Overseas shipping is the practice of moving one or many things from one country to another. It is done mostly in cases when the brand or the seller resides in one country and the buyer is in another country. Overseas shipping has its pros as well as cons just like every other thing. Following are some of the advantages and disadvantages of overseas shipping. By having a look at both, you can decide if it is beneficial or harmful.
Advantages of Overseas Shipping
• Expansion of Business: When you provide overseas shipping of your products, your business expands. This happens because the larger market gets to know about your brand. E-commerce trading with other international markets will begin and your business will progress.
• Brand Recognition: Once the products are introduced in the markets overseas, the brand gains recognition. More people learn about your company and the product you sell and that earns your company an internationally-known name.
• Globalization: Overseas shipping is a great cause of economic globalization. Different businesses belonging to different countries form a connection and exchange things through overseas shipping.
• Intermixing of Cultures: When the customers know that they can order stuff from abroad which will reach them through shipping, they prefer to order those things that are not easily available in their area. For example, people of the East would prefer to order western clothes from the countries of the West. Similarly, Western people will buy Eastern specialties. This way, the cultures of different regions intermingle and give way to the formation of new ideas and things.
• Easy Accessibility: One place cannot own every variety of the world. What is present in one place may be absent in the other. Through overseas shipping, the customers have easy accessibility to a diversity of products. Previously, people had to select a foreign product and ask one of their relatives living abroad to buy that for them. These days, it is a matter of days only. Order a thing sitting in Africa and you will receive it in less than a month from Australia.
Disadvantages of Overseas Shipping
• Increased Costs: The process of overseas shipping is expensive in the beginning as you have to invest in the marketing campaigns. You need to invest in business first, especially if it is on the international level. Moreover, for customers, it is not cheap. They have to pay much more than they do for local shipping.
• Dealing with Paperwork: Many countries require documentation for trading overseas. You need to clear that official work first to start overseas shipping of your products.
• Increased Competition: Selling items abroad is tiring because then you become a part of a race. You have to compete not only with other international companies but also the local companies of the countries you do shipping for. Local companies have lower prices of shipping so it becomes an ordeal to compete with them. Also, you need to upgrade your standard too as the competition gets tougher than before.
Overseas shipping has more advantages than disadvantages but the decision is yours- whether or not you can handle the few drawbacks it has. If you can, then you should give it a shot.