Have you tried selling your stuff to oversea customers?

Thanks very much, at least you understood my situation.

Selling in bulk is always a good idea even when you are selling locally because it allows you to save money and it's also good for your customer because you can also give them a bit of a discount because of the fact that they are buying so much from you. Selling in bulk internationally is a great idea because you can reduce the amount spent on taxes and delivery as well.

Yes manmad is right because you can loss more for a shipping rather than your passion in doing those products. So maybe if ever your about to do that I suggest that you gather more customers in each country so you can send you products for them at the same time, by these you can mainimise the cost of the shipping fee.

This is exactly how it works with selling stuffs overseas, it comes with extra add cost that won't be favorable to the seller because you will end up incurring cost that would almost cut off all your profits from the sale. Even sending money across comes with charges that takes a cut off your complete fund. There was this transaction that I had and roughly €300 was sent to me but my bank charged me close to €30 for the transfer.

Yeah, and the shipping fee can get really high, and you're forced to increase prices but the buyer won't buy the item anymore due to the price and the shipping fee, so unless you have a big company, it's not worth it.

Thanks, I had looked into Etsy, still could not understand the postage fee part. Since I am from Malaysia, sending handmade craft or card by air mail is a huge problem since I do not know the weight.

thanks for your advice, then I should start selling to Malaysia customers only. Until I can understand the oversea postage fee, then I could go for that. Better not take the risk.

I've done this quite often too, Darth, but I can't imagine anyone overseas really trying that hard to get some of my "junk" shipped to them, lol. I think that the best way to sell this kind of stuff is to do so locally--with a garage or yard sale. You can also take things to consignment shops or the like. The shipping costs alone, as you mention above, can kill or at least marginalize your profits when making international sales of physical items which only have moderate to low value.

Thanks I will try Etsy again. This time, I will ask the admin about the postage fee and then decide how much I should top up into my cost.

Selling overseas can be beneficial once you could be able to have that connection to sell to countries where your country have a favorable exchange rate. That should be a factor when you want to try out.

@Blank629
thanks for your advice, I will try on selling to customers in my own country first. Then I will search about the postage fees for foreign countries.

Yeah, you should always open at a small-scale first and think about opening overseas when you have seen success locally. There are some additional fees that aren't feasible for a starting business.

You've got to make research about shopify, if you're interested in selling items through the site. As a starter, learning from what others have done can really benefit you at the end.

I am working with one client on shopify. The amount per year seems to be above 350$ and more. So that's something definitely to consider as well. I have found out that it's kind of expensive. And also it takes more time and money to take off the shop. I'd say on that note it'd be reasonable to invest slowly into shopfiy.

You can do it better at local markets or you should check out the policies by your country government that support mini exportation. It's not always easy when we are starting out.

I think dropshipping also falls into the same. But here you are not doing the shipping. And that in itself is going to be really wrong. You can see that it can be really good option for people who are into selling without having to keep the stock. Here the sales will be offshore for sure.

oh, so you don't have to keep stock, just sell the item online and somebody will do the shipping? Is it alike a 3rd party?

I had heard of dropshipping too. I think this is a good idea to sell something that I don't have in hand, I don't have to keep stock and no capital. This is a good idea.

Dear gelotologist
I agree with you, it would be difficult to sell my stuff overseas since it may involve tax, service charge, postal service, declaration form, more expenses than I expected

The amount required to ship the packages is something that can be really scared depending on which countries will be in the transaction. The more geographically distant they are, the more expensive they are values.

This is extremely discouraging.

Yes I agree, that is the reason why I do not know the postage fee since I have not started to sell anything yet. Furthermore, the rates might change due to different countries exchange rates

But I think some of the sites we sell things through can offer to pay half of the transportation cost. Maybe it's not on all sites.

I'm aware of this, but I think unfortunately this option is not available on all websites dealing with this type of trading (something that I think should be 100% allowed, following - obviously - the appropriate rules).

oh you had faced this problem too? That is what I am afraid of. Imagine the cost of postage is higher than the item instead. Not worth it isn't it?

I've heard a lot about Ali Express, however, most of the comments I've read about him are not so encouraging. I think I would not risk buying anything using this site (unless it was something very difficult to find).

I have bought quite a few things there. It's legit I assure you. The only problem is that things take a long time to arrive. (2-3 months) My advice for you is to search for a cheap item you like and give it a try. You won't regret it!

2-3 months? Holly crap... Haha!

This is a long time waiting for an order, but if it's the only option... It's better to use a safe place to make the purchase (but it has to be something very special, haha).

Thanks fot the feedback.

That's good business for people to buy on Aliexpress while selling via other sites afterwards. I would definitely have a look at how possible it is for me.

I have considered a lot too but the only problem is that things take quite a long time to arrive and sometimes are delayed and stuck in customs. That would kill my profits!

I think any kind of problem - related to the work of the freelancer - can exist and be bypassed, with the exception of the language barrier. I really can't work that way.

In my opinion, this is the worst problem that can exist.

I haven't had any issues either. But I sell digital goods so when you're in that arena, little to nothing can go wrong selling to a customer in another country. It seems that for physical goods is where the problems arise. Because postal deliveries and methods vary from country to country. Packages can get lost, stolen, damaged - or miss their arrival date by miles.

Interesting--I did not think about this distinction, actually, but I should have since i do sell ebooks, and that is pretty much a guaranteed and instant deliverable product. The physical ones ARE the ones which come up missing at times, and that can be problematic and expensive. However, digital sales of digital products seem to a pretty safe bet. Good point here.

Indeed. I remember ordering a small pair of earbuds from China a few years back. Cost me around $4.00 and they never made it to me here in America. Granted - if I had spent $14.00 on those earbuds, their disappearance would've hurt more. But it was a lesson learned. The other way around, I am sure many American pieces of mail en route to China don't make it to their destination either.

My ex just told me about losing $130 dollars on an oversea purchase that she made with bitcoin and through her bank account. The whole thing looked pretty shady to me, but she would not heed my advice about it. I am not one to say, "I told you so", but she says now she should have listened to me. There is always a bit of a risk when ordering from oversea and international markets which you are not familiar with. I think it is best to do your research first before trusting your hard-earned money with sources you are totally unfamiliar with. There are just too many crooks out there.

Yeah I just had a shady job offering from a company looking to hire a freelancer to promote their company and increase their brand presence in the marketplace. I met the buyer who is from the UK through a freelancing site. He then invited me to a google hangout session where he attempted to recruit me and asked for all sorts of personal information (drivers license, bank accounts, etc.). Needless to say, I blew it up pretty fast and just reported him to the site overseers. Granted - it's okay to speak to a potential client on google hangout or any chat system if invited.

But according to the rules of most freelancing sites - once clients you meet at a freelancing site - try to lure freelancers into offsite contracts not protected by the sites terms of service policy itself - then it's a major red flag. That didn't worry me as much though since I have done business through paypal before. Invoices and all. But anytime someone asks for drivers license, bank account and credit card info for any job. Much less a remote (online) job where I'd be working a 1 month contract as their brand ambassador - that's a major warning sign.

It costs a fortune to send an item overseas, period. That's before you get to the size of the item - which also factors into the overall price.

Not really. You can sell digital goods to people overseas with ease. Physical goods take more research though. You really should stick to just a few countries. Mostly ones who have delivery and mail systems that are easy to work with.