Dropshipping UK to USA: Should a British Seller Sell to America?

Dropshipping UK to USA works in two ways. You can ship British stock across the Atlantic, which now means a US customs entry and a duty assessment on every parcel. Or you can run the store from the UK and use US suppliers who deliver inside America. For high-ticket products I would only build the second.

Customs and tax rules below come from US and UK government pages and provider price lists, checked on 1 October 2026 and linked. US tariff policy changed several times in the past year, so check the dates on anything you read about it, this article included.

My own position, so you know where the advice comes from: what I teach is to find suppliers inside the country you are selling to, so that you do not need to import anything. The rest of this article explains why that matters more for the US than for anywhere else right now.

Can you dropship from the UK to customers in the USA?

Yes. Nothing stops a UK business selling to American customers, but the route you choose decides how much customs and tax work you take on.

There are three options a UK seller is really choosing between:

The rest of the article takes the two American routes in turn.

What does shipping from the UK to US customers involve now?

Every parcel needs a US customs entry and is assessed for duty, because the United States no longer lets low-value imports in duty free, and most high-ticket orders are large enough to need a formal entry.

Here is what the official pages say.

The $800 exemption has gone. Imports valued at $800 or less used to enter the US duty free under the "de minimis" rule. That treatment was suspended for all countries from 29 August 2025. US Customs and Border Protection's e-commerce FAQ (last modified 2 September 2026) confirms the suspension covers all modes of arrival, including post. A Federal Register notice of 24 June 2026 made the suspension indefinite and records that Congress has repealed the exemption in law from 1 July 2027.

High-ticket goods were mostly above $800 anyway. The line that matters more for you is $2,500. The same CBP FAQ says informal entry is generally allowed for shipments valued at $2,500 or less, and formal entry is required above that. It also says entry can only be made by the owner or purchaser of the goods, or a licensed customs broker acting for them, and that where a customs bond is used it must be on file beforehand. So a $3,000 sauna shipped from Britain needs a formal customs entry, made by the importer or a licensed broker, for a single order.

The duty rate is a moving target. Duty depends on the product's tariff classification, which the US government's trade site explains on its HS codes page. On top of the normal rate, the additional tariffs changed more than once in 2026. One customs broker's running summary records that one set of tariffs stopped being collected on 24 February 2026, and a 10% replacement ran from that date until 24 July 2026. I am not printing a rate for saunas or e-bikes here, because I could not verify one that will still be right when you read this. Get the rate for your exact product from a customs broker on the day you set your price.

The UK side is simpler. You do not normally charge UK VAT on goods exported from Great Britain. HMRC's exports guidance lets you zero rate the sale as long as you get evidence of export within three months of the sale and keep it. You may also need an EORI number to move goods out of Great Britain.

Card fees go up. If you take payment through a UK account, an American card is an international card. Stripe's UK price list charges 1.5% + 20p for a standard UK card, and 3.15% + 20p for an international card plus 2% if currency conversion is needed.

What does that do to the margin on one order?

A hypothetical example. Say you sell a product for the equivalent of £2,000 with a £500 margin. Assume, purely for the arithmetic, that US duty and tariffs come to 10% of the full £2,000. That figure is an assumption and not a quoted rate.

The card fee is 3.15% of £2,000, which is £63, plus 20p, plus 2% conversion at £40. The table leaves out transatlantic freight and the broker's fee, because I have no verified figures for either. Both make the right-hand column worse. If the seller is to carry the duty so the customer is not handed a bill at the door, which is what "delivered duty paid" means, all of it comes out of your side.

Returns are the other problem. A customer who changes their mind about a bulky product has to send it back across an ocean, and somebody pays for that.

This is why my rule for overseas supply has two parts. An overseas supplier is acceptable only if it can send single units straight to the customer. And if moving the goods between countries complicates fulfilment or adds significant cost, look for another supplier. Shipping large UK stock to American doorsteps fails the second test today.

How does selling to the USA through US suppliers work?

You run the store and the marketing from the UK, and an American brand or distributor delivers the order from its own warehouse to the American customer.

Nothing crosses a border on a customer order. Customs entry, duty and the transatlantic return all drop out of the table above. The model is the one I teach for the UK, moved to another country: the customer pays your store first at the retail price, then you pay the supplier, and the supplier dispatches direct.

Finding the suppliers uses the same method as well, with one adjustment:

1. Set your Google location to the USA, or use a VPN. Many visible brands sell internationally. The smaller brands that are specific to one country only show up when you search from inside it.

