The opportunity to grow your business beyond your own borders is significant.

There are many benefits of expanding your business into international markets.

Cross-border sales can be a big lever for new customer acquisition. The nature of borders has changed, especially on the internet. You almost certainly have international visitors to your site and your social media channels already, so why not cater to them by offering international shipping? By tapping into markets like Asia, the US, and the UK, where online penetration tends to be higher, you can increase your reach and your sales.

Challenges like managing customs, duties, and order tracking capabilities when a package leaves one country and enters another can make global shipping costly and difficult to manage. Here are some things you need to consider if you want to grow your international customer base and keep them.

The first step to offering international shipping is deciding which countries you want to support and which products you want to offer. This should be based on customer demand, product-market fit, shipping costs, and any barriers to entry, such as language differences. Look at your existing website traffic to see which overseas markets you should focus on initially.

Depending on your product range, you may want to limit your international offer to items that are cheaper and easier to ship overseas, such as apparel, rather than furniture. You should make sure there are no onerous restrictions or prohibitions on the items you plan to sell. Food, alcohol, and pharmaceuticals are some of the most commonly restricted product categories.

Because shipping costs tend to be higher for international orders, make sure you are transparent about your rates to your customers, and that you include the cost of any taxes or duties that may apply on arrival, so customers know the fully landed cost before they decide to buy, and can make an informed purchasing decision.

Generally, the countries you ship to require you to pay customs duties and taxes on products you import. However, most countries usually also apply a de minimis, which is a threshold that can be based on an item's value or weight. Items that fall under the de minimis are exempt from customs duties and taxes. Find out what the de minimis values are for the countries you want to ship to, and whether or not customs duties and taxes are likely to apply for your shipments.

For more information about international costs of shipping, see the International duties and taxes article.

Incoterms are a set of international commercial terms that clarify the responsibilities of buyers and sellers in a foreign trade contract. They are used to avoid confusion and disagreements between international trading partners.

Incoterms set out who is responsible for transportation costs and risks at various points during the shipping process, and different incoterms can apply depending on the mode of transport you use, and the type of goods you are shipping. Both the buyer and seller need to agree on the specific incoterms that apply to their transaction.

The most common incoterms used in B2C shipping are delivery duty paid (DDP), and delivery duty unpaid (DDU/DAP). For more information on incoterms, see the Understanding incoterms article

Tracking can be more difficult for international orders but is in many ways more important for consumers than with domestic deliveries. There are many more opportunities for orders to get held up, such as when they are clearing customs, so it is important to keep customers updated every step of the way.

Shippit offers SMS and email notifications that comply with GDPR regulations for deliveries into the European Union. You can also make use of Apple Wallet tracking.

For more information about tracking, see our Tracking status definitions article.

Customers want delivery to be fast and affordable, but they also want their goods to arrive in good working order. Make sure you are packing your goods effectively and efficiently, and that you have good picking and packing techniques. You can reduce the overall fulfilment time by automating some of your shipping processes, such as generating shipping labels, to speed things up even further.

For more information about picking and packing, see: