When you make your living off retail sales, you don't want to turn away anyone who is poised to give you their money for your products. But there is one selling arena that can be little tricky - international sales.
Unfortunately, any number of seemingly perfect international sales opportunities could very well be scams in disguise. As you consider selling internationally, there are some precautions you need to take to make sure you don't end up the next victim.
Where Do You Want To Sell?
While you may want to think the whole world is your oyster, there are some parts of the world that may not be the pearl you hope they will be. Some countries are more common locations for fraudulent buyers than others. For example, many areas of Eastern Europe are seemingly havens of fraud.
As you expand your business activities around the world, start with areas you are comfortable selling to - such as the UK, Australia, or Canada.
Eventually, as you learn the ropes of international selling and how to spot a scam, consider adding other countries to your list of places to do business.
What Payments Will You Accept?
It's best if you take payments that are international, such as PayPal. The PayPal website will allow you to accept payments from people with accounts in any country. It will also take care of all the monetary conversions. If you use a credit card service, you can run any credit cards through your system.
Be leery of someone who wants to pay you through a wire service or by some sort of odd check. Many alleged "wire payments" are really scams that can make you believe you have money waiting so you will ship a package, but in reality, there is no money when you go to claim it at the wire transfer office.
Also, international checks can take much longer to clear than domestic ones. They may well be bad checks that you won't know about until you have already shipped the item to the fraudulent buyer.
If you plan on accepting international checks, at least wait until the check clears before shipping the item. But the best advice we can give you is to not accept international checks at all, especially from buyers in high-risk countries.
Shipping
International shipping is not like US shipping. Prices can vary substantially for the same package depending on the destination. Make sure to weigh your complete package and use an
online shipping calculator to find the proper weight and shipping price before you send the buyer the cost.
International shipping requires extra forms to be filled out as well. Some customers from other countries will ask you to lie on the customs forms you fill out to say the items are a gift, not a purchase. They're trying to avoid duties charged by their country. If you're caught in the lie, you can get in trouble - so don't do it.
One big problem with international shipping is being able to prove the package made it to the destination. You should purchase insurance and tracking (and charge the buyer for these services); although when shipping out of the country, being able to keep track of a package is spotty at best.
If you don't take these precautions, you may well find that fraudulent buyers will claim they never got the package and ask for their money back, even if they did receive your items.
Legalities
While some things are legal to sell in the US, they are not always okay to sell in other countries. Before you ship your items, make sure the things you are selling are legal to ship into the destination country - or you could be considered someone trying to ship in illegal contraband.
While it sounds like more of a nightmare than it's worth,
doing business internationally can be a very profitable venture and a rewarding experience. You open your business to multitudes of new sellers who may not be able to get the items you offer in their countries.
The important thing to remember is to balance the possible profits with caution and research to know what you are getting into.
