UK Creatives Selling Merch to US Fans Now Face Duty and a Pricier Ad Market

Photography by Bowen Fernie

A sold-out drop feels brilliant, especially when half the orders are heading to America. Hoodies, prints, tour merch, a photobook, it doesn't matter what the product is.

The trouble is further down the order sheet.

Since August 2025, most small parcels going to the US have picked up customs charges, and Facebook ads aimed at American audiences cost more than the global median. 

Anyone shipping from London needs to run the sums before the next release.

The End of Duty-Free Parcels

For years, a parcel worth US$800 or less crossed into the US without duty. A single hoodie or print came in well under that. That changed on 29 August 2025, when the US suspended the exemption for most low-value shipments. US Customs has since put the suspension into its regulations across June and July 2026, and a 2025 law ends it for good on 1 July 2027.

There's a second layer. As of October 2026, most UK goods carry a 10% Section 301 tariff on top of the normal US duty for each product, though some goods are exempt. The trade body UKFT issued guidance on the new framework on 28 July 2026. 

On paper, the US importer pays, but Retail Gazette reports that brands selling direct to American shoppers may end up absorbing part of it or raising checkout prices. Either way, the cost lands on the seller's margin or the fan's bill. 

Walking away from the US is still a big ask, because it remains the UK's largest market for goods. Even so, the UK’s statistics office, the ONS, found exports there stayed below their pre-tariff level every month through February 2026. 

What a US Order Really Costs

Rules like these only matter once they're turned into a number per order. Freight people call it landed cost, which sounds like jargon, but it just means the full price of getting one item into one fan's hands. Four lines make it up, and free tools cover most of them.

• Duty, read from the General rate for the closest product line in the US government’s tariff search, plus the 10% tariff

• Customs paperwork, with the carrier's quote showing whether clearance fees are included

• Postage for one parcel to a US address

• Return postage, costed against the National Retail Federation’s estimate estimate that 19.3% of US online sales were returned in 2025
  

Fans expect free returns, too. In the same NRF research, 82% of consumers call them important when shopping online, so the postage back is the seller's to budget for.

Then do the subtraction. Take the four lines and the product cost away from the price. If the answer is negative, the US price or the shipping fee has to move before the drop goes live.

Why Fans Walk Away at Checkout

Raising the US price carries a risk, and checkout is where it shows. Extra costs are the most-cited fixable reason shoppers abandon a basket. 

Checkout research institute Baymard’s latest survey of US shoppers found 40% had left because extra costs were too high, according to Shopify’s 2026 summary of the research. A duty bill on the doorstep is just another extra cost that arrives late.

That leaves a seller three ways to handle the tariff. It can absorb it, add it to the checkout price, or leave the fan to pay at the door, and the last is the riskiest.

A flat US shipping rate that includes the estimated duty, which shipping people call delivered duty paid, gives the fan one honest total before they pay. Shopify Markets, for one, calculates duties and import taxes at checkout.

The Price of Reaching American Audiences

Shipping is one cost. Getting an American fan to the checkout in the first place costs more than the global average, too.

Data from Superads, which draws on advertisers using its platform, has Facebook ad prices in the US about 14% above the global figure between July 2025 and July 2026. That points a direction without setting a benchmark.

Prices also swing throughout the year. In that data, the US peak came in November 2025, as holiday shopping ramped up, and the low came by July 2026. A drop released in November pays the top price, because the same budget reaches fewer people.

The number that counts comes from the seller's Ads Manager. Break the last campaign down by country and compare what it cost to show the ad to a thousand people in the US and in the UK. Ten minutes, tops.

Finding Creators for an American Audience

Creators are another route to American fans, and brands are leaning on them harder. The ad industry body IAB now treats creator advertising as a core media channel, with one-off campaigns giving way to ongoing partnerships. Charli xcx's two-year Absolut partnership shows how that looks, down to her dancers in branded tees on stage.

Partnerships can start small. Designer Yinka Ilori told New Wave he brings up accessibility with brands from the start, and sometimes that means designing something as small as a keyring.

Picking the right creators for American fans takes local knowledge, which is hard to build from London. Sellers who start treating America as a home market often want a partner on the ground running the ads. 

One route is a digital advertising agency USA that can take over social ads, and the useful ones already know US ad prices, return rates and which creators move product with American shoppers.

Gifting Product to Creators Comes With US Disclosure Rules

Free product is an obvious way to get American creators posting about a drop, but in the US, it comes with an easy-to-miss rule. A creator who mentions a gifted hoodie has to say it was a gift, even when the brand didn't ask for the post.

Behind it is the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the body that polices deceptive advertising, and it has put the rule into a plain-language influencer guide. It also applies to UK creators when the post is likely to be seen by American shoppers. So a UK creator who skips the disclosure is still breaking US advertising rules. 

Getting it right takes one line. Something as simple as "Thanks to the brand for the free hoodie" works, as long as viewers can't miss it. Tags like "collab" or "sp" are too vague to count. 

The guide makes the creator responsible for the disclosure, but a brand can help by putting it in the brief. The brief should ask for the thank-you near the start of the caption, visible without tapping “more”. 

Testing the US Before Committing to It

Everything above can be tested on one drop before any stock crosses the Atlantic. Work out the US price and the shipping fee from the four costs. Then run a small ad aimed at American shoppers for a week, with a daily spending limit. The ad budget is the only money at risk, and the limit keeps it small.

At the end of the week, compare what each US order earned after all costs with earlier US orders. If the numbers work at today's prices, stock is worth considering.

The next step is a quote for sending one box to a US warehouse. Fulfilment companies, which store products and post them to customers, can give one. 

Holding stock in the US changes the shipping as well. One bulk shipment clears customs once, a local courier delivers the parcels, and returns go to a US address instead of back to London.

A drop that sells out to American fans is still a good feeling. With the sums done first, it has a better chance of paying for itself.