If shoppers aren't careful this holiday gift-giving season, they could get hit with unexpected charges on merchandise and festive favorites from overseas.

"Unfortunately, a lot of U.S. consumers are going to be in for a surprise, especially if they haven't ordered something online in a while," said Jason Miller, a professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University. "They may be finding out that Santa Claus is bringing a nice little bit of extra fees with him this year."

The fees to look out for are charges from commercial shippers like UPS, DHL and FedEx for tariffs and processing fees that arrive hours or even days after shoppers click "buy." The charges may not immediately show up in online checkouts but can sometimes approach — or even exceed — the initial price collected by retailers.

"If you're buying online, look very closely at the website. For example, if you can see that it's a German website and the company is in Germany, you need to assume you're going to be assessed tariffs on these imports," Miller advised.

A friendly warning

Shoppers might need to heed the story of one unknowing Detroit News staffer (not this one, dear reader) who had to pay extra charges on merchandise from a major English soccer team. The listed checkout price from the team's online store was $84 for a sweatshirt, hat and water bottle, plus $9.95 for shipping.

Then came the surprises.

UPS later sent an email notification of "fees, taxes and payment of goods" worth an additional $73.28 still due for the order. The commercial shipper also sent a driver to deliver the notice in person and explain that the delivery would not be completed until the balance was settled.

The charges were split into "government charges" and "UPS brokerage and partner government agency fees." The first was the tariff on the items, the second was the shipper's fee for processing the goods in compliance with U.S. Customs and Border Protection guidelines.

Some shopping sites may disclose the tariff charges up front, but the soccer team site in question did not. After final payment of the fees, which ended up being $12 less than the quoted amount, the gear arrived within 24 hours.

MSU's Miller said savvy shoppers can steer clear of similar problems: "If you can find the same product at a U.S. retailer already, you can have a little bit more confidence that the item is probably already sitting in inventory. And because it's already been brought into the U.S., the tariffs have already been paid. So you're not going to face a processing fee for an international shipment."

Why the charges?

The supply chain expert said the reasons for St. Nick's additional sleigh fees mostly come from Uncle Sam. The culprits are a combination of President Donald Trump's end to a widely used de minimis tariff exemption on low-value packages, his imposition of sweeping new import taxes, and interruptions to foreign and domestic postal services not yet equipped to handle the new normal.

The de minimis exemption, Miller explained, was formally established in 1938 to ease the processing of foreign shipments that were too small to justify the cost of duty collection. It was originally $1, but Congress raised the threshold to $800 in 2015.

That change caused an explosion of such shipments to the United States. De minimis entries rose from about 139 million in 2015 to 1.3 billion in 2024, most of which came from China, according to the law firm Hogan Lovells.

Trump's move to end the exemption for all countries took effect on Aug. 29. Global shippers, as a result, have had to add additional package processing steps and apply tariff schedule classification codes to U.S.-bound items. Most are not equipped to handle such an undertaking.

The United Nations' Universal Postal Union said that postal flows to the United States as of Oct. 3 were down about 71% compared to the week prior to the Trump administration's regulatory changes. More than 30 countries halted U.S.-bound postal service altogether in August, and only a handful have resumed, per the U.N. group.

The U.N. data does not cover shipments from private companies like UPS, FedEx and DHL, which Miller said were already accustomed to handling tariffed imports and therefore better equipped for the end of de minimis.

Those options, however, are more expensive than government-run postal operations.

Going local for overseas offerings

In Michigan, a state that's home to several sizable expat enclaves with specific holiday traditions, Miller explained that higher overseas shipping charges will lead to price hikes but probably not surprise charges for most buyers.

He said that is because wholesale importers pay shipping and processing fees before eventually selling their products to specialty shops and retailers inside the United States.

Raymond Bittner, who runs the Polish Art Center specialty shop in Hamtramck, Michigan, said that has been his experience.

"I don't directly import food products from Poland, but the major importers are based in Chicago and New York," he said in a phone interview. The wholesalers pay the fees, but that still results in higher prices on the items he likes to stock around the holiday season.

"Their prices have all gone up minimum 20%," he said. "Everything from Poland is being hit with a 15% tariff on top of any existing tariffs. So, for example, I sell a lot of amber jewelry. The typical tariff on a piece of amber jewelry is 5%. Today I'm paying 20%."

The tariffs have caused him to raise prices and, in the limited cases of items he buys directly from Europe, stop stocking some products altogether.

Fortunately for his business, Bittner said that "nobody" has complained, and he has not experienced a slowdown in sales — though he will not have a full sense of tariff impacts until the end of his "big season" in November and December.

"Polish food products in general weren't super expensive to begin with. So an item that was $1.99, it's now $3. Most people, they just pay it. I don't think it's stopping anybody from making any purchases," he said.

"I sell Christmas wafers from Poland. It's very popular because it's something that's shared at Christmas meal. They went from $24 a box to $28 retail. I'm still selling as many as I used to. People are just paying higher prices."

He also told the story of one customer who chose to buy a piece of Polish stoneware from him after realizing she would have to pay significant commercial shipping fees on a single item directly from overseas.

Bittner said such a case was "unusual" among his customers, but it could be a model for other price-conscious shoppers.

Other likely tariff impacts during the holiday shopping season, according to Miller, will include less access to variety this year.

"Toy imports year to date are down about 15% on a weight basis through August, so it's a pretty good measure of how many toys have come in," the professor said.

"And the reason is that with tariffs driving up the cost of the imports, retailers and wholesalers are much more hesitant to bring in as many toys as they would have previously."

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