Basically, overseas is a gamble. But so far I've fared pretty well and they tend to be more honest then Americans, actually.
Non-USPS methods for shipment are unfortunately cost-prohibitive if you sell low ticket items. Of course you can pass the cost on, but not a lot of people will pay double or triple in shipping fees what they paid for the item. Go to ups.com or fedex.com and just play with the rate calculators on sample shipments based on your products and see the figures that come up. And ask yourself if you think your customers would pay it?
Now here's the formula that works for me, and my product line and costs/budget. It may not necessarily work for everyone so don't take this as gospel.
I ship all overseas using the post office because it is way cheaper. If I charged UPS rates to ship I would probably loose almost all my international business because I'm not selling plasma TVs or making 1000's in sales.
The potential lost sales FAR outweigh the small amount I've actually had in international chargebacks over the years. Sometimes in business you just accept there is going to be an inherent amount of losses you can't do anything about. This is cost of doing business:D
And use common sense, too, on where you ship. Stick to Western Europe, Japan, Australia/ NewZealand & Canada and odds are good you are dealing with regular people. Places that are big on fraud are: Eastern Block countries, Indonesia, Malaysia, Africa, although South Africa is OK, however.
And put transaction limits also for anything you don't feel comfortable with. Say limit of $xx.xx on international shipments.
Be up front in your sales policy that you reserve the right to refuse credit card payments from anyone that "your credit card processor" has alerted you as being suspcious.
That's right, it's really YOU who doesn't like what you see, but it sounds better to the customer if you blame some bank's security policies as to why you won't take their credit card.
|