Congratulations.
Your small handmade business
is now growing with customers coming in from all over the United States.
Now, what's next on your business checklist?
Maybe it's time to go international.
Hi, I'm Mei Pak.
I help makers, artists and designers grow handmade businesses from scratch
and make a living selling their own beautiful creations online.
Practically speaking, the next step, after doing really well locally already
is to cover more ground to bring your products to different countries
by offering convenient, secure and reliable international shipping.
Shipping is a delicate aspect of running a handmade business.
You spend hours and hours creating all of your beautiful products,
and the worst case scenario is finding out that your products got destroyed
en route to their destination.
In this video, I want to help you master international shipping
and dealing with customs and duties and all that fun stuff.
I want to help you prepare
for all the paperwork you need to file and the packages you need to secure.
Avoid the fear and overwhelm of shipping internationally
with this practical guide I prepared for handmade business owners.
So let's get started building your international shipping strategy.
The first question you need to ask yourself is where will you ship your products to?
To determine which countries you want to ship to,
it would be helpful to do some research first.
Questions you could ask yourself are:
Is there already a demand for your products in those specific countries?
Do you have enough people interested in your products to make shipping
there worth it?
And are their local postal services reliable and trustworthy?
For example, if your product is knitted sweaters,
they're probably will be little demand in tropical countries
where there is rarely a need for warm clothing.
It is all up to you to add or limit the countries you're going to ship out to.
So do your research first before making your final decision.
The second question is, what products are you going to ship abroad?
It is also wise to consider which products can take the tossing and turning
and turbulence of international shipping.
The biggest fear that handmade business owners have is whether or not
their products will break during transportation.
If you can handle the risk of shipping fragile items abroad,
then you can add them to the list of products
you're going to make available for international shipping.
If not, you can always just choose
a few products that you're comfortable with shipping out.
Aside from this,
also consider whether or not your products are legal in each country you’re shipping to.
Each country has a specific list of prohibited
and restricted items.
You don't want to unknowingly ship products that are included in this list
and undergo so many legal proceedings or pay expensive fines.
Another question to ask is Will you offer insurance?
Shipping services allow you the option of getting insurance for your packages?
This is to minimize your risk in case of emergencies,
especially if the package gets lost or damaged.
Insurance is important for high value and fragile items.
So it's up to you to decide whether or not you're going to insure your packages.
But that's the idea of insurance. They help
you protect packages from unforeseeable events and worst case scenarios.
If your package is damaged or lost en route to its destination,
your shipping provider
may reimburse you a certain amount depending on the value of the item.
Your customers will definitely appreciate it
if you offer insurance for their packages if you sell higher priced products.
For me with my $28 jewelry,
insurance isn't usually worth it to my customers,
so this isn't something I've implemented in my own business.
Unless I'm shipping out, say,
a very large order or a wholesale order to a retail store.
Also, keep in mind that some services like USPS Priority and Express
include insurance up to $50 and $100 respectively.
You might now be wondering,
what are duties and taxes?
Each country has different sets of policies
regarding customs, duties and taxes.
This can get confusing.
So let me help you make it a little bit simpler.
Customs duties are fees paid to each country's government,
and it is meant to limit how freely each product can be let into that country.
And this limit depends on how each product affects the economy.
So this means duties do change sometimes. Taxes are also
amounts set by the government added to imported products.
Most countries implement value-added tax,
VAT or goods and services tax, GST.
The thing is, not all products are subject to duties and taxes.
Your package would first undergo inspection by the receiving countries
customs officers.
Then they decide if your package will need to incur any duties or taxes.
If they do, they'll send a note to your customer telling them
they need to pay up first before they can receive their package.
Now, who is going to pay for duties and taxes?
You or the customer?
If you want to give your customers a hassle-free shopping experience
you could build the cost of duties and taxes into your product prices.
This way you're taking one less thing off of their plate.
However, since not all packages and products get taxed,
I personally wouldn't build this tax into your product pricing
because then it inflates it for everyone shopping from your online store.
So there is another option. You can let your customers know clearly
upon checkout that they will be responsible for any duties and taxes
on top of paying for the product and the shipping fee.
The rule of thumb is that you should never have to pay for any of these fees.
Your customers should always be the ones to shoulder the shipping fee,
the customs duties and taxes so never let these fees cut into your profit margin.
Now, what documents do you need to prepare?
Dealing with customs can get pretty scary,
but let me simplify it for you.
Most countries require that each package has specific
documents, such as customs forms attached to their packages.
Now you can manually fill in customs forms at your local post office
or shipping software like ShipStation automates this process for you.
Since I have my ShipStation integrated with my Shopify and Etsy stores,
it already has all of the details from the order that we need to include
in the customs form.
For example, you need to specify each item's price type, weight and dimensions.
Everything has to be accurate
to speed up the process in customs and not delay your package's arrival.
Pro tip:
I recommend putting the customs forms in transparent and waterproof envelopes
or slip pockets like this that you can attach directly to the package.
So on the backside, there's a little sticky backing that you can peel off.
Put this directly on the package. And then inside
here is a pocket where you can fit in the customs forms.
And then a little sticky lining over here too -
when you peel off, you can seal it shut. Isn't that cool?
Most shipping providers offer slip pockets for free,
and you can get slip pockets on the USPS or even the UPS website.
How should you package your products?
Be very careful
when packing up your products to avoid all of the stress that comes
with shipping your work from one country to another.
So pack them up safely and securely. So that might mean doubling up
on cushioning or bubble wrap, especially if your products are fragile.
Make sure there is no room in the package for your product to be bouncing around
because that can break it.
You want your product to be snug inside the package.
Now I use padded envelopes for most of my jewelry orders
because they cost a lot less than boxes and they're cheaper to ship.
But I still put my jewelry in little gift boxes to provide them with more support.
Make sure to keep a record
of all of the steps you took to ship out your first international order.
This way you'll be able to build and replicate your international shipping
strategy and make the process easier, faster, and better in the long run.
So if you have any questions about shipping handmade products internationally
that I didn't cover in this video, feel free to let me know in the comments.
If you found this video helpful, please give it a thumbs up
and subscribe to my channel.
Stay on to watch this next video on the screen
for more tips on growing your online store.