International orders have huge potential for all e-commerce businesses. If you want your business to grow, offering international orders is a great way to build your customer base and ensure you have access to the widest market possible.
This is true even for small businesses that plan to sell just a few items internationally. Some 70 percent of customers shop globally, which has only increased over the past few years.
If you don’t offer international orders, you may be left behind the competition. More than 90 percent of businesses already offer overseas shipping. For many customers, it’s become the norm. Small businesses can compete with larger e-commerce businesses, which will require adapting to the global market.
While shipping can be complicated even domestically, you may also be intimidated by the process of accepting and shipping international orders.
It is true that shipping internationally is a little more complex, but the benefits of shipping internationally almost always outweigh the costs. Here are steps that you can take to modify your e-commerce business to meet international orders.
Key Guidelines for International Shipping
Most major U.S. package delivery services offer international shipping and will provide assistance in the form of services like customs brokerage and international package tracking. While these services exist, you’ll still need to ensure the items are correctly packaged and labeled.
Depending on the kinds of goods you’re shipping, packaging guidelines can become pretty complicated. For example, any hazardous material by the UN will be labeled with UN packaging codes. These codes relay certain information about the cargo being shipped, like the level of risk and composition. Could you provide this information when shipping hazardous materials? Otherwise, you risk having your parcels held up before it reaches your customer.
Certain countries prohibit or restrict importing specific goods. This won’t be a problem for most products. Still, animal and plant products are often tricky or harshly regulated due to concerns about potentially introducing invasive species or diseases or the unintentional facilitation of animal trafficking. For example, if you have customers in France, you won’t be able to ship them honey without a government-approved certificate of origin and non-infection.
Food, alcohol, and prison-made items are also typically regulated slightly more heavily than other goods. The USPS has a full list of international shipping restrictions on its site. Each entry covers items that are banned or restricted in a country or region and any special packaging or shipping requirements for that area.
Additional Costs of International Shipping
Beyond differing regulations and standards, the biggest difference between international and domestic shipping is probably the cost. International shipping will almost always be more expensive than domestic shipping — and because of varying taxes and shipping services, it can be more difficult to predict exactly how much an order will cost to ship.
Be aware of potential hidden international shipping costs, handling charges, local duties, and taxes. Many global carriers and shipping services, like USPS, offer calculators and fact sheets you can use to estimate the total cost.
If you’re concerned about your shipped items being damaged in transit, package insurance may be a good investment, especially for particularly valuable or fragile packages. Many global carriers also offer fairly cheap package insurance. USPS, for example, will insure international packages for around $1 per $100 of value.
Managing International Customer Checkout
Once you know how you’ll ship your packages and how much they will cost, you’ll still need to prep your storefront for international customers.
It’s a good idea to ensure a localized checkout experience — and e-commerce experience in general — where possible.
You can use customer location data and user preferences to automatically convert storefront prices from USD to a local currency so that customers don’t have to calculate how much they’ll spend. Setting your payment processor to accept other currencies can also help prevent surprise foreign transaction fees, which can easily lead to cart abandonment.
Most shoppers prefer to purchase on websites in their native language, meaning translating your storefront and checkout can make them more comfortable. This may not be practical for every business, but if you want to target a specific, nearby country — or you notice many of your customers speak a specific language — investing in localization can be helpful.
Consider offering multiple delivery options for international shipping. International shipping isn’t cheap for you or your customers, and many overseas shoppers are willing to wait a little longer if they can cut back on shipping costs.
Some fees may not be avoidable. For example, if you’re shipping to an EU country, you’ll probably need to collect a value-added tax (VAT) from your customers. You should clearly communicate information about potential fees on a policy page and in other relevant locations, like your shipping information page. This will help ensure your customers don’t feel blindsided by these costs when checking out.
Prepping Your E-commerce Business for International Orders
If you want to access the widest possible market, your e-commerce business needs to offer international orders. Shipping these orders will be more complicated than managing domestic orders, but the benefits can easily outweigh the costs.
Most major mail carriers in the U.S. offer international shipping services, calculators, and fact sheets that you can use to estimate costs and prep your packages. Some items will need special packaging — like hazardous materials — and others may be prohibited altogether depending on where you ship your goods. For the most part, however, you’ll need to research and prepare for extra costs, like customs fees, shipping fees, or local duties and taxes.