With so many consumers shopping online in the 21st century, shipping your products abroad has become more and more prevalent. Larger companies might be sending big orders to various retailers and distributors in foreign countries and have a whole team of people taking care of that for them. Still, smaller independent business owners might have to manage these processes themselves. If you are a small business owner starting to consider branching out to sell your products in other countries, or you already have individual customers placing orders from abroad, here are some important things to remember when sending your products overseas.
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The Cost of Shipping
Shipping items overseas can be more costly than you might think, particularly if it is a big parcel or a lot of weight. If you are selling items in bulk abroad, you will need to use a specialist courier service to manage this. Whether you are shopping items directly for a customer or to a distributor abroad, you do need to factor in the shipping costs to the final price to make sure you are still making profits. You can usually find estimations for these costs online to help you calculate what you need to charge customers to have shipping and packaging covered.
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Insurance
You may also want to think about getting insurance for the items that you are shipping overseas. Hopefully, your products will get to their intended destination without issue, but if there is a long journey involved, there is more chance of damage, loss, or theft along the way. Insurance can help you if you end up making any financial losses due to missing or damaged shipments that can’t be sold to customers.
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Travel Time
Another important thing to keep in mind when you are shipping products overseas is how long they will take to arrive at their destination. You need to be able to give your customers an ETA on their shipment, and if deliveries are late, your customers might become frustrated and wish to make complaints or receive some compensation in certain circumstances. While you can’t always control this, it’s good to do some research into the average shipping times. There have been some advancements made to improve overseas shipping, such as using AI in the air cargo industry to help reduce congestion and hold-ups when processing shipments.
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Customs, Duties, and Taxes
You’ll also need to make sure that you are following the necessary protocols when it comes to customs at the border. Some items may be prohibited from being sent overseas, so you need to make sure that your products are compliant with these regulations. There is also the chance that you will be charged additional duty and tax on your products when selling overseas, so you may also want to factor this into the overall cost when accepting payment from your customers.
If you are an independent business owner who wants to start selling your products overseas, remember these important aspects of shipping items abroad to prepare yourself.
