Written by Clint Reid, Founder and CEO of Zonos
Businesses increasingly rely on postal services for commercial shipments, particularly in ecommerce where millions of low-value goods move through postal channels daily. This shift means trade compliance professionals must understand postal regulations alongside traditional commercial carrier requirements, as their clients’ shipping strategies often depend on both channels.
The elimination of de minimis exemptions earlier this year for postal shipments required new infrastructure to collect duties on previously exempt low-value goods. Zonos became one of the first companies qualified by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to collect duties for postal shipments.
As a qualified party, Zonos was uniquely positioned through existing integration with the Universal Postal Union and extensive ecommerce experience processing millions of low-value transactions. The February 2025 de minimis suspension failed because postal providers cannot collect duties directly from businesses or individuals, and USPS lacked infrastructure for collection-on-delivery at scale.
Zonos solves this through multiple collection methods unavailable to postal operators: collecting duties directly from individuals via our iOS and Android app, invoicing businesses directly, or billing postal providers themselves. This flexibility allows postal operators to maintain service while ensuring compliance.
Unlike commercial carriers experienced with duty collection upon delivery, postal systems worldwide needed a solution for collecting duties at scale. Postal providers required integration capabilities to collect duties at origin—exactly where our cross-border ecommerce and payment solutions proved essential.
While challenges remain for postal operators transitioning to this new environment, the infrastructure now exists for them to offer duty-paid shipping services to their customers globally.
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