Estimate your total procurement budget including freight, import duty, and a safety buffer before you place an order.
Buffer covers unexpected charges: port fees, currency fluctuation, extra samples, etc.
Enter product cost and quantity
Input the unit price from your supplier and the order quantity to get total FOB cost.
Add freight estimate
Enter your estimated sea or air freight cost. If you don't know it yet, check with a freight forwarder or use a rough estimate (sea freight: $1–3/kg, air: $4–8/kg).
Include import duty rate
Enter the applicable duty rate for your product and country. The tool calculates duty on the CIF value (product + freight + insurance).
Set your buffer percentage
Add a 10–15% contingency buffer for unexpected costs: currency fluctuation, detention fees, customs re-labeling, or last-minute charges.
Many first-time importers underestimate their total procurement cost by 20–40% because they only factor in the FOB price. A proper budget includes freight, insurance, import duty, VAT at import, destination charges, warehousing, and a contingency buffer.
A 10–15% contingency buffer is standard for import procurement. It covers currency fluctuations (especially USD/CNY), unexpected customs delays, re-examination fees, fumigation if required, and small discrepancies in freight invoices.
It depends on your VAT status. If you are VAT-registered in the UK or EU, you can reclaim import VAT — so it is a cash flow item rather than a permanent cost. If you are not VAT-registered (common for small sellers), import VAT is a real cost you need to budget for.
Common ways: negotiate factory prices by increasing MOQ, consolidate shipments to reduce per-unit freight, use sea freight instead of air, time orders to avoid peak season surcharges (pre-Christmas), and request EXW pricing to arrange your own freight at better rates.