We have released a new burr puzzle, Trick Opening 6PB.
This relatively easy puzzle was designed by Juno after he discovered a piece of hardware that seemed suitable for use in a puzzle. Although it is a small puzzle, it features six different types of wood, making it quite eye-catching.
A major challenge with this new release was determining how to handle the tariff imposed on shipments to the United States. All items shipped from Australia to the US are now subject to a 10% tariff, and sellers are required to pay this tariff in advance before a shipment can even be sent - making it necessary for us to find a workable solution.
Some customers have suggested using courier services, which allow tariffs to be paid by the recipient. However, using couriers presents several problems. One of the biggest issues is shipping cost - for example, when using FedEx, the shipping fee for this new puzzle would be more than five times that of Australia Post's standard service rate. On top of that, customers would also need to cover tariffs, state and city taxes, and handling fees. By the way, when using FedEx through Jetkrate, which handles international parcel forwarding from Australia, the cost including shipping from our location to Jetkrate appears to be lower than sending directly from our location via FedEx.
Another major issue is that our location is in a regional area, where using courier services is quite complicated. Here, FedEx and DHL rely on subcontracted local companies for pickup and delivery, so the level of service is not what one would expect when dealing directly with FedEx or DHL in metropolitan areas.
The last time we used DHL was when we had to send a laptop for manufacturer repair after its motherboard failed. Since DHL was the manufacturer's designated courier, we booked a pickup and waited for their contact. DHL scheduled the pickup a few days later, with only a vague "morning or afternoon" time window, so we had to stay home and wait without knowing when they would arrive. On the scheduled day, the subcontracted pickup company never showed up. We contacted DHL to reschedule, and again the pickup date they provided was several days later. With no alternative options, all we could do was wait again - but once more, the subcontractor canceled the pickup without notice. Eventually, DHL arranged for another company to collect the package on an emergency basis, but the whole ordeal cost us a great deal of time and effort.
An alternative would be to drive to a courier drop-off point instead of waiting at home, but that would require about a two-hour round trip, followed by waiting in line until it's our turn at the drop point. Spending so much time and effort on things that are outside the main focus of our work, which is designing and producing puzzles and science toys, is not something we wish to do. To be honest, we simply do not want to go that far.
Thus, we decided to continue using Australia Post, which is the only practical shipping method for us. Next, we must address the tariffs that the seller is required to collect and pay.
The tariff imposed by the United States on Australia is 10 percent. There is only one third party company that handles the payment of these tariffs on our behalf. When the service fees charged by this company are included, we found that products sold to the United States must be priced about 12 percent higher than before to cover the associated costs. Many other companies have chosen to increase the list price of their products uniformly, but if we did that, customers outside the United States would end up paying the tariff as part of the increased price. This would be unfair, so the tariff for the United States must be borne by the American purchasers.
Shopify, which we use, has a setting called Taxes and Duties. However, this setting only covers state and local taxes in the United States, and it is not appropriate to use the funds collected through this setting to pay tariffs. Tariffs must be collected as tariffs, or the total price must explicitly include the tariff.
We tested about ten highly rated Shopify apps that claim to handle tariffs. All of them either did not work with our shop or allowed customers to bypass the tariff through their own actions. Since our current Shopify plan does not allow custom payment methods on the checkout page, this may be unavoidable. We could switch to a plan that costs about AUD $42,000 per year, which would allow us to modify the checkout page, but it is obvious that this is not a realistic option for a business that sells only a few hundred products per year.
After various trials and adjustments, we set up the Shopify admin page to add the United States as a new market, applying the 12 percent additional cost only when the shipping destination is specified as the United States. So far, this setting seems to work without issues, and we hope that no new problems will arise with this release.
Happy Puzzling!
