Classify on the fly

HS codes are vital for accurately calculating duties and taxes and for meeting customs requirements. Understanding how HS codes are used within the Zonos flow is crucial as they play a large part in international trade. This guide highlights the sequence of selecting HS codes, including the benefits of Zonos Classify and detailing the fallback mechanisms when specific codes are unavailable.

Classify on the fly

Classify on the fly is a real-time feature that generates HS codes when a product-specific HS code is not provided at time of checkout. By leveraging Zonos Classify, Zonos will use either the name or description from your item to generate an HS code. This auto-classification is based on a confidence score established by Zonos. If the score does not meet the required threshold, your store's fallback HS code will be applied.

Note: These auto-classifications will be one-time classifications and are not saved off or stored in your Catalog.

HS code selection 

Zonos Catalog is the recommended and efficient method for storing product-specific HS codes, ensuring compatibility with all Zonos products and services. If you cannot store HS codes in Catalog, consult our list of supported platforms to ensure compatibility for retrieving product-specific HS codes.

In cases where neither Zonos Catalog nor your ecommerce platform catalog has an HS code for your products, Zonos will use Classify to generate an HS code as long as the confidence score is above the threshold which is set by Zonos. If the HS codes falls under this threshold, we'll fall back to using your fallback HS code as a last resort. At Zonos, the process for assigning HS codes to items begins with checking for product-specific codes from Zonos Catalog. If an HS code is not available there, we then check your ecommerce platform's catalog. In cases where neither of these sources provides an HS code, we'll leverage Classify on the fly to automatically classify items in real-time during checkout.

The process for selecting HS codes for Zonos calculations can be simplified as follows:

1. Check Zonos Catalog for an HS code
2. Check your ecommerce platform catalog for an HS code
3. Call Classify on the fly to generate an HS code at time of checkout
4. Resort to using your fallback HS code if Classify's confidence score does not meet the required threshold set by Zonos

Fallback HS code 

Default HS codes are used by Zonos for landed cost calculations, commercial invoices, and shipping labels when product-specific codes are either not provided or do not meet the confidence score set by Zonos, as previously described. Each store is assigned a single fallback HS code.

To add your fallback HS code:

1. Go to Dashboard -> Settings -> Landed Cost
2. Add your fallback HS code in the Default harmonized tariff code box