Landed cost before resale price
The box price is only the first line of your cost. Sellers who price from the sticker get surprised at the border, at the platform fee statement, and at the post office. Sellers who price from the full stack know their profit before they order.
Five cost lines
- Box price — the JPY price on the list — the only line everyone remembers.
- International shipping — a per-box share that drops fast as your order grows. One box pays full freight; twenty split it.
- Import duty and VAT — charged by your country on arrival. Thresholds and rates differ by market — check yours before the first order.
- Platform and payment fees — your marketplace and payment provider take their cut of the sale price, not of your cost.
- Handling — packaging, label time, storage. Small per box, never zero.
Illustrative calculation
Say a box costs ¥6,000 and your share of freight on a 20-box order is ¥400. Duty and VAT add ¥900 on arrival, so it lands at ¥7,300. If it sells for the equivalent of ¥9,500 and your platform plus payment fees take ¥1,300 you keep ¥900 per box — before your packing time.
Run the same arithmetic with your real rates before every order. The point is not these numbers; it is that every line was known before the box was bought.
Common calculation errors
- Single-box freight — shipping one box at a time makes freight your biggest cost line.
- Duty amnesia — finding out about import charges when the parcel arrives — after the resale price was set.
- Comp-chasing — pricing off the lowest listing you can find instead of your own landed cost.
CHECK BEFORE ORDERING
Calculate landed cost per box before ordering, then add the margin required by your store.
PACKED ORDERS — EVERY BOX CARRIES THE SAME COST STACK