Expanding to Support International Ordering

Only ship in USA now - what are the challenges?

[martyt]

We currently only ship products within the USA and have considered going international, but we're not sure we want the extra work and hassle. At present, we'll accept an international order on special request and only take payment through PayPal for those orders. And so far, we've had almost no difficulty doing it that way.

Our web site sells specialty craft-related items and is not really a target for fraudsters, so I'm sure we wouldn't have the same worries as someone who sells electronics. I also don't think our international sales would be a significant part of our business, but they'll require considerably more work to fulfill than a domestic order.

One complicating factor is that we offer free shipping within the USA - obviously, we can't do that for international orders; non-USA orders will have to pay the full cost of shipping.

So we have the added difficulty of calculating shipping costs for those customers - we could only do it manually at present; I don't have time to integrate a world-wide, real-time shipping calculator into the web site.

Credit card processing shouldn't be too difficult as our card processor supports international cards. We'll have to deal with the lack of AVS and CVV for those cards though I guess. And I'll have to update the checkout pages to deal with strangely-formatted international addresses.

What other difficulties can we expect? Any advice from those who've gone through this expansion previously? Do most of you use postal airmail for delivery, or do you get into UPS/FedEx/etc. for smaller packages (most of mine will be under 5 lbs)?

Thanks

[Receptional]

The biggest barrier is tax issues. It is a huge barrier.

If you send a craft item valued $50 to Europe, then you should pay import duty on that item (and before you blame Europe, it is the same for Europeans trying to deliver to USA). Also, Europe has a VAT system which is similar to your sales tax system - so in theory this also needs paying.

The net of all this is that transferring goods accross borders is really not easy on a commercial scale. What is best is for you to have a company based in Europe whom you own. You then sell goods to that company dirt cheap and ship to them. Then your European buyers buy from there, not from your main company in the States.

I tried buying a dvd from Amazon.com once instead of Amazon.co.uk because it sounded cheaper in US dollars. Not only did I miss delivery in time for Christmas (2001) it also ended up costing all and sundry more including me.

[moose606]

We sell both in US and export around the globe. We have US and International sections of our website, with different settings for our shopping cart. This way shipping is free in US, but not for intl. orders. We have merchant accounts, so credit cards are ok, but we require AVS, and CVV2 verification to avoid scammers. We also use UPS software, which takes alot of the difficulty out of exporting. We also state on our website, Duties and taxes are customers responsibility. So far, so good.

[Herath]

Use GeoIP software to log the customer's IP/location

Call the customer before shipping to verify address.

Block high risk countries (Nigeria, Singapore, etc)

Have a physical address for your website in countries where most of your customers come from. We get a lot of customers from Australia and we have a ghost(virtual) office there. It builds a lot of confidence in international customers.

[GarryBoyd]

You will have a little more work meeting customs requirements, probably 1 form to fill in. Attach an invoice to the outside, and one inside the parcel as well. Do not comply with requests to understate the value for tax purposes.
For small orders to hobbyists and small businesses, UPS is probably more of a nuisance and extra cost than airmail postage. This is because the courier will charge for customs clearances etc in the cost. If you post a low value item, chances are it will go straight thru, or the buyer can clear it themselves very easily over the counter by paying any tax.
With craft products you need to be aware of restrictions on raw animal products. As an importer I have been caught out on Native American products (feathers and fur) and a board game from UK that included seashells.
You could just divide the world into zones and have a fixed minimum freight cost for each zone that allows you to send your 5 lb box. Beware volume charges if your goods are light but bulky tho.

[wackal]

don't let some of the other comments discourage you from going international. There is a lot of profit out there for a US retailer selling overseas.

First thing, you are NOT required to charge or collect VAT or any other foreign tax. This can be a potentially huge price advantage, because alot of times VAT can be something like 15%-20% of the retail price. Also, the dollar is really low compared to other currencies, so international customers have more buying power now than in the past.

As far as fraud, you say you're not dealing with high value items, so your fraud rate should be very low. I would still recommend putting some procedures in place. CVV has been very effective for me.

Shipping costs will be expensive, but the local taxes in their country are usually very high, so most people end up saving money even with the high shipping. BTW, we use USPS Global Priority mail and the rates and service have been very good.

[martyt]

Thanks for the pointer to USPS Global Priority Mail - that looks like a pretty reasonable solution for shipping to many of the "most likely" countries I'd receive orders from. Most of my orders are under the 4 lb. limit so it's a good fit - and of course the free shipping materials are a bonus.

As for international CVV, should all cards have and support CVV now or are there only certain issuing countries that it?

And what about AVS? I'm guessing it's all but non-existant for non-US issued cards?

Do most of you accept orders from anywhere on the planet (with the exception of Nigeria, etc.) or do you have a much more limited list of countries that you'll accept orders from? I'm thinking of how I want to do the user interface for the checkout page and it seems like a drop-list of specific countries is really the only way to go.

[Morocco]

If you want to ship internationally you have to look into Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode. Just run AVS and these programs.

[wackal]

from experience, some cards support cvv and some don't. it's kind of hit or miss, but definitely ask for it, because that will reduce some fraud.

I've gotten some AVS matches from people living in the UK, but I can't say for sure if this is an error or real. I always assumed that AVS was US only, but never really took the time to investigate.

We also have an order limit to reduce how much we would lose if there is fraud. As for countries, I pretty much stick with where GPM ships.

[gazza]

To my knowledge AVS works in the US and now in the UK too.

CVV code should be required field and if incorrect reject the transaction. If a country or particular bank doesn't have CVV then you probably don't want to accept cards from them.

[jsinger]

I've noticed that many of the biggest U.S. commerce sites such as Walmart.com did not export when I checked a year ago.

Good enough for Walmart, good enough for me! Exporting is a ton of work. We don't do it.

But the weak dollar may make it worthwhile now for some products.