Short answer
DDP (delivered duty paid) means the seller pays the import duties, taxes and customs fees before the parcel arrives, so the customer pays nothing at the door. DDU (delivered duty unpaid) means those charges are left for the customer, who pays the carrier on delivery or before release. In current trade rules DDU has been replaced by DAP (delivered at place), but online stores and carriers still use the old name.For a store shipping across borders, the choice shapes the customer's whole experience. With DDP, duties are estimated and collected at checkout, often through Shopify Markets or a cross-border app, and the price the customer saw is the price they pay. With DDU, the order looks fine until a carrier email asks for an unexpected fee before delivery.
That fee is where the tickets come from. A customer in Canada orders a jacket on order #1095 and gets a request to pay duties she did not expect. She writes in asking why, asks the store to pay it, or simply refuses the parcel. A refused parcel goes back to the store, often with return shipping charges, and the customer asks for a refund on top.
The common mistake is choosing DDU for the lower checkout price and not saying so clearly. The customer still pays the duties, just later and with a carrier handling fee added, and the store pays in support time and returned parcels.
DDP vs DDU for an online store
| Dimension | DDP | DDU (now DAP) |
|---|---|---|
| Who pays duties and taxes | the store, collected at checkout | the customer, at delivery |
| Price the customer sees | final | lower, with fees later |
| Delivery experience | parcel arrives with nothing to pay | carrier asks for payment first |
| Support risk | low, unless estimates are wrong | surprise fees, refused parcels, refund requests |
Aide checks where each order ships before it answers, so an international customer asking about duties gets the store's policy for their country rather than the domestic one. The store's international shipping articles live in its knowledge, and a procedure can be limited to orders by destination country to add steps or hand certain cases to the team. See how Aide handles international orders.