CB Customs Broker expands internationally: new branch opened at Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam

CB Customs Broker, a subsidiary of Lufthansa Cargo, continues its growth by opening a new office at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands. This is the company’s first international expansion.

Focusing on eCommerce

CB Customs Broker has been successfully handling the highly automated customs clearance of high-volume cross-border eCommerce shipments since 2018. The company clears tens of thousands of shipments every day, at Leipzig Airport since 2021 and at Frankfurt Airport since 2023. This success story is now set to continue at Schiphol Airport.

The Benelux region ranks as the fourth largest eCommerce market in Europe, following the UK, Germany, and France. As per the Thuiswinkel Market Monitor, Dutch consumers made nearly 35 billion euros worth of online purchases in 2023, with around 4 billion euros allocated to cross-border orders. A projected sales growth of 4% annually is anticipated in the upcoming years.

“We are following the global eCommerce flows. Opening our new office in the Netherlands was a logical first step in our European expansion. Not only because of the thriving local market, but also because the country is a strategically important hub for eCommerce shipments in Europe. At Schiphol we can also draw on our many years of experience in customs clearance of air cargo at Frankfurt Airport,” says CB Customs Broker Managing Director Uwe Glunz.

The abolition of import duties for goods under €150 in 2021 has significantly increased import declarations in the Netherlands. One year after the abolition, imports to the Netherlands surged by 250%, compared to only 50% in Germany. Nearly 80% of all declarations are for goods below the 150-euro threshold, known as H7 declarations. This suggests that a considerable portion of European eCommerce shipments enter through the Netherlands.

Three success factors for market entry: regulatory, technical and customer know-how

CB Customs Broker has extensive experience in automated customs clearance for eCommerce shipments. Their specially developed software is directly linked to the German customs system, and they aim to establish a similar connection with their Dutch counterpart, DECO.

While the country-specific systems have similarities, they also have some differences. However, the customs requirements for eCommerce imports in both countries are the same: transparency, security, and efficient shipment data transfers before the goods arrive. The CB Customs Broker software accomplishes this by transmitting all customs-relevant shipment data at the package level to customs before departure and conducting ICS2 checks automatically. This enables the digital declaration of up to 20,000 shipments per hour to Customs, provided the data is appropriately structured. Additionally, dedicated CB Customs Broker onboarding teams offer support in structuring the data.

“Data quality among our customers varies significantly. We assist our customers in structuring their data to comply with regulatory and quality standards. Familiarizing our customers with technical and regulatory requirements, based on our experience in Germany, also eases our market entry in the Netherlands”, explains Uwe Glunz an adds: “Our goal is to become the leading provider for digital customs clearance in Europe. Following the Netherlands, we have plans to establish additional European locations.”