DTC Brands: Why You're Leaving Money on the Table with Duty Drawbacks

DTC brands disrupt retail by owning customer relationships, but margin pressure remains intense. Beyond negotiating shipping or optimizing ads, a massive opportunity is often overlooked: duty drawbacks.

If you import products or materials, you can reclaim duties when items ship internationally or are destroyed domestically under specified conditions. Traditional drawback systems catered to large manufacturers, leaving modern DTC brands on the sidelines—until Evana built a solution just for them.

Direct-to-consumer operations introduce unique considerations:

International consumer shipments are eligible for duty recovery on the corresponding imports.

Whether in-house, 3PL, or dropship, documentation must mirror your fulfillment model—Evana accommodates them all.

Variant-rich catalogs require precise tracking between imported and exported SKUs.

International influencer or press shipments can qualify for duty refunds—often missed by traditional brokers.

International returns or destroyed imports may unlock additional drawback value.

Evana’s technology identifies qualifying transactions across these scenarios, maximizing recovery with minimal brand effort.

Five aspects of the DTC model strengthen drawback claims:

Myths that deter DTC brands:

Reality: even 5% international orders can deliver material refunds.

Reality: Evana’s DTC-specific workflow requires minimal time.

Reality: existing ecommerce and freight data is usually sufficient—Evana’s tech bridges gaps.

Reality: Evana only charges on recovered amounts, eliminating risk.

Reality: most brokers don’t specialize in drawbacks or have the tech needed for DTC, so they focus on large enterprises.

Basic formula: Annual duties paid × international order % × recovery rate (85–95%).

Emerging brand: $30K duties, 7% international, 85% recovery ⇒ ~$1.8K annually, $8.9K over five years.

Mid-sized brand: $120K duties, 12% international, 90% recovery ⇒ ~$13K annually, $65K over five years.

Established brand: $350K duties, 18% international, 95% recovery ⇒ ~$60K annually, $300K over five years.

Larger established example from the article shows even higher potential ($250K annually, $1.25M over five years).

Five phases drive success:

Consult with Evana, share import/export basics, receive a preliminary estimate, sign a simple data-sharing agreement.

Provide limited order and customs data; Evana’s tech analyzes patterns and creates a detailed projection.

Approve strategy, sign a performance-based agreement, execute customs power of attorney.

Evana submits historical claims, prioritizing the five-year lookback, and manages all communications.

Refunds typically arrive in 3–6 months, ongoing quarterly filings capture future exports, annual reviews optimize the program.

A home furnishings DTC brand (13% international orders, six-year import history) recovered $127K from the lookback window and now averages $8.2K quarterly—totaling $160K in year one.

Benefits: +1.3% profit margin, new product line funding, improved cash flow, and a scalable recovery engine.

1. Request a free assessment. 2. Gather import duties, international %s, and trade lanes. 3. Review Evana’s customized proposal (lookback + ongoing). 4. Implement risk-free with performance-based fees.

Duty drawbacks are one of the few levers that deliver pure cash back. With Evana’s DTC-specific solution, brands can unlock tens or hundreds of thousands without changing their core business—before five-year windows close.