Ron HealyCo-founder & CEO | Head of Product Strategy | Regulatory Innovation | eCommerce, ePAL Global · Product & Innovation Leader

ePAL The End of the Story

13 Dec 2025 · 2 min

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1:32

The video explains how delivery, once the final step for domestic ecommerce, becomes only one step in cross‑border sales because the real challenges arise at the customs border. Most ecommerce platforms lack accurate product classification, tax, duty, and import‑rule data, leading them to guess or use generic rates. This results in wrong HS codes, incorrect tax/duty calculations, surprise fees, delayed or returned shipments, and over‑charging that drives customers to competitors. The speaker positions ePal Global as the solution: an automated system that classifies products, calculates the correct tax and duty, and generates shipping and customs documents in real time at checkout, ensuring accurate pricing and smooth delivery.

Chapters

Delivery used to be the end of the story for ecommerce merchants, but with cross-border sales, delivery is just a step in the process. For international sales, the problems start at the border. This is when your shipment finally encounters customs officers. This is often when your customer comes into contact with customs too, because customs has added tax and duties and held up the shipment. This happens because most platforms don't know your product's classification, tax rate, duty rate, or import rules, so they guesstimate or default to standard rate tax, which can often be wrong. This can cause your product prices to be higher than they need to be. And there is no such thing as standard customs duty, so some platforms don't calculate duties at all. So what happens when you choose the wrong HS code, tax rate, or customs duty? Customers get charged surprise fees, Or your shipments get delayed or returned because of unpaid duties or tax. If the tax rate is wrong, then it's wrong on the product, the shipping, and the duties. That might mean the wrong tax added 3 times. You're not just overcharging, you're losing customers. They're going where your competitor gets the prices right at checkout. That's why ePal was built. ePal automatically classifies your products, calculates tax and duty correctly, and generates shipping and customs documents in real time in the checkout. So when you deliver, that's really the end of the story. ePal Global— cross-border compliance with a click.