The first time I placed a real order with my supplier in India for Kind Loom, the invoice showed one tidy number and I quietly told myself that was my cost per set. It wasn’t close. By the time the bedding actually landed in my Calgary storage unit, that figure had grown by more than a third — ocean freight, duty, import GST, a brokerage fee, and a currency spread I hadn’t even clocked. A landed-cost calculator is the little tool that turns that ugly surprise into a number you know before you commit. Here is exactly how I use one.

What a landed-cost calculator actually does

“Landed cost” is the all-in cost of getting one sellable unit from your supplier’s door to yours, ready to ship to a customer. It is the number you should be pricing off — not the invoice total. A calculator simply takes every cost in the chain, adds them up, and divides by your number of units so you get a true per-unit figure you can build a price on.

My free landed-cost and pricing calculators do this for you, and if you want the full method behind them, I walk through it in the landed-cost guide. This post is about understanding what you are typing in, so the answer you get is actually right.

The inputs, one line at a time

• Product cost. What your supplier charges for the goods themselves, before shipping. Use the price you actually pay per unit, in the currency on the invoice.
• Units. The number of finished, sellable pieces in the shipment — not cartons, not metres of fabric. Every other cost gets spread across this number, so get it right.
• Freight. The cost of moving the goods to Canada — ocean, air, or courier — plus any origin charges. For small importers this is usually LCL (less-than-container-load) ocean freight or an air courier.
• Duty %. The customs duty rate for your specific product, set by the CBSA Customs Tariff. More on finding this below.
• Import GST. The 5% federal GST charged at the border on most goods entering Canada. It is calculated on the duty-paid value (goods plus duty), per the CRA’s rules on GST on imported goods.
• Brokerage and customs fees. What your customs broker or courier charges to clear the shipment and file the paperwork. Couriers often bundle a “disbursement” fee here too.
• Currency. If your supplier invoices in USD or another currency, your real cost depends on the exchange rate you actually get. Banks quietly add a markup on top of the mid-market rate. I pay my suppliers through Wise (here’s my Wise review) so I can see the true rate and enter an honest number, instead of guessing.

How to find your duty rate

Duty is the input people fudge the most, and it can swing your landed cost by 15% or more. Your rate depends on your product’s HS (Harmonized System) code — a classification number that tells customs exactly what your goods are. Cotton bedding, for example, sits in a very different line than a ceramic mug.

Look your product up in the CBSA Customs Tariff and find the “Most-Favoured-Nation” rate for your HS code. That’s the rate that applies to most countries, including India. If you are not confident in the classification, a licensed customs broker will confirm it for a small fee — cheaper than getting it wrong on every future shipment.

A worked example

Say I order 100 duvet cover sets. Here is what goes into the calculator (illustrative numbers, in CAD):

• Product: 100 × $28 = $2,800
• Ocean freight (LCL): $600
• Duty at 17%: $476
• Import GST at 5% (on the $3,276 duty-paid value): $163.80
• Brokerage: $150

Add it up and the total landed cost is $4,189.80. Divide by 100 units and my true cost per set is about $41.90 — not the $28.00 on the invoice. If I had priced off $28, I’d have baked a 50% error into every product page. One caveat: if you are registered for GST/HST, that 5% import GST is generally recoverable as an input tax credit, so it’s really a cash-flow item, not a permanent cost. Duty is not recoverable — it stays in your cost forever.

Common mistakes I see (and made)

• Pricing off the invoice. The single most expensive habit. Always price off landed cost.
• Forgetting the currency spread. A 2–3% bank markup on a USD invoice is real money across a full container. Enter the rate you actually paid.
• Treating recoverable GST as a permanent cost. If you’re registered, don’t let the 5% inflate your margin maths — track it separately.
• Guessing the duty rate. Look it up in the Customs Tariff or ask a broker. Do not eyeball it.
• Ignoring last-mile. Getting the pallet from the port to your Calgary storage unit costs money too — include it.

Run your own shipment through the calculator once and you’ll never look at an invoice the same way again.

This is based on my own experience — not financial, tax, or legal advice. Rules, rates, and fees change, so confirm current details with official sources like the CRA and CBSA before you decide.