Dropshipping Business Plan Template 2026: Plan Around the New Import Duties

Until this year, you could write a dropshipping plan with a product list and an ad budget and call it done. That's over. Parcels shipped from abroad now pay duty in the US and the EU, and the UK will follow in 2028. Below you'll find a dropshipping business plan template you can copy section by section, with those duty rules built into the numbers from the start.

You'll fit every section of this dropshipping business plan template on one page.

What Goes in a Dropshipping Business Plan Template?

Each section answers a question an investor, a partner or you six months from now will ask. We've filled in the examples for a pet food store built on the Loofy Food funnel.

Start With a Dropshipping Store Strategy Form Template

Answer these in one go before you write anything else. Any line you leave blank will come back later as a guess.

How Did Import Duties Change in 2026?

America moved first. On 24 June 2026, a CBP interim final rule indefinitely suspended the $800 de minimis exemption for parcels arriving by express carrier or freight. Since then, those shipments have needed a formal or informal customs entry, and they've paid duty.

Europe acted a week later. On 1 July 2026 the EU removed its €150 duty-free threshold and replaced it, until 1 July 2028, with a €3 customs duty per tariff category in each parcel. Ship five T-shirts in one parcel and you'll pay €3; send three T-shirts with a watch and it's €6. As the seller or importer, you declare and pay it.

US mail followed on 24 July 2026, when a second rule extended the suspension to the postal network and set up a new postal informal entry process. If you'd planned to send orders by post to stay duty-free, you can't anymore.

Britain will be next. Its government has brought removal of the £135 relief forward to October 2028, and from then on, goods valued at £135 or less will pay customs duty too.

Your buyers will carry part of the cost. In a 2024 NBER study, Pablo Fajgelbaum and Amit Khandelwal estimated that ending the US exemption would cut consumer welfare by $10.9 billion to $13.0 billion a year. They also found that lower-income zip codes had relied on these parcels more. If your customers shop on price, they'll notice at checkout.

Read more: Ecommerce News 2026

Put Duties Into the Numbers

Give duty its own line in your dropshipping business plan template, right next to product cost and shipping. Here's what that does to one order, with example figures:

Treat the rate and the fee as placeholders. Your product's tariff classification decides the real duty rate, and your carrier or broker quotes the entry fee. It's worth asking both before you set a price. In this example, margin before ads has dropped by $7.70 an order, about 19%. Does that eat too much margin? Hold stock in a US warehouse and import in bulk, and you'd file one entry per shipment instead of one per parcel.

Update Your Policies for Duties

Before anyone pays, they'll want to know whether duty is included. Tell them on your policy pages.

Dropshipping Shipping Policy Template

This shipping policy template for dropshipping spells out delivery times, the countries you ship to and who pays import duty. We've filled in the three delivery options from Loofy's checkout. The delay clause follows the FTC's prompt delivery rules: if you can't ship when you said you would, you'll have to tell the buyer, give a new date and offer to cancel the order with a full refund.

[Store name] Shipping Policy

Processing time. We pack and ship orders within [1 to 2] business days, and anything placed on a weekend or public holiday goes out the next business day.

Delivery options. Regular shipping costs $[8.50] and takes [7 to 10] days. For $[10.50], Express brings your order in [4 to 6] days, and Premium arrives in [1 to 3] days for $[12.50]. Delivery times count from the day your order ships.

Where we ship. We deliver to [the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and the EU]. Orders leave from [our partner warehouse in city, country], and items from one order may arrive in separate parcels.

Import duty and taxes. [If you include duty:] Our prices include import duty, taxes and customs fees for [the United States and the EU], and there's nothing more to pay when your parcel arrives. [If the buyer pays duty:] Prices at checkout don't include import duty or taxes. The carrier may ask you to pay them before delivery, and a parcel you refuse goes back to us.

Tracking. A tracking link arrives by email within [2] business days of dispatch.

Delays. If we can't ship your order in the time shown at checkout, we'll email you a new shipping date and give you the option to cancel for a full refund.

