Five tips for shipping internationally

Increasingly interest in online shopping – and in western goods – coming from China, Brazil, India and Russia, as well as from more traditional markets in the Middle East, US and Canada, is a huge opportunity for all sized retails.

The e-commerce economy is borderless and increasingly international. Research in the summer by OC&C Strategy Consultants, published in collaboration with Google, found that online sales from outside the UK were worth £4 billion in 2012 – that’s 14% of total online sales. And by 2020 it could well make up 20% of etail sales.

But rising to this challenge is putting increasing pressure on all retailers, especially the smaller ones, as to how to actually get their goods to these customers cost effectively and profitably.

Here we outline five tips about international shipping.

1) Are your products international?

There may be huge potential out there in the international market, but not everything is going to either travel well or indeed be shippable at anything approaching a reasonably price.

Obviously perishables are unlikely to travel well, as are things that are very fragile.

But you have to also look at whether it is economic to send your products overseas. One UK based independent laundry manufacture, selling her product for £12.99, found that she was getting a surprising – and unplanned for – number of orders from the US. To ship the detergent costs £14.99. Clearly this makes her designer product extremely expensive.

Similarly, a horse trainer in Israel specialising in western riding and roping wanted to order several large horse feeders. The retailer ships these feeders within the US for about $140 each, but sending the plastic and steel corner feeders to Israel would have been more than $1,500.

So, try to focus on relatively small, light, and easy to ship items.

2) Different countries, different rules

Every country has its own rules about imports and you have to know what you are dealing with. According to UPS, which has extensive details on its website about what can and can’t be shipped where, suggests that it is illegal to send more than 100 calendars into Vietnam. Who knew?

Understanding the rules of each country you are sending to around the goods you are planning to send is difficult. Check with courier firms such as UPS or Royal Mail. Both feature information about restricted goods by country, as well as how to address, how to package and size and weight restrictions.

3) Target specific countries

To make sure you can get on top of this sea of rules and regulations across myriad countries, why not just target certain places first – learning all about them and slowly expand where you market your goods as you start to get to grips with each country?

4) Understand the costs

Like the rules and regulations of overseas shipping, understanding the costs of shipping across border is vital.

And its not just a matter of finding the shipping costs for size and weight to certain countries, you also have to understand – and account for – duty and other costs that can be accrued when goods purchased in one country are delivered to another.

You don’t want your lovely new overseas customer suddenly getting a £20 fee added on to their existing costs to pay for some form or duty or local tax.

Again the Post Office offers some really handy PDFs on this, but tread carefully.

5) Use a fulfiment company

Once you have a handle on the costs and restrictions or otherwise around your goods – and once you have a reasonable idea of demand and where it comes from – it can be more cost efficient to use a fulfillment company that either specializes in specific countries or regions for a flat fee or that has operations in that country.

The obvious ones are Amazon and Shipwire, but shop around. Check out this Amazon how-to video for more info.