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Shipping worldwide is easier said than done. With Shipmondo, you can ship to destinations all over the world, but if you’re offering worldwide delivery on your web shop, there are a few things you should consider first.
In this blog post, we’ll be looking at both technical and strategic considerations.
Freight products and zones
We’ll get right to it and start off with the technical setup on your web shop. You have to set up delivery methods by zones on the vast majority of web shop platforms. This requires you to get familiar with which countries each carrier supports, along with which of the carrier’s freight products are supported in each country. In each zone, you’re setting up the same price for delivery and offering the same delivery methods, in terms of price, carrier and freight product.
Let’s go into a bit more detail.
When you use Shipmondo’s shipping agreements, PostNord, for example, is available in the Nordic countries when shipping from Denmark, