The Complete Guide to Incoterms® 2020

Learn who pays, who carries the risk, and how to choose the right Incoterm for every international shipment.

Whether you're exporting for the first time or shipping hundreds of containers every month, choosing the wrong Incoterm can create unexpected transportation costs, customs delays, insurance disputes, and unhappy customers.

This guide explains every Incoterm in plain English, shows exactly when risk transfers from seller to buyer, and helps you avoid the most common mistakes exporters make.

What are Incoterms?

Incoterms are internationally recognized trade rules published by the International Chamber of Commerce. They help buyers and sellers define who is responsible for transportation, export handling, import handling, insurance, and risk at each point in an international shipment.

They do not replace a sales contract, purchase order, payment agreement, or logistics plan. Instead, they create a shared language so everyone understands where the seller's responsibility ends and the buyer's responsibility begins.

What Incoterms define

• Transportation responsibility

• Cost allocation

• Risk transfer

• Export clearance

• Import clearance

Incoterms DO NOT define ownership or payment terms.

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Exportmation helps export teams turn shipment data into complete, reviewable, and deliverable trade workflows. Instead of managing documents, approvals, customer updates, and shipment records across disconnected tools, your team can operate from one AI-powered workspace.

The platform automates Commercial Invoice, Packing List, Certificate of Origin, Bill of Lading, Shipment Tracking, Approvals, Customer Communication, HTS Codes, and AI Assistant workflows.