Is the U.S. too expensive for European makers? The freight myth, and the math that decides your margin

The short version: the U.S. is not too expensive, and you do not need to win it. Freight from Europe is roughly a quarter of what Asia pays, the U.S. shelf carries more margin than your European one, and the market is large enough that a sliver of it is a real business. What decides profit is pricing each product to its own true landed cost, not a blended average off your European shelf.

The most common reason a European maker backs away from the U.S. is a number. Freight, tariffs, fees, and the quiet fear that by the time the goods reach the shelf there is nothing left. A second fear comes right behind it: the market is enormous, we are not, so how could we ever matter there. I have heard both from good manufacturers who would do well in the U.S. Both are more fear than math. Here is how an operator reads it.

Does freight from Europe kill the margin?

No, and most makers have this backwards. A 40ft container from Europe to the U.S. East Coast ran around $3,000 in late 2026. On the same reading, the Far East to the same coast was about $11,400, close to four times as much. You ship for roughly a quarter of what your Asian competitor pays to reach the identical shelf. Freight is not your weakness against Asia. It is one of your edges.

What does it actually cost to land goods in the U.S.?

More than the factory price, and less than the fear. As of late 2025, most EU home and building goods land at a 15% U.S. tariff under the U.S.-EU framework. Add ocean freight, customs and harbor fees, drayage and brokerage, and a mid-value container lands roughly 25% to 40% above the factory price, depending on how much value is packed into each cubic meter. Rates move, so treat the freight and duty figures here as a late-2026 snapshot, not a constant.

Two cautions an honest read includes. Metal content can carry a separate Section 232 duty of up to 50% on the metal value, so a metal-framed or metal-heavy product needs its own look. And the $800 de minimis route for small parcels closed in August 2025. Both are knowable before you spend a cent.

Then why do some makers struggle to make money here?

Not the landed cost. How they price against it. And this is the mistake that does the quiet damage.

Most European makers carry inbound freight as one operating-expense line at the bottom of the P&L. Your statutory books may well have to keep it there. But if that is also the only view you price from, no single product ever carries its own true cost to the U.S. shelf. The faucets end up absorbing weight that belongs to the water heaters. You price the whole range off a blended guess, and you price it off the European shelf you already know.

Two things change when you do it right. First, build a management view that lands cost at the item level, freight by weight and cube, duty and handling by product, so the real margin shows up SKU by SKU before you set a price, not a year after. A dense, high-value item and a bulky, low-value one have nothing in common inside a container, and the average hides it. Second, price to the U.S. shelf, not the European one.

Why the U.S. shelf has room the European shelf does not

Your European price already carries a 21% VAT inside the number on the tag. The U.S. price does not. Sales tax there is added at the register, roughly 0% to 10% by state, so the pre-tax U.S. price starts with more room for margin before the shopper ever sees it. On top of that, the U.S. chain stacks markup at each step, premium home goods often sell at two to three times wholesale, and the stated premium shoppers will pay for European origin tends to land in the 10% to 30% range. Put together, the retail ceiling, the VAT difference, the freight edge over Asia, and the Made-in-Europe premium more than cover the 25% to 40% of landed cost. The makers who struggle are the ones who never priced to that ceiling.

You do not need to win America. You need a sliver of it.

This is the fear I heard most at Eurobrico, and it is the easiest to put down. The U.S. home-improvement market runs into the hundreds of billions of dollars a year. You do not need one percent of it. You do not need a tenth of one percent. One program with one regional chain, or a point of share in a single category, is a business most European makers would call a very good year. The scale that looks intimidating is the reason small works: a thin slice of a market that size is a serious number for a mid-sized maker. You are not trying to beat America. You are trying to earn one good corner of it.

The real decision is not cost. It is whether you enter right.

Cost is the fear that gets people in the door. It is rarely what decides the outcome. What decides it is whether the product speaks to the U.S.: the channel you choose, the certifications and specifications, the stock and geography behind reorders, and the right people on the ground. The U.S. rewards the maker who enters right, not the one who enters cheapest.

So freight is not the enemy, the U.S. is not too expensive, and you do not need to be big there to do well. The math works when you price off the American shelf instead of your own, with each product carrying its own true landed cost, and when you aim for one good corner instead of the whole market. That is a decision you can make with real numbers, before you commit budget or a single hire. Putting those numbers on your actual range, your freight, your duty, your shelf, is exactly what a U.S. First Read is for.

Written by AJ Marcoz, Managing Director of NovusMarc, a U.S. market advisor for European makers of building and home products, formerly inside the largest U.S. home-improvement company across the seats that decide what gets stocked and what gets cut. This is how the category works, not an account of any one retailer. If you are looking hard at the U.S., the U.S. First Read is a clear go or no-go answer on your numbers before you commit. Talk to us about a U.S. First Read.