Cross-border: what cross-border e-commerce is and how it works
Unlike a domestic shipment, a cross-border shipment adds three steps the buyer never sees: exit from the origin country, international transport, and formal entry into the destination country with its customs clearance. Each adds time, cost and paperwork.
For the seller, the main difference is who takes care of those steps. They can be contracted separately (a courier, a customs broker, a local delivery company) or through one operator that integrates them end to end.
How Cross-border works in our operation
MailAmericas runs the full cross-border shipment: it receives the parcel in the origin country (China, the United States or Europe), transports it, clears it through customs and delivers it with its own last-mile network in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. The seller sees a single tracking number from start to finish.
Request a quoteFrequently asked question
How long does a cross-border shipment to Latin America take?
It depends on origin, destination and service. In MailAmericas' Cross-Border service the average delivery time went from 20 days to 5, with an average on-time delivery of 98.7%.