Consolidate Your Orders: Why Four Small Parcels Cost More Than One Big One
By George · updated 2026-08-24 · checked against the 2026 Bahamas tariff schedule
There is one lever in Bahamian import costs that requires no negotiation, no concession and no paperwork: send fewer, larger shipments. It works because the customs processing fee has a floor and that floor is charged per entry.
The mechanism
Every entry pays 1% of value in processing fees, minimum $10. Below $1,000 of value the minimum always binds, so a $50 entry and a $900 entry pay exactly the same $10. Split an order into four parcels and you pay that floor four times.
Duty and VAT rates do not change — they are percentages, and percentages do not care how the goods are divided. Only the fixed fee is duplicated. So the saving from consolidating is, almost exactly, the extra minimums you avoided, plus the VAT charged on them.
The numbers
20% duty goods (clothing, shoes, toys), $200 total:
- Four separate $50 entries: $108 in total import charges
- One $200 entry: $75
- Saving: $33, or 16.5% of the order value
Duty-free goods, $100 total:
- Four separate $25 entries: $54
- One $100 entry: $21
- Saving: $33, or 33% of the order value
Note that the saving is identical in dollars and much larger in percentage terms on the duty-free goods. That is the tell: the lower the duty rate, the more consolidation matters, because the fixed fee is a bigger share of a smaller bill.
How to actually do it
The practical route is a Florida freight forwarder with a consolidation service. You ship everything to your Florida address as you buy it, the forwarder holds the parcels, and you release them as one shipment on a schedule you choose.
- Pick a cadence and hold to it. Monthly is a reasonable default for regular shoppers; quarterly works for predictable bulk items like diapers or pet food.
- Group by urgency, not by store. The only thing that should break a consolidation is genuinely needing an item now.
- Watch storage limits. Most forwarders give a free storage window and charge after it. Consolidating past that window can cost more than it saves.
- Keep one commercial invoice per shipment. Self-clearing a consolidated entry on Click2Clear is straightforward, but every item still needs its value and tariff code.
When not to consolidate
Consolidation trades time for money, and there are cases where it loses:
- Above $1,000 per entry the minimum stops binding and processing becomes a flat 1% either way — so combining two $2,000 entries saves nothing on fees.
- Volumetric freight. If your forwarder bills by volume, boxing several bulky items together may not reduce the freight bill at all, and duty and VAT apply to freight.
- Storage fees that exceed the fee saving.
- Anything you need this week.
Related: the processing fee in detail and why VAT is charged on more than the price. To compare a split order against a consolidated one, run both through the calculator.