Quick Answer
On August 29, 2025, the U.S. removed its de minimis exemption, which had previously allowed Shopify merchants to ship orders under $800 to American customers without paying import duties. Now, every shipment may be hit with a tariff, creating costs that can quickly get out of control. The best way to handle this change is to use an app like Magical Fees that automatically adds tariff recovery fees at checkout for U.S. customers, so you can be transparent about passing on these costs without having to raise base prices for everyone.
De Minimis Exemption: What Happened?
On August 29, 2025, the United States suspended its duty-free “de minimis” threshold of $800 USD for all countries. That means goods shipped into the U.S. (even those priced below $800) are no longer exempt from import duties.
For Shopify merchants around the world who sell to U.S. customers, this change could mean a sharp increase in import duty fees across a big chunk of your orders. Most shipments are now subject to tariffs ranging from 10% to 15%. Some product categories are even higher!
Tariff rates vary by product type and origin, and they’ve changed frequently over the last year. If you need more info about what tariffs are for certain product categories, I found this resource to be the simplest to use:
Check your product’s U.S. duty rate.
What This Means for Shopify Merchants
Even low-priced items now require customs declarations, which means almost all shipments to the US will trigger a duty fee.
Unless you pass this on to your customers, you will have to absorb these costs.
Passing these costs on isn’t easy either. Unexpected duties can frustrate U.S. customers who thought shipping was simple.
I’ve spoken to hundreds of Shopify merchants since these tariff changes came into play, and I know how tough it is. On one hand, you don’t want to absorb the cost. But on the other, you don’t want to raise all your prices to cover them, especially if you have customers outside the US.
It sucks, and many merchants have told me they’re just hoping these new rules get rolled back. It feels unfair.
The best way to approach this delicate situation is to pass those fees on to customers in a clear, transparent way. That’s what I’ll walk through next.
How to Recover Tariff Fees in Shopify
So here’s the thing…you definitely don’t want to raise your prices across all products. This is not good for pricing perception, and it passes on fees to customers outside of the US, too.
The best way to recover tariff fees in Shopify is to display fees separately with a transparent description that explains why they’re being charged.
Shopify doesn’t have a native way to charge fees separately like this, but you can use an app like Magical Fees.
Magical Fees lets you create multiple percentage-based tariff fees that you can apply to specific products or entire orders. You can also set it so it only targets US customers.
Here’s why so many merchants use Magical Fees:
- It allows you to display the fee separately from the product with a brief description of why the fee is being charged.
- It allows you to set a condition so that it only applies to customers in the US.
- It gives you flexibility so you can choose to apply the fee to specific products, collections, or simply the entire order
- Backed by a team of friendly agents who’ve set up the app for many merchants
This keeps your margins intact and sets expectations with customers.
Tariffs are tough to deal with, but there are ways to work around them. Being upfront with your customers with transparent fees is the best way to pass on costs to customers without scaring them away with higher prices.
Key Takeaway
Tariffs are now part of the cost of doing business in the U.S. market. But with the right setup, you can protect your margins and stay transparent with your customers so there are no surprises and no inflated prices.
Magical Product Fees
The Magical Product Fees app is a fast and easy way to build, customize, and attach fees to products or entire orders.