A Brief Guide To International Shipping

By Author: QuickShift Axis
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If you own an eCommerce business and you are looking to expand your business internationally, then you have already taken a major expansion decision that many businesses hesitate to take. For making your international shipping hassle-free, you first need a strategy that works right for your business and your customers as well. This starts with exploring the available options and finding the right approach that will work in the long run.

As per Pitney Bowes, around 70% of online shoppers now shop from international eCommerce sites. The same report further states that around 93% of online retailers either already offer or plan to go into the international arena in 2019. Further, Statista states that the average order value of international orders is USD 147, which is around 16% more than an average domestic sale. The fact that businesses offer international shipping is likely to grow at a pace of 60% more than those which don’t offer it.

Guide To Offering International Shipping
To start shipping internationally, you need to plan on various parameters. The best way to do that, bifurcate your strategy into ...
... several fragments and start by building a strategy for your business:

Build the Right Strategy for Your Business
The first step involved with international shipping is building the right strategy for your business. These decisions will include factors like which product segments and to what regions of the world you intend to ship your products and what will be your carriers for shipping. A better way to do it is by engaging with a 3PL partner which offers international shipping.

Choosing a 3PL Partner for International Shipping
In recent times, many 3PL logistics service providers have emerged that offer hassle-free and seamless international shipping for your products across the world. 3 PL partners like Quickshift are getting popular for their expertise in multi-domain product shipping.

Getting Familiar With Country Regulations
Different countries have different regulations when it comes to international shipping. In many countries, imports and exports from some nations are banned, while some impose duties and tariffs on trade of certain product verticals. It is crucial to familiarize yourself with the regulations of the countries before starting your international shipping.

Prepare Your Packages
Once you have chosen your eCommerce fulfillment services in India and are familiarized with the regulations of the countries, it is now time to prepare your shipping packages. It will involve decisions like the minimum quantity required for shipping a product internationally.

Pricing Decisions
The last step in finalizing your international shipping strategy is preparing a detailed price plan regarding how much you will charge for your shipped products. This a crucial step as you don’t want to end up making losses while starting international shipping. Therefore, you should consider various parameters while choosing your international pricing strategy, or you can take the help of a pricing consultant with domain expertise.

How does a 3PL Solution Provider help?
It is not a hidden fact that there are so many decisions involved in building an international shipping strategy that it is difficult for an eCommerce business to plan everything on its own. With a highly competitive online market and an expensive talent pool, it is not easy to keep up with the competition while managing your product line and also focusing on other verticals like marketing and finance.

A 3PL solution provider helps your eCommerce business with their experience and optimized supply chain that they have established over the years. Also, international shipping from India or other countries doesn’t come without glitches so it’s best to let an expert do their part.

The best thing about engaging with a 3PL partner like Quickshift is that while all the external operations are controlled by them, you still get to take your internal decisions like product delivery, pricing, deliverable regions, etc.

Conclusion
Basic international shipping decisions involve the choice of methods and means for cross-border shipping like what and how to ship, to where and at what costs. You can start by giving these parameters a thought and thorough research will help by making your decisions validated by facts.

Lastly, it is always better to keep trying out new techniques and approaches. Smart 3 PL partners like Quickshift try innovative methods to make your international shipping seamless and you can join hands with them in pioneering new standards in the international shipping area.

Shipping in itself is a season and fluid industry, be ready to apply and re-apply your strategies while keeping a tab on the recent trends and developments. In the end, it’s all about keeping the customers happy so that they keep coming back to your site to buy online. After all, globalization is the future. Happy international shipping!