Selling overseas from a website - is it feasible from Thailand?

[zoroastra999]

I have an idea for a product which I'd like to sell overseas (largely in the US). It's lightweight, cheap (retails at about $20) and ships in an A4 sized plastic box 20mm thick. It is an original design. If I were to sell it, my customers would be individual buyers who found out about it directly from a website which I'd build.

Is this feasible? Is anybody doing anything similar? What are the legal / bureaucratic barriers?

Any advice would be appreciated.

[BKKdreaming]

The problem will be how long they have to wait for it to arrive in the post

do a test and send 5 of them to people you know all over the USA and see how long it takes to arrive

also the shipping cost can be all over the map , so check out "SAL and small packet" if that works for you,

small packet is up to 2kg and SAL is surface to the airport-air over the ocean-land from where it arrives to destination

Mailing will be you main problem . Thai Post seems to lose a lot of packages and the tracking is iffy , at least it has been for us.

OHHH one more thing , if you have someone in the USA mail 10-20 pieces by cheap surface sea post (8-10 weeks) and post from the USA

Edited February 6, 2015 by BKKdreaming

[dundas]

I sell on Etsy and have had reasonable luck up until now with Thailand Post. We use Express Messenger Service (typically 6-8 days), or as per the previous poster, small packet service (about 16-18 days). We favour the small packet choice - slower (although not always) but much cheaper.

A lot of people will baulk when they find a large shipping charge added on at checkout - and based on a $20 product, the extra would be a large % of the purchase price. Better that they know the total price (free shipping!) before they get to the checkout, in my opinion.

Having said that, EMS is so expensive that we can't include it in a "free shipping" price - so we've been trying to use the small packet service wherever possible.

There can be delays - which I think happen in US customs - that's my best guess based on what I can see when I track. There certainly are problems with the tracking system, but in my experience the Thai side is more reliable than the US. There can be a kind of limbo when the parcel arrives in US customs - it just seems to disappear, and only appears again when USPS get their hands on it. (Again, that's my best guess - don't know if it's true or not).

Our biggest problem has been USPS drivers having a bad day/feeling lazy in major urban areas where parking/access to buildings might be an issue. On two occasions, the intended recipient was at home (correct address) and still the driver did not deliver the parcel. In each case the driver marked the parcel "undeliverable at this address" and sent it back to us. In each case we shipped again and in each case the parcel was delivered successfully. Because we ship from Thailand we can only complain through the originating post office (Thailand Post in our case). I have never tried to follow up via Thailand Post, and if I did I doubt it would get results. So from what I can see there's very little consequence for USPS drivers in just returning international parcels they don't feel like delivering using the excuse of "undeliverable at this address." Makes the work day that much easier, but is also an ongoing risk to our relationship with our customers (not to mention the feedback we receive on Etsy).

For payment, we only use Paypal and so far have not been scammed. We sell hand made goods and as far as I can tell our (Etsy) clients tend to be honest people, fewer scammers than on another platform I could mention (but won't).

If you're going to sell on your own website you might want to consider how you're going to drive the traffic to your site.

Depending on how big your operation is going to be, you might also consider tax/employment (of Thai staff)/visa/work permit (for yourself) implications. Sorry I'm not an expert on these issues.

Edited February 7, 2015 by dundas

[2fishin2]

Ebay is just fine also.

[mike324]

Its feasible, like the previous poster said, shipping cost and delivery time seems to be the only barrier. There are hundreds of people selling from Thailand delivering goods all over the world, selling mainly small items. Most folks will probably complain about slow shipping or lost package. Don't think there are any legal barriers.

Shipping and delivery seems to be the biggest problem, perhaps its best to send in bulk to warehouses in the US, they will repack and ship for you for a small fee. You can have you website - online store sync to the warehouses system. I remember it was pretty straight forward and easy to use, just have to calculate to see if the fees are worth it. I forgot the name of website that offers this service, there are several. I can check and get back to you at later date.

[SlideRiceFC]

You can also consider Amazon and use their fulfillment service. Just ship the lot of them over there and let them deal with shipping when one sells. More hands off for you and some shopping carts integrate with FBA so even if you set up your own site you could still have the orders shipped by them. For a $20 product I don't know how feasible this is but typically the smaller items are most suited for this sort of thing. You might look into it and crunch some numbers. Losing a little of the profit might be a small thing compared to the fact that all shipping, payment processing, returns, etc will be out of your hands. It just depends on how much you value your time.

[zoroastra999]

Thank you for taking the time to write these very helpful comments.

One last thing - Is it legal to run a website for profit? Or, if it isn't, will the authorities take any notice?