Going international!
When I started to branch out from just selling on eBay, who, to be fair, make international selling quite easy with their Global shipping programme, I took one look at some of the hurdles for selling internationally and bottled it.
However, over time I've become a little braver adding various markets as and when I can via this website and its not without its hurdles, the main one being that to post to many countries means that the buyer has to pay the relevant VAT and any other customs charges when the parcel arrives into their own country.
As of today, I've added New Zealand (Mainland) to my list of markets and it would appear that it is relatively simple to send lower value items there, albeit not cheap.
It amazes me that sending items all the way across the world to Australia and New Zealand is actually simpler than sending to Ireland or France!
I do plan to add more locations over time, as a one man band I do need to do this gently as to not overwhelm myself with any issues that may pop up along the way, so far I've sent items to Ireland, France and Australia and they appear to have been relatively straightforward, even where customers have the charges to pay the tracking suggests that the parcels have arrived safely - if you're one of these buyers, please feel free to share your experience with me either by email or on Facebook/Instagram, I'm always looking at ways to make things easier as I grow the business.
Eventually I'm hoping that Shopify will expand its managed markets function to smaller sellers like me in the UK, this will simplify the whole process even more!
Keep an eye on here for more markets soon, are you a potential customer in another country? If so, get in contact to give me ideas on which markets to open up next.
Have a great day!
Pezza