This is very difficult question to answer. There is, unfortunately, no win/win answer to this dilemma.
Depending on the product and the ship from and ship to country, this will dictate the cost to you to ship that product to that country. Even in the best of scenarios, it is costly to ship international unless you are shipping in bulk. You can't provide free shipping as that will erode your margins but even if you provide economical shipping there is a hidden cost. That being taxes,,levy, and duties that are charged for Import/export. This is out of your control really and the receiver has to pay for this. A lot of times this is by surprise and can gouge you at rating time with customers blaming you for these charges when you are doing your best to get them the product you order. It is a slippery slope when shipping international and cost should not be the primary concern as prohibited items and tax and levy or duties should be your concern.
There are ways around this and require drop shippers or brokers in the countries where you ship that would have your inventory on hand. Then you can ship to your customers in there country. If you want to investigate a great program to see how it may be duplicated for your business and international shipments, then I highly recommend researching EBAYs new international shipping program where sellers only need to worry about shipping their products to a US warehouse and the international shipping and all it's complexities are handled by EBAY leaving the seller out of this and making it much more compelling for the seller to sell to other countries.
Personally, I think TripleClicks should provide the exact same program for their ECAs. Perhaps maybe they will. Until that time, there is no economical and process free method to ship products to your customers overseas. If it's not monetary, it is customer service that will eventually get hit due the many different complexities of international shipping.
I wish I had a better answer. I hope this sheds some light on a few ideas though.
Good luck!
less
This is very difficult question to answer. There is, unfortunately, no win/win answer to this dilemma.
Depending on the product and the ship from and ship to country, this will dictate the cost to you to ship that product to that country. Even in the best of scenarios, it is costly to ship international unless you are shipping in bulk. You can't provide free shipping as that will erode your margins but even if you provide economical shipping there is a hidden cost. That being taxes,,levy,
...
more
