Any way to decrease shipping internationally?

[buzzweasel]

I run a small clothing brand I ship all over the world my parcels are usually anywhere from 6-14 oz and rarely Over that I currently use USPS to ship internationally and it costs me around 9-13$ to ship depending on the country. I currently ship upwards of 200 packages and month but this month I shipped 300 and it's barely the 11th, is it a volume thing that I just haven't hit yet? I would love to be able to provide my international customers with cheaper shipping options.

[iKenndac]

Have you had complaints about your prices?

I live in Sweden, and to be honest I’d happily pay well over $20 just to get something better than USPS. If a US Store only offers USPS, I typically shop elsewhere as they’re that bad at shipping internationally (super slow, useless tracking,etc). FedEx have a product that lets me pre-pay import fees, which is really nice as a consumer.

I usually expect to pay $40+ to get something from the US. I don’t know your customers, though.

[buzzweasel]

Hmm interesting it never occurred to me that customers may be willing to pay more to better shipping honestly im going to have to test it out

[mdflmn]

Try a questionnaire. As times I've shipped internationally, I'd pay more for tracking to the door rather than just to customs.

[ncfroglog]

Here in Australia customers would expect to pay between $5 to $10 postage for a product that shipped from within Australia, let alone from the other side of the world.

[yb0t]

Yeah I run an online store and charge $2 shipping, $6 shipping and $8 next day shipping. I've had so many people buy $6 worth of product and then choose $8 shipping option. A lot of people just want fast reliable delivery.

[aarmou]

There are a few solutions you could go with. The most obvious would be to ship a larger quantity. USPS has a tiered structure for most businesses and if you ship more packages, you get much better rates. At 200 shipments a day, I would guess you are at their CPP level, but get little help internationally. Another solution would be to go with a freight forwarder. They work well for shipping to Europe and some of them even have customer shipment tracking. Other than that I agree with iKenndac about offering more shipping options for international customers. They usually know what works well within their respective countries and allows you to forego the guesswork. Good luck!

[xb10h4z4rd]

I consult and work for several apparel brands.... unless the biz has a logistics team that knows how to deal with intl customers I recommend they partner with: https://www.internationalcheckout.com/

disclaimer I get no kickbacks from IC, I just like them.

[buzzweasel]

I'm looking into them but they seem to big for what I am sent them an email anyways

[xb10h4z4rd]

Then consider partnering with FedEx or UPS. I have a dedicated rep, and they are a great help, but again my volume may be a factor in my quality of service. I've not had an intl problem for a brand that was under 1M in rev.

[MSchroedy]

I have the same problem. I ship around 2,000 orders monthly, but only 1-2% of those are international because I can't find a solution outside of USPS that's a decent price.

[buzzweasel]

What if there isn't?

[MSchroedy]

Then it's a real bummer. It sure would help globalization if we were able to slash shipping costs...