How do I add Royal Mail DDP fees to Etsy shipping from the UK to the US?

Hi! The fairest (and easiest) way to cover Royal Mail’s DDP/PDDP costs on Etsy is usually to keep your item prices/declared values “real” and build the DDP overhead into your US shipping profile, using Etsy’s “one item + additional item” rates to avoid punishing small orders.

Here’s why: Etsy doesn’t give UK sellers a clean way to add a variable “DDP fee” at checkout (and Etsy removed separate handling/package fees for calculated shipping), so the only practical levers you’ve got are fixed shipping rates and your item price. If you bake DDP into item prices, you can end up (a) inflating declared value, and (b) making the DDP calculation itself drift upward on higher-priced baskets—exactly the loop you’re worried about.

A structure that works well for most UK → US Royal Mail DDP setups

1) Put the “per-parcel” DDP cost into the US shipping price (One item).
Royal Mail’s DDP/PDDP cost often has a per-parcel component (and then any duties/taxes depending on contents/value/origin). So set your US “One item” shipping to cover:

• your actual Royal Mail postage (tracked service you’ll use), plus
• the typical DDP handling/admin portion you’re seeing in Click & Drop, plus
• a small buffer for variance.

2) Keep “Additional item” shipping low (or £0–small amount) where it’s realistic.
This stops low-value multi-item orders from getting hammered. It also mirrors what usually happens in reality: adding a second small item often doesn’t double your postage, and it doesn’t usually double the “per parcel” part of DDP if it’s still one box.

3) Use 2–3 US shipping profiles if your catalog has very different duty behavior.
If some products trigger higher DDP charges (different HS codes, materials, or country of origin), split them into separate Etsy shipping profiles like:

• “US – Lightweight / low duty risk”
• “US – Higher duty risk items”
• “US – Oversize/heavy”

That way you’re not averaging one product’s DDP cost across everything.

What about high-value orders?

If you sell items that can push orders into “meaningful duty” territory (or you just see big swings in Click & Drop depending on basket contents), the safest approach is to set a reasonable max you’re willing to subsidize and then handle outliers intentionally. Common options:

• Cap your exposure: price shipping to cover typical orders; if a rare order’s DDP comes out much higher, you can cancel/refund and explain you need to relist with adjusted shipping for that destination (annoying, but better than taking a big hit).
• Separate “high value” listings/profile: if you already know which items/order sizes cause high DDP, move those listings to a higher US shipping profile.

A quick “rule of thumb” decision between your two ideas

• Flat extra amount added to US shipping: best default, especially when the DDP fee behaves like a per-parcel charge and when you want to avoid messing with declared value.
• Build DDP into item prices: only makes sense if (a) almost every US order has similar DDP cost, and (b) you don’t mind the item value being higher for customs/returns/insurance perception. It’s usually less fair on small baskets unless your average order is very consistent.

If you tell me (1) your typical US order totals, (2) whether you ship single-item orders often, and (3) roughly how far the Click & Drop DDP charge swings (low-to-high), I can suggest a concrete “One item / Additional item” setup that covers you without overcharging your small orders.