If you run a business that regularly ships items overseas, the cost and complexity of international shipping can easily become a serious drain on your time and resources. Shipping in good time and ensuring your products arrive in excellent condition is essential to maintaining a good reputation, but keeping your margins in check is equally important to the long-term health of your business.
When sending large orders such as bulk or wholesale items, international shipping can become particularly problematic. Here are a few important considerations to help simplify the experience.
Courier services
Finding the right courier service is a vital part of honouring international shipping orders, particularly for large and wholesale orders. Take the time to shop around for a courier that can offer the best terms, and look out for couriers that also offer security and parcel tracking, plus affordable pallet services. Building a strong long-term business relationship with your courier service can provide important benefits and help you to streamline and scale your shipping processes more easily.
International regulations
Every country has its own rules and restrictions when it comes to shipping items in and out. Taking the time to research these regulations can help you to avoid numerous problems down the line. Certain items are prohibited or are subject to very high taxation in some countries, and levels of security vary considerably. It never looks good when you fail to honour an order, so take the time to research the whole market and make a call on where it’s feasible for you to ship your stock before you offer blanket international shipping.
Packaging
Packaging is especially important when shipping bulk orders overseas, because not only do you need to ensure that your items arrive in good condition, you also have to consider how they will be transported and how to ship them in the most cost-effective manner. Work with your courier service to explore the best options, and think about ways to make the process simpler. For example, is it practical to send several large orders in one batch and have them unpacked when they reach their destination, or does each order need to be shipped individually?
At ParcelBroker we specialise in multi-carrier parcel delivery services for small and medium-sized businesses. To find out how we could help you to fulfil your larger business orders, contact us today and a member of our team will be happy to answer any questions.