
| Changes in EU Regulation | What information does the ELEX DHL plugin need from you? |
| Brexit: All imports and exports between the UK and EU countries require Customs Declaration. |
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| ICS2: All data must be submitted to the EU customs department even before the packages load into flight. |
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| VAT de Minimis removal: Shipping of any goods to EU countries requires custom clearance. |
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Let us check how the ELEX DHL plugin collects these data from you for the seamless customs clearance process.
How does ELEX WooCommerce DHL Plugin take mandatory information from you?
Changes in Brexit: All imports and exports between the UK and EU countries require Customs Declaration
Check how the plugin collects each data from your side for complying with this change.
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Address and contact details of shipper, exporter, receiver, and importer:
The address of the shipper or exporter can be entered in the plugin dashboard.
The address of the receiver and importer will be taken from the checkout page when they place the order.
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Price of goods, freight value, and insurance value
The price of goods, freight value, and insurance value will be fetched from your store when the order is placed by the customers.
If you enable the insurance option in the General settings tab, the insurance amount will be added to the cart subtotal of the customer. If you enable DHL Insurance Checkout Field, customers will get an option to enable the insurance on their packages in the Checkout page.
For letting the insurance and freight cost be present on the commercial invoice, you can enable it under the Commercial Invoice settings.
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Goods Description, country of origin & weight of the items
Once you have enabled the plugin in your store, you can add the Goods Description on the product page dashboard. You can also add the country of origin, HS Code, and the weight of the product in the same tab. The number of items (quantity) will be fetched at the time when the customer places the order.
Go to the product page dashboard > Product data meta box > Shipping > Waybill goods description.
Enter the description, HS tariff number, and country of manufacture in the respective fields. The plugin will automatically fetch the details while creating the shipment and will add it to the commercial invoice.
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EORI and VAT Number
There is an option under the General Settings tab to enable 2 fields for customers to enter the EORI (Economic Operators Registration and Identification) number and VAT number from the customer’s side. These details will be added to the commercial invoice of the order.
After these configurations, customers can add their EORI and VAT number in the respective fields on the Checkout page.
Sellers or exporters can enter their EORI and VAT numbers under the Commercial Invoice settings.
Change in ICS2: All data must be submitted to the EU customs department even before the packages load into flight
As mentioned above, the plugin fetches all mandatory data including the Goods Description from shop owners and customers for passing it to DHL, and updates it to the commercial invoice or proforma invoice for seamless customs clearance. The generated commercial invoice can be submitted to customs even before you load the packages into the flight.
Removal of VAT de Minimis: Shipping of any goods to EU countries requires custom clearance
As discussed above, the plugin will fetch all important details needed to generate an accurate commercial invoice. All details mentioned in the previous two regulations are required in this as well.
In addition to that, you need to add the Type of Export (Permanent, Temporary, or Re-Export) and the Reason for Export in your commercial invoice.
You can add this information when you configure the commercial invoice settings in this plugin.
Prepares the Commercial Invoice for you
With all the mandatory information fetched from your side, the plugin will generate the commercial invoice of orders. You can use any two options in this plugin to generate the invoice such as Classic Invoice Generator or DHL Invoice Generator. The Classic Invoice Generator uses FPDF (Free PDF) libraries to generate commercial invoices without using DHL API. The DHL Invoice Generator uses DHL API to print commercial or proforma invoices.
After choosing the invoice type, you can enter the mandatory details that must be included on the commercial invoice. You can enter the quantity unit, language, exporter ID, Exporter Code, Type of Export (Permanent, Temporary, or Re-Export), Reason for Export, your EORI, and VAT number. Also, you can include the freight cost, insurance cost, and VAT number on the invoice.
Example of a commercial invoice:
Other important features required for shipping packages to EU countries
Paperless Trade Option
As per EU regulations, you need to submit the precise commercial invoice even before the packages are loaded into the flight. And, for customs clearance, they prefer it to be transmitted electronically than submitting the commercial invoice or proforma in papers. In this plugin, you can check the option ‘Enable PaperLess Trade (PLT)’ under the Label & Tracking tab. To use this service, your DHL account must be integrated with PLT services.
Duty Payment
You can decide who will be responsible for paying the duties and taxes while exporting the products to the EU countries. You can select the shipper, receiver, or a third party for paying the duties. If you choose a shipper, the DDP (Delivery Duty Paid) will be automatically applied as Terms of Trade.
This is how ELEX WooCommerce DHL Plugin helps you to comply with EU regulations to make all your shipments legally authorized.
Further Reading:
- How to identify Prohibited and Counterfeit goods to avoid shipping hassles with DHL?
- DHL Locations & Services: How to find DHL locations near you?
- Does DHL Deliver on Weekends?
