How to sell goods abroad without overpaying for transport?
I am curious if someone has challenged the same problem. My small business prospering in Poland and I see big potential to open for other countries in Europe.
🤔 What bothers my the most is that selling to the individual client, I need to pay a transport fee which exceeds the value of my product :(
💡 Anyone could help or give some tips?
Is the product something that can be produced also in the target region like prints on a garment, books, CDs and such that can do small volume full fulfilment?
Can you think of even a few larger orders? Resell? Bulk?...
Do you have some predictable volumes? Can you handle managing remote inventory to bulk move it?... (To a local fulfilment centre..)
If it's all one of a kind or short shelf life... Can you charge more there?
You need to think wisely about logistics, but the approach to expand internationally is rather simple.
You pick one country, not 25, and you target it as you international "audience" , you sell at a loss (basically charging the same shipping fee as you charge for domestic shipping). Once you have enough data, let's say 1 months of sales analytics, you can predict sales volume. So you basically send a container of your products, it takes 2 weeks to 5 weeks to the destination country, and you use a full filment service (ideally a partner) to deliver each order to each customer from the hub.
It costs in warehousing no matter what hence It's only worth it at a certain volume (half a container) getting sold in days, not months. So that's why you pick one country and experiment first, then you rinse and repeat.
I'm also from Poland and looking at similar challenges. No tips yet, but let us know something more about your product.
This comment was deleted 3 years ago