9 replies to this topic

[ColoradoZ71]

Have turned down many requests to ship out of the country, but now figure that if i were to ship out of the country, it would be equal to my sales in the USA. If anybody has a guide to shipping internationally, i would appreciate it. ???Customs, duties, ect.???

[The_Luddite]

ColoradoZ71, on Aug 3 2007, 02:33 AM, said:

Have turned down many requests to ship out of the country, but now figure that if i were to ship out of the country, it would be equal to my sales in the USA. If anybody has a guide to shipping internationally, i would appreciate it. ???Customs, duties, ect.???

Speaking as a seller from outside the USA, I post to customers around the world using our local postal service IE~ Royal Mail Air Mail. You have to fill in a customs slip a CN22 which asks for the price of the goods, what it is IE: Gift, Commercial Sample, Documents or Other, Weight and your signature plus the date.

You should make sure that you state on your website that any import duty incurred will have to be paid by the purchaser of the goods. Make sure you point this out as people tend to think that the price they pay includes customs charges.

Also point out that the price is in your countries currency, we have had customers in the USA who thing that £20 pounds sterling is $20 when in fact it's currently twice that.

You could offer an alternative shipping service at the buyers expense, so that they can decide what they want to pay.

Pack you goods well, I know it's been said many times before but make sure you pack fragile items really really well. No matter how many Fragile labels you put on a box they can't be seen inside a bag, and the bags get thrown around a lot.

Make sure what you are sending out does not contravene the laws of the land, I know that's a hard thing to do, but you have the facility to check if it does sitting in front of you. Most countries have a website with what you're allowed to import.

Set up a Merchant Account that will allow you to take credit/debit cards from outside your own country.

Now the part I know you don't want to hear. You will get people who will try and scam you, even for a small amount of money. We had one such buyer who demanded we send them more goods and by express service at our own cost, they were in the Philippines and we had sent the original signed for, and it was. So to save us more costs and hassle we did a refund and told them that we would not supply them again. Although we were out of pocket it saved us money in the long run.

This happens so infrequently that it;s not a major problem, but be aware that it can happen.

Sending goods to destinations outside your own country is no rocket science, it's easy once you have done it for the first time. When you do you will wonder why you hadn't done it sooner.

All the best with your exports.

[mrs.flyingv]

Hello:

We are located in the US and have been shipping world wide for 3 years now. We use USPS as the shipping service. We only offer Priority Mail International. This method gives automatic insurance up to $68 and the customs form can be tracked on the usps.com. Is does cost more in postage than the First Class International (4lb and under limit) but it gives the customer more security. Do some research on the usps.com on the weight, length and girth of the package.

If you use Priority Mail you can order free boxes on line. That is a plus for cutting package costs.

What kind of items are you shipping? and what shipping service do you use now?

Mrs.Flyingv

[dynamoeffects]

Another good tip is if you're going to start shipping internationally, don't just open up to the entire world all at once. First start out with developed countries like Canada and western European countries. Then if you find interest from other countries, decide whether or not to start accepting orders from there.

Legitimate orders from countries like China, Nigeria (or any African country aside from South Africa), the Philippines, Malaysia, etc. are far and few between. It's a sad comment to make, but citizens of those countries don't have a lot of spendable cash so the orders you'll see most frequently will be fraudulent.

[jenilia]

E-commerce is the one of the best way to do our business to hole over world we can easily get the payment through online bank services http://www.iseekloans.com/

[Astawerksdotcom]

i always use USPS first because it is the cheapest. I then put down on the form that is is a gift being sent! that is it

[Astawerksdotcom]

dynamoeffects, on Aug 29 2007, 12:53 PM, said:

Another good tip is if you're going to start shipping internationally, don't just open up to the entire world all at once. First start out with developed countries like Canada and western European countries. Then if you find interest from other countries, decide whether or not to start accepting orders from there.

Legitimate orders from countries like China, Nigeria (or any African country aside from South Africa), the Philippines, Malaysia, etc. are far and few between. It's a sad comment to make, but citizens of those countries don't have a lot of spendable cash so the orders you'll see most frequently will be fraudulent.

i sent an order to mexico once it took 15 days to clear customs!!

[koalaphil]

ColoradoZ71, on Aug 3 2007, 11:33 AM, said:

Have turned down many requests to ship out of the country, but now figure that if i were to ship out of the country, it would be equal to my sales in the USA. If anybody has a guide to shipping internationally, i would appreciate it. ???Customs, duties, ect.???

I live in AUSTRALIA and have bought many things from the USA and Canada and Germany all have arrived in excellent condition using their countries postal service, however as a seller (my new shop not live yet) posting items in the lead up to Christmas is fraught with delivery problems so from the 8th Dec till 27th Dec I don't ship overseas if its more than 1kg in weight as this period is where i've struck problems no other time in the year has this problem, Other countries maybe different but be aware!!
Koalaphil

[koalaphil]

ColoradoZ71, on Aug 3 2007, 11:33 AM, said:

Have turned down many requests to ship out of the country, but now figure that if i were to ship out of the country, it would be equal to my sales in the USA. If anybody has a guide to shipping internationally, i would appreciate it. ???Customs, duties, ect.???

Just a thought USPS is now offering a service to sellers like you for your potential buyers called V-Post which is you post item to a central address in the USA and they ship it to us in Australia, but you have to get your potential client to sign up for it (Frre) I believe you can even put a link from your website to encourage it

[Arctic Fox]

Astawerksdotcom, on Oct 25 2007, 09:27 PM, said:

i always use USPS first because it is the cheapest. I then put down on the form that is is a gift being sent! that is it

You do understand that's tax fraud, don't you?