Lost or damaged parcels. Contact us at [email] within [14] days of the expected delivery date, and we'll send a replacement or refund your order.

Dropshipping Return Policy Template

Before you publish this return policy for dropshipping template, check where the returns will go. A return shipped to an overseas supplier can cost more than the product, and a domestic address or a refund without a return keeps small orders simple. Sell into Europe and there's one more rule: EU consumer rules give buyers 14 days from delivery to withdraw without giving a reason. The template below includes that clause.

[Store name] Return Policy

Return window. You can send back unused items in their original packaging within [30] days of delivery. We can't take back [opened food, perishable items or personalized products].

Customers in the EU. You can cancel your order within 14 days of delivery, and you don't need to give us a reason. Tell us by email at [email], then send the items back within 14 days of telling us.

How to start a return. Write to [email] with your order number and the items you'd like to return. We'll reply within [2] business days with a return address in [country]. Please don't use the address on your parcel, because it may belong to a supplier overseas.

Return shipping. [If you pay for returns:] We'll send you a prepaid return label. [If customers pay return postage:] You'll cover return shipping unless the item arrived damaged or wasn't what you ordered.

Damaged or wrong items. Send a photo to [email] no later than [7] days after your parcel arrives. We'll replace the item or refund it, and you can keep the one we sent.

Refund Policy Template

A refund policy template for dropshipping should tell buyers whether duty and shipping come back with the product, and how long a refund takes to arrive. Loofy's checkout promises a 30-day money-back guarantee, and the version below makes the same promise. Whatever you offer at checkout, your written policy has to match it.

[Store name] Refund Policy

Money-back guarantee. If you aren't happy with your order, email [email] up to [30] days after delivery and we'll refund the product price.

When you'll get your money. We'll send your refund within [5] business days of receiving your return, or from the day we approve a refund with no return needed. EU customers get their refund within 14 days of their cancellation request, though we may hold it until the items reach us or you've shown proof of posting. Your bank may take another [5 to 10] business days to show it.

Shipping costs. If you return your whole order, we'll refund the standard shipping you paid. We don't refund the extra charge for Express or Premium delivery.

Import duty and taxes. [If you include duty:] Any duty and taxes you paid at checkout are refunded along with the product price. [If the buyer pays duty:] Duty you paid the carrier on delivery went to customs, and we can't refund it. Your carrier or local customs office should be able to tell you whether you can claim it back.

Payment method. Refunds go back to the card or wallet you paid with.

Plan the Store and Funnel

Which pages will you launch with? Put them in the plan too. With a website template for dropshipping store owners, the checkout and upsell are already built, and that part of the plan stops being a to-do list.

You've already answered that question on the last line of the dropshipping store strategy form template. For a product people reorder, add a checkout option to subscribe from the first order.

Run the Numbers Before You Buy Traffic

Now turn the worksheet into targets. Every dropshipping business plan template should end here, and we'll use the example landed cost of $31.70.

We've left payment processing out of these figures. Funnelish won't add a processing fee of its own on any plan, and your gateway charges its standard rate.

Launch From a Dropshipping Website Template

Loofy Food is a free dropshipping website template for high-ticket pet products, and it's set up as a full funnel. Its home page works as an advertorial with a 4.8 rating from 15,000-plus reviews, while the landing page adds a 15% subscribe offer on a countdown. Once buyers reach checkout, they'll see three price points: $64.99 one-time, $55.99 on subscription and $155.99 for three packs with a free travel bowl.

Here's the Loofy Food checkout from a free dropshipping template, with three price points and a salmon oil order bump.

The order details carry a $12.99 salmon oil add-on as an order bump, and once buyers have paid, the upsell offers an annual plan. You can edit every page of this dropshipping website template in the Funnelish funnel builder, swapping in your own product, prices and photos.

You could use it as a website template for dropshipping store launches in any niche where subscriptions and bundles lift order value.

Get the Free Loofy Food Template

Once you've filled in the strategy form, run the worksheet with your real duty rate and rewritten the policies, your dropshipping business plan template will be ready for a partner or a lender. Come back to it before October 2028, when the UK change kicks in.