What things do you need to know before start selling internationally?

[nightcrawler-games]

Im thinking about trying... what do i need to know?

What i have found at the moment....
* Read and agree to eBay.com.au's International Selling Agreement.
* When you list an item, select International postage locations and/or exclusions on the listing form – either "Worldwide" or particular regions or countries.
* Specify locations you don't post to in My eBay, and apply these to all your current listings.
* Paypal Fees will be Standard rate (Cross-border Transaction): 3.6% plus $0.30 fixed fee.
* Australians registered on eBay.com.au with a Featured or Anchor Store subscription can benefit from discounted or free insertion fees for fixed price listings on international eBay sites.
* If you list directly onto an international eBay site you'll be charged the final value fee for that site.
* If you're listing on eBay.com.au and you've specified international postage, you'll be charged the eBay.com.au final value fee.
* Pack and Track International seems like a good international postage option (http://auspost.com.au/media/documents/international-post- service-guide-aug15.pdf )
* Fill in the declaration form at the post office.

Do you sell international? would you recommend doing it?

[theforcemedia]

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@mias-little-corner wrote:

im thinking on selling small lightweight items, something totally diferent to what im selling now (i know about the diferent dvd/games region codes), probably in a new account (i dont like mixing diferent types of products)...

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Ah, I had a feeling you would say that  

[ourphonecase]

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@theforcemedia wrote:

I get a ton of sales from Canada. My products are sent in small/large letters. Rarely any problems.

Occasionally to the other countries you mentioned, and again, only the rare problem.

Come to think of it.... I actually did have problems with items not arriving when I began selling internationally. Then I got some information regarding that little 'Air Mail' label. Basically, the letter will travel by air from Australia with just a simple 'international stamp'. But if it needs to travel by air once more to reach the destination, it must have the 'Air Mail' label.

I now stick one of those on EVERY international letter (in addition to the postage stamp) and I've had little trouble since.

The cheapest tracking available seems to be Pack & Track which costs a minimum of $21.10 - that's with letters and parcels. Not sure where you got the $60 from.

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Then you are extremely lucky because I ALWAYS have problems with the countries I've mentioned. It seems you ship in a thin envelope judging by the products you sell where as mine is a bit thicker (just under maximum letter size), so I guess we have different experiences on posting overall.

I don't use Air Mail label anymore since the local post office told me that it wasn't required since it was already on the international stamp.

I've never seen the Pack & Track before and I've even been over the counter to post something as simple as a $2.00 phone case for $60.. Bloody hell.

[theforcemedia]

Yeah good point, my letters are thin enough to go through the mail sorting machines without any problem. That probably helps a lot.

Yeah, it's not required for the plane ride out of Australia. But for example, a letter going to Ireland will first arrive in Britain. If it doesn't have the air mail label, it wont be allowed to go on the second plane ride to Ireland. (I'm not sure if Ireland requires 2 planes actually, but you get the idea). Some countries it might be ok, some not.

Wow! Sounds like you need to find a new post office 😛

I think the Express International Letter is around $60. Anyway, Pack & Track works great. I've not had any problems with P&T parcels.

[jacleo36]

describe carefully, if there are any faults say in your title, read description. Many people buy believe it or not without reading the description its true I do not joke!

[theforcemedia]

100% correct jacleo36!
I think it's mostly people buying on their phone, they just read the title and that's it!

[chameleon54]

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@transport-posters wrote:

Be prepared to ask a lot in postage to send things overseas, and even more to add tracking.  A lot of foreigners expect there to be standard tracking but are usually good about it when I tell them it's not standard.  It really helps to sell something no one else does so that a buyer will really want it and will pay the AU overseas shipping prices to get it.

If you sell heaps of items overseas, pre-fill out your customs declarations in batches so all you have to do is fill in the date and month.  It saves a lot of time on packing day.

I checked and saw that ebay.com has a 10% FVF compared to our 9.9%, I had hoped it was lower.

Make sure you pack the items well to handle many bumps and handling as they pass through many more depots/transits compared to a domestic parcel.

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It pays to buy an address stamp with your name, residential address and Australia written on it. You can use this to stamp the centre section of customs declarations, saving heaps of time when filling them out.