2. Search the product term, open the retailers already selling it and note every brand they stock.

3. Search each brand name with "distributor", "supplier" or "manufacturer" to find the original source.

4. Make first contact by phone and ask for the person who handles new trade accounts.

Step four is where the time difference bites. For most of the year, the UK is five hours ahead of the US east coast and eight ahead of the west coast. Calls to American suppliers happen in your afternoon and evening.

If you already have a domestic UK store, the process is the same one you have run before. If you do not, I would build the first store where you live. UK suppliers are best when you are starting out, because you cut out paperwork and tax complexity while you learn the rest. Our guide to high-ticket dropshipping suppliers in the USA covers the American supplier side in more detail.

What US tax and legal admin does a UK seller take on?

State sales tax above certain sales thresholds, a federal rule on shipping times, and possibly a US tax number. None of it depends on where the goods ship from.

Sales tax is set by each state. There is no national sales tax. A seller with no physical presence must register in a state once its sales there pass that state's threshold. The Streamlined Sales Tax state guidance lists $100,000 as the most common figure. California and Texas use $500,000; New York uses $500,000 plus more than 100 sales. Texas, for example, exempts remote sellers with under $500,000 of Texas sales in the preceding twelve months. At $2,500 an order, $100,000 is 40 orders into a single state.

Shopify tracks it but does not file it. Shopify's tax liability page flags a state when your sales reach 80% of its threshold. It also states that registering with the state and remitting the tax are your responsibility.

A US tax number is free. If a supplier or a state registration asks you for an Employer Identification Number, the IRS does not charge for one. A business with its principal place of business outside the US cannot use the online tool and applies by phone, fax or mail using Form SS-4. Ask each supplier what paperwork it needs from a UK company before you assume you need a US entity.

Shipping promises are regulated. The FTC's Mail, Internet or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule requires you to have a reasonable basis for any delivery time you state, or to ship within 30 days if you state none. If you cannot, you must notify the customer and offer a refund.

There is no federal 14-day cancellation right for online orders. The FTC's Cooling-Off Rule does not cover sales made entirely online. Your written returns policy does the work that statute does in the UK, so write it around what your US supplier will actually accept.

Take the sales tax and entity questions to an adviser who handles US sales tax. I am not one.

Which should you pick?

Stay UK-only for a first store, use US suppliers when you expand, and treat shipping from the UK as a narrow case.

• Stay UK-only if you have not yet signed suppliers and taken orders in one country. One set of rules is enough to learn on.

• Sell to the USA through US suppliers if you have a process that works and want a second market. You repeat the supplier work with American brands, and you add sales tax tracking and evening calls.

• Ship from the UK only if the product is unique to a British maker, small enough to send by courier, and carries enough margin to absorb duty, a broker and the occasional transatlantic return. Get a price for each of those before you list it.

The size of the American market is not the deciding factor. Capital and time are. You need enough money to set up properly in a second country and enough hours to do supplier calls in the evening. If either is short, the US can wait.

Related reading

• UK Legal & Tax

• a closer look at dropshipping training

• the high-ticket ecommerce model

• dropshipping accountant

• Payment Processor for High-Ticket Dropshipping: Fees and Reserves

Frequently asked questions

Do UK sellers pay US import duty when shipping to American customers?

Every parcel is now assessed for duty. The US suspended its $800 duty-free exemption for all countries from 29 August 2025, and shipments valued above $2,500 need a formal customs entry. Either the customer is billed on arrival or the seller pays in advance and builds it into the price.

Do I charge UK VAT on sales to customers in the USA?

Not normally on goods exported from Great Britain. HMRC lets you zero rate exports provided you obtain evidence that the goods left the UK within three months of the sale and keep that evidence. If the goods ship from a US supplier and never enter the UK, ask your accountant how the sale should be treated.

Do I need a US company to sell to American customers?

This article cannot give you a yes or no. A UK business can obtain a free US tax number from the IRS by phone, fax or mail, and US states require registration for sales tax once you pass their thresholds. Whether you also need a US entity depends on your suppliers and your tax position, so ask a US sales tax adviser.

If you want to see how the high-ticket model works before deciding between the UK and the USA, Dropship Circle runs free training that walks through supplier research, the store build and fulfilment in plain terms. Training is priced by tier and mentoring is scoped individually.

See how we actually run it in the free training →