UPS International Shipping Made Easy for Shopify India Merchants

The new-age Indian eCommerce Merchants are not holding themselves back from trading internationally because International trade instantly opens up a wide world of opportunities for growth. While it is not as easy as doing business domestically, it is not impossible if you are equipped with the right tools and information.

Getting international orders is one step towards growth in an eCommerce business, however, the end result depends on how well and how fast you are able to fulfill the orders. In this article, we aim at helping Shopify India merchants with the right information to ship their products internationally without any delays or roadblocks using UPS CSB-V standard shipping.

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What is CSB? Why is it required in International shipping?

CSB or Courier Shipping Bill is the main document required by the Customs Authority for allowing any shipment. A Courier shipping bill is issued by the shipping agent and it is considered a certificate for all parties including, the seller, buyer, and third parties (if any). Until 2018, the CSB-II standard was used by merchants. The major drawback with CSB-II was that the merchants were not able to ship high-cost goods. To allow this, the Customs Board (CBEC) issued a notification on August 03, 2018, which states that commercial shipments up to Rs. 5 lacks are allowed using the CSB-V shipping bill.

What is the CSB-V shipping label standard?

In simple words, CSB-V is a revision made to the CSB-II standard. With CSB-V, commercial shipments less than Rs. 5 lakhs are allowed through courier mode. The merchants can also avail GST returns once they share the shipping details such as the AWB number and the invoice, which was not possible with the CSB-II standard. The whole standard and the procedures are handled by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC).

How does the CSB-V standard help the merchants?

Less paperwork

To ship using the CSB-V standard, you just need to have your shipping AWB and invoice. This helps you decrease the paperwork and thereby increase the number of orders that you might be able to complete.

Additional costs only above Rs.25000

The additional costs for shipping that include Clearance and BRC have to be paid only if the cost of shipments is above Rs.25000.

Customs clearance is much easier

With the CSB-V standard, you can go through customs clearance, electronically, which is much easier.

Lesser Transit time

The CSB-V standard allows a much lesser transit time when compared to normal cargo shipping. Shipments via CSB-V take only 2-3 days to reach the customers.

GST Returns

With CSB-V, you can get GST returns for your international shipments easily. You can get the GST returns once you share the shipping details such as the Airway Bill number (AWB) and the invoice. This is not possible using CSB-II as you do not get a chance to show your shipment as an export.

Seamlessly handle UPS CSB-V standard shipping in Shopify

With the Shopify Multi Carrier Shipping Label app, you can enable the seamless handle UPS International shipping with CSB-V standard, and print shipping labels & Tax invoices. To enable CSB-V standard with the app, you need to have your own UPS India account. 

Head to the App settings –> Carriers –> Choose UPS. Now, configure the UPS India account credentials and select the “Country of origin” as India to see the settings for CSB-V, as shown below.

1. TIN Number (or Tax ID/GSTIN): You need to have a unique GST number (or Tax ID), that will be displayed on the commercial invoice. Enter the GST identification number.

2. AD Code: The Authorised Dealer Code (AD Code) is available with the bank in which the merchant has opened the current account for the purpose of export & import. The AD code is mandatory to generate the shipping bill number which is required for customs clearance.

Follow the below steps to obtain the AD Code.
— Approach the bank in which you have maintained your business current account.
— Write a letter to the bank branch manager for providing the AD Code in the prescribed format.
— Obtain the AD Code on the bank letterhead in the DGFT (Directorate General of Foreign Trade) prescribed format.
— Once you obtain the letter, register the AD Code at every port from where you will be exporting the goods.

3. E-Commerce Shipments: You have to select the type of shipment from the drop-down list; if it’s an E-Commerce shipment or a Non-E-Commerce shipment.

4. MEIS Shipments: The MEIS was introduced as an incentive scheme for the export of goods. The incentives are for the goods exported from India. You can claim the MEIS benefits when shipping products from any of these six categories:

a. Leather Footwear
b. Customized Fashion Garments
c. Toys
d. Books
e. Handloom Products
f. Handicraft Products

If it doesn’t fall in any of these, select the Non-MEIS option.

5. Shipment Under BOND: Select from the dropdown list, whether your shipment is under BOND, Letter of Undertaking (LUT), or None. If any, enter the number accordingly.

6. IEC Number: IEC number or the Import-Export Code is a 10-digit identification number which is mandatory for export from India or Import to India. This is issued by the DGFT (Director General of Foreign Trade).

Once you have added all the required details, head to App settings --> General Settings --> Tax Invoice --> Choose International Invoice (for India) as shown in the below image. This allows you to generate the Commercial invoice related to your international orders.

Generate CSB-V Commercial invoice and send the documents electronically to avoid paperworks

The Shopify Multi Carrier Shipping Label app allows you to generate CSB-V standard Commercial invoices (Tax Invoices) and use ETD functionality (Electronic Trade Documents). Sending the documents via ETD allows the merchants to avoid the complete paperworks related to customs duties.

Given below is a sample commercial invoice generated using the app. You can see all the details entered under the CSB settings. Ensure that you add the Country, State & District of Manufacture, and the HS Code for the products.

Once you have generated all the shipping-related documents, you need to send these documents electronically to avoid all the manual paperworks related to customs. To do that, select the required order, and choose “Send documents Electronically” from the “Advanced” tab, as shown below.

You can confirm if all the documents have been uploaded successfully from the order details. From the “All orders” section, click on the required order and head to “Upload document summary“. This will show the status of your documents.

In this guide, we discussed how to simplify UPS International shipping for Shopify Indian merchants with the CSB-V standard shipping documents with the Shopify Multi-Carrier Shipping Label app. We have also discussed the benefits of using the CSB-V label standard. 
If you have any queries related to handling UPS CSB-V with Shopify, do contact our support.