Landed Cost per Unit: A Complete Import Example

Landed cost is the cost of getting a sellable unit to the point where it is ready to fulfil—not just the supplier invoice. A useful per-unit figure combines goods, freight, duty, brokerage, port or handling charges and final delivery, then divides shared costs across the units that actually arrive.

Build one complete import cost stack

Keep supplier price separate from every shared shipment cost. If a charge applies to the whole shipment, add it once before dividing by received units. If a charge is already quoted per unit, do not add it again as a shipment total.

• Goods: supplier invoice for the commercial units.
• Freight: international transport and fuel/surcharges you actually pay.
• Duty: use the current classification and customs value applicable to the shipment.
• Brokerage and handling: broker, entry, terminal or other shipment-level charges.
• Domestic delivery: port/airport to your warehouse or 3PL.

Worked import example

Assume 1,000 units at $8.00 each. International freight is $1,450, duty is $520, brokerage and handling are $310, and domestic delivery is $420.

The supplier quote says $8.00. The planning cost entering pricing and contribution analysis is $10.70 in this example.

Stress-test quantity and freight before ordering

If only 950 sellable units arrive, the same $10,700 shipment cost becomes about $11.26 per received unit. If freight rises by $500, the 1,000-unit landed cost rises to $11.20. That is why purchase quantity, damage/shortage assumptions and freight are worth testing before a promotion or wholesale quote.

Decision rule

Do not approve a price, margin target or wholesale tier from supplier cost alone. Put the current landed cost into the Landed Cost Calculator, then carry that per-unit result into the product-margin model. Re-run the import case whenever freight, duty, exchange rate or received quantity changes materially.

Use your own numbers

Every worked number on this page is illustrative. Replace it with current data from your own statements, invoices, supplier quotes and operating history. Profit Per Order calculators keep assumptions editable so a content example never becomes a hidden business rule.

For a paid decision layer, inspect the public Profit Action Report sample before considering the one-time $19 report.

Make the denominator explicit

The base case allocates $10,700 across 1,000 sellable units. A downside case with 950 sellable units and $500 more freight allocates $11,200 across 950: $11.7895 per unit. Relative to $10.70, that is $1.0895 more product cost entering the next order model. Selling 500 comparable units without adjusting price would reduce modeled contribution by about $544.74, all other inputs unchanged.

The downloadable CSV separates ordered units, sellable units, each shipment-level charge and the resulting allocation. Damage may produce a supplier credit, insurance recovery or salvage receipt. The downside case assumes no recovery; record one separately when it is actually supported. Do not reduce the denominator for damaged units and also add their entire supplier cost again.

Allocate mixed shipments deliberately

An equal per-unit allocation is suitable only for the simplified identical-unit example. For mixed SKUs, choose a documented driver appropriate to the charge, such as freight volume, weight or goods value. The sum allocated across products must reconcile to the shipment total. Changing a driver can change SKU profitability without changing the total invoice.

The $520 duty line is an assumed invoice amount, not a quoted tariff or customs-classification decision. Likewise, the treatment of import tax depends on your actual accounting and recovery position. Keep cash required at import separate from the cost you carry into margin calculations, and obtain the appropriate classification or accounting advice rather than extrapolating this example into a tax rule.