Forum Moderators: buckworks
I'm curious if doing ecommerce with U.S. territories is "exactly" the same as (or similar to) doing business with the 50 States.
What are the pitfalls/dangers? Are some Territores easier to do business with (I'm thinking Puerto Rico)? Some more difficult? Is fraud more prevelant?
The vast majority of our orders are dropshipped from the United States, so I'm just wondering if it is worth offering my widgets to the territories as well.
Comments?
I would definitely talk with your dropshippers to see if they have any issues.
The biggest issue is S&H. If what you sell is light and/or can be shipped USPS Priority Mail, you're in great shape. If your items are large, heavy, bulky and/or you rely on UPS/Fedex it gets more expensive.
Covering our butt on S&H to AK/HI/PR and Guam, etc. has been a learning experience. Constantly tweaking our ship rates database to cover...
48 CONTIGUOUS states
I remember one major site that used to display "48 contagious states." I mentioned it to them and it took a month for them to correct it. Actually that error appears quite often on the web.
We don't export otherwise, but we do ship to all US possessions and military PO boxes. No fraud. I worry about language problems with PR but so far nothing major. No fraud but not many orders either from PR.
Alaska, Hawaii are worthwhile. Only feasible shipping option is USPS. Years ago we had several regular customers on Guam. Had one or two big orders from a company on Saipan in the N. Mariana Islands group.
I like the contagious states one! This wasn't during SARS or the avian flu, was it?
