# Shipping to Customers Outside the US



## tuan (Nov 11, 2006)

For those of you who ship to international customers outside the US, do you preset certain countries that you ship to or anyone from any country can purchase on your website? I see a few sites that show a shipping rate chart to different countries and I would like to show that on my site too but there are too many countries to list, how you one do this?
Are there countries that one should avoid shipping to altogether for any reason? Which ones are notorious for Credit Card fraud that we should all know about? Does one really need to pay attention to credit card fraud even if you have the security SSL installed on your site?

I would love to sell to Canada, Mexico, Australia, Western Europe and Japan. Is that a good list, should I reconsider any of thes countries or add any other that would boost my business?

What percent of US sellers here sell only to US customers versus those to sell to international customers as well?


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## rrc62 (Jun 2, 2007)

If you interface to the shippers servers, you can calculate shipping in real time to any country. Currently the website only calculates shipping for US customers, but I will add international soon. Canada is easy because the rate is the same regardless of where in Canada it goes.


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## peteVA (Nov 11, 2007)

You can ship with International Priority Mail using their International Flat Rate Envelope to just about all countries for $ 11.00. plus a buck or so insurance. I charge $ 15 and have no problem. 

That envelope will barely squeeze 2 XXXL's. If they want 3 or 4 I just charge $ 30 and send 2 envelopes, still cheaper than any other way, including the Priority box.

I simply say every 1 or 2 garments will cost $ 15 and go from there.


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## tuan (Nov 11, 2006)

peteVA said:


> You can ship with International Priority Mail using their International Flat Rate Envelope to just about all countries for $ 11.00. plus a buck or so insurance. I charge $ 15 and have no problem.
> 
> That envelope will barely squeeze 2 XXXL's. If they want 3 or 4 I just charge $ 30 and send 2 envelopes, still cheaper than any other way, including the Priority box.
> 
> I simply say every 1 or 2 garments will cost $ 15 and go from there.


Do you ship to any country or did you pick certain countries and set your software to only allow customers from certain countries? Someone said earlier that there are some countries to avoid because of credit card fraud but didn't list what those countries are. I thought the SSL certificate that you pay for (verisign, thawte, etc) takes care of that fraud stuff.


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## peteVA (Nov 11, 2007)

I don't have an SSL. Further, that just says that their information with you is safe, it has nothing to do with them paying you. It just tells your customer nobody can see their information.

I basically limit my sales to the UK, the EU countries, the Americas, Australia and New Zealand. I have sold to Egypt, Israel and others though. I don't try to sort it all out within the shopping cart, I let them all pay and then refund those I'm not comfortable with.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> Do you ship to any country or did you pick certain countries and set your software to only allow customers from certain countries?


I set my software to only allow customers from certain countries.

Mainly, I block certain countries out that have consistently shown a high rate of fraud for my particular store.



> I thought the SSL certificate that you pay for (verisign, thawte, etc) takes care of that fraud stuff.


No, the SSL certificate just make sure the transaction is secure and not intercepted by third parties.



> Does one really need to pay attention to credit card fraud even if you have the security SSL installed on your site?


Yes, you need to pay very close attention to it.



> Are there countries that one should avoid shipping to altogether for any reason?


That varies from business to business. 



> What percent of US sellers here sell only to US customers versus those to sell to international customers as well?


I don't think there are any percentage numbers that have been tallied.



> Someone said earlier that there are some countries to avoid because of credit card fraud but didn't list what those countries are


You can easily find the information in Google from news stories and such:

countries with ecommerce fraud - Google Search

high risk fraud countries - Google Search


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## Solmu (Aug 15, 2005)

peteVA said:


> That envelope will barely squeeze 2 XXXL's.


So someone else told me once, but when I tested I got three 3XLs in there.


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## peteVA (Nov 11, 2007)

Cheap shirts. I know with mine it's all I can do to get 2 in, and then I have to wrap with tape.


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## Solmu (Aug 15, 2005)

peteVA said:


> Cheap shirts.


Gildan are indeed cheap, but they take up more space than, say, American Apparel.


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## peteVA (Nov 11, 2007)

I don't do t-shirts like most of you guys. I only sell them from The Mountain, which are quite heavy material, compared to many.


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## tuan (Nov 11, 2006)

Rodney said:


> I set my software to only allow customers from certain countries.
> 
> Mainly, I block certain countries out that have consistently shown a high rate of fraud for my particular store.



When you don't ship to certain countries in fear of credit fraud, do you have to state in your "Terms and Conditions" that you don't do business with certain countries and do you also have to list what those countries are?

When someone from a country that is blocked in your software tries to order from you online do they get a message saying you don't do business with that country?


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> When you don't ship to certain countries in fear of credit fraud, do you have to state in your "Terms and Conditions" that you don't do business with certain countries


For a t-shirt site selling t-shirts retail, I'm not sure you need a "terms and conditions". I just only list the countries I ship to in the dropdown box on my site.



> and do you also have to list what those countries are?


See my message above about where to find lists like that. 



> When someone from a country that is blocked in your software tries to order from you online do they get a message saying you don't do business with that country?


In general, they can't order because their country isn't in the dropdown box.

The only time that they order is when it's a fraudulent order where they say they are a customer in the US, shipping to a place like Nebraska, but their IP address says they are from another country all together.

Then I just don't ship the order.


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