Approximately 30% of our shipments are international (tens of thousands a month), so we have a lot of experience here!
First, we only recommend shipping internationally unless you’re dedicated to growing your brand in a given country. Passively allowing your product to be purchased from any country is not a good strategy. The U.S. is a big place–exhaust this market first!
Second, when you are ready to ship internationally, we recommend restricting sales to large, developed international economies (at least initially). For example, Canada, EU, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, etc.
Third, when you’re ready to start, there are two broad approaches to shipping internationally. 1) ship product Delivered Duties Paid (DDP), meaning the customer pays for the Duties and Taxes (if relevant) at check-out on your store, or ship Delivered Duties Unpaid (DDU), meaning the customer just pays for the product and shipping cost when they check-out and then pays for any Duties and Taxes at the time of delivery. Both approaches have advantages and disadvantages. We have some clients who only ship DDP, some only DDU, and some a combination.
Regardless of the method, you’ll need to ensure you accurately charge your customer for the true cost to ship the product to them.
If you ship DDP (duties and taxes are collected at the time of checkout), you’ll need to set up your store to auto-calculate the duties and taxes due. There are many good Apps out there that we can direct you to.
This topic sounds complicated, but it’s very simple. Contact us today to strategize with our team on how to ship outside the U.S effectively.
