More Questions About International Selling

[digital*ghost]

Now that order has been somewhat restored to my store, I wanted to see what the general opinion on selling overseas is as it's something I haven't done before unless by specific request. 

I have been hesitant to open my listings internationally, in part, due to the frequent horror stories, usually relating to customers not realising the item was located on the other side of the world, or being charged customs fees - basically, things that aren't the seller's fault or responsibility, but get blamed for anyway. I wondered if, when put into context of overall international sales, these problems are an acceptable risk for most sellers. I am a small volume seller, with an average of 65 sales a month within AU, so one or two problematic buyers leaving negs or low DSRs has the potential to affect my account quite a bit. 

I mainly am curious because I know there would be more interest (in general) in my non-clothing items overseas than there is here, and they would go at large letter rates so, if I sent them that way, I would not be eligible for Seller Protection but I would remain competitive price-wise. (Currently these items range in price from around $10-$50, though some would have to go as parcels, for which I would use Pack and Track). I'm wondering if others frequently send large letter items OS, and what kind of percentage results in items not being received. 

Thanks in advance for any opinions / advice. 

[trulyspecialgoodies]

I average sending between 2 and 5 items a week to USA and Canada and have never (touch wood) had a package go missing. I send by regular air mail but also print out the PayPal packing slip which shows buyers address and get the post office to stamp it as verification of the address it was sent to. I have no idea whether this would be at all effective or useful in the event of an 'item not received' dispute - luckily I haven't needed to test it yet.

Judging by my two new red dots - maybe American buyers are less willing to communicate when there is a problem and that's something you might need to think about...

[digital*ghost]

My local PO once offered to stamp a handwritten list of names and addresses (during the C&S outage), and I did wonder whether that would be as good as a lodgement form (they refused to do it on a lodgement form unless I actually purchased registered), but I suppose that means they would likely be amenable to stamping the packing slip, which may at least help with an appeal at a higher level (except to US and UK, probably).

Sorry about your negs 😞 That's the thing I'm most worried about. Not problems, per se, but that people won't contact me about them if they occur. My Oz buyers are awesome, and I thankfully have really never had any problems that weren't my own fault but able to be sorted very quickly without drama (with the notable exception of one buyer who negged without contact at the end of 2011 for a black skirt being black and not purple). I know there are sure to be awesome OS buyers as well, but standard practices, procedures and expectations are bound to be different, and I have only ever heard about the bad stuff, so I suppose I'm wondering if there's enough 'good stuff' to balance it out. 

[chezzy]

It's a tricky one - I decided to give it a go recently but for the moment I am only

allowing it with smaller, flat items I can send in the International pre-paid

envelopes. It keeps it simple for me - I can pop them in a post box after hours

and I am not too concerned about the items being tampered with for their

pretty stamps 😉 Of all the ones I sent recently only one is yet to arrive at

its destination. But it is still less than 2 weeks since I posted it so I am not

too worried yet.

Obviously I am not getting official 'proof of posting' but I do take photos of

the items just before I mail them so I have extra records of the address

and packaging I used etc - should I ever need the information.

[davewil1964]

I sell books, mostly mass market paperbacks. As such, given I am pushing to compete with dropshippers offering new books sourced from the UK or USA, I sell OS.

I have the odd rare/valuable book, but I figure if anybody REALLY wants one of those they will find a way to contact me. But postage would be expensive as they would go with fully compliant Paypal tracking. Which often means proof of delivery, not postage.

[michael_500]

If people are preparred to pay postage why restrict your audiance?

I once sold a heavy cast iron motor (18KG+) and the only 2 enquiries were from the USA & Vietnam, postage estimates for both were between $250 - 400 from memory. Anyway after advising of postal costs I thought "well they wont be buying" and you can imagine my surprise when the item price jumped from $20 to $960 in the last 5 seconds and the only 2 bidders were these 2 guys. The American won and even wanted the item double boxed and paid the extra postage to do so! from memory his postage costs were around the $460 range, so dont assume they wont pay if they really want the item! Also I have never had an item not arrive. I used to sell approx 10% OS but since our dollar has gone up it is generally less, maybe 5% now.

[jensmanchester-australia]

DG - I sell quite a bit overseas and the only time I had a problem was with postage going to the US during last December when the USPS couldn't cope with the volume of parcels going into the country.

Usually on the USPS and Canada Post tracking sites the number on the green customs declaration form is trackable which helps if there is a Paypal claim.

For parcels which weigh over 2kg the blue customs provides proof of posting and is trackable on both those sites.

Generally the International Buyers are reasonable to deal with but the US buyers can be the most difficult of all as they have a tendency not to read descriptions and seem to think that everyone should list to suit them ie list in inches and not in cms. From my experience they are not very good at contacting sellers if there is a problem but with the new changes with the US buyer protection policy I think that is going to help sellers.

I also find that there are lot more non payers from International sales particularly from the US Buyers.

[digital*ghost]

Thanks for everyone's input. 🙂 I'm not sure how much of a difference the items I'm selling makes to anything, but they're not any kind of rare or collectible items in the traditional sense - handmade fashion jewellery, albeit often unique and not in an overly common style. I doubt they'd ever be the subject of a bidding war, and sure there might be one person every now and then that would like a $20 item enough to pay $25 for the kind of P&H that qualifies it for SP, but it seems a bit pointless to me in the long run to do it that way -  I just know that more people look for this style of jewellery OS than they do here (rough estimate would be about 15-20 international hits on other sites to 1 from Oz).

That probably makes it look like a no-brainer - the US is where I get the most inquiries from on other sites, but they've only converted to a sale once. The thing is, it's not exactly selling overseas that bothers me, to be frank, my items are (or were) available worldwide on other sites and it's impossible to qualify for Seller Protection with those transactions, it's selling overseas on eBay. ;\

The trepidation is kind of ingrained and automatic after all I've read, but I probably should probably just get over it and see what happens. :8}

[cezm2012]

I used to have all my items on my main selling ID available for overseas buyers - I've stopped because I'm working away from home at the moment and it's more difficult to answer any questions.

The take up rate wasn't huge but I have never had a parcel go missing. Customers have mainly been from the US (including a $15 book with $60+ postage), Canada (including a Canadian souvenir bought there in the 80s!), Italy (usually postcards) and the UK.

I have sent everything (bar the book) by regular airmail and have never had a problem yet. Because the items are relatively low cost, I'm prepared to wear it and refund if the item is lost.

[zenremix777]

Just send them as parcels. I think customs fees only apply to things over 500g or thereabouts, so you should be fine with anything under that. If in doubt, you can just state it in your listing like alot of sellers do.

I rarely send overseas but haven't had any of my parcels go missing. Aslong as you register them to be eligable for SP, all should be good. If anything, it may mean an Aussie buyer wins at a higher cost because they got into a bidding war with a buyer from overseas.