Amazon Global vs a Florida Freight Forwarder: Which Is Cheaper?
Updated 2026-07-01 · tariff year 2026
There are two routes for Amazon orders to The Bahamas:
Amazon Global shipping
Amazon ships directly and collects an Import Fees Deposit at checkout — a generic estimate of Bahamas duty and taxes based on Amazon's own product classification. It's convenient, and the deposit is refundable: Amazon returns any unused portion on items it exports to The Bahamas itself. You also pay Amazon's international shipping rate.
Florida freight forwarder
You ship to a Florida address (most forwarders give you one), pay the forwarder's per-pound rate to Nassau or Freeport, and either the forwarder clears customs or you self-clear on Click2Clear. You pay the actual duty directly, with no deposit to reconcile afterward.
The math
Forwarders tend to win on light, high-value items: you pay the exact Bahamas duty plus a per-pound freight rate. Amazon Global tends to win on bulky items, where forwarder freight dominates and the flat deposit plus Amazon's shipping can come out lower. The quickest way to tell for a given item is to compare the deposit with the Bahamas calculation.
The extension shows both numbers side by side on every product page — install it and compare per item, or check the delta on any category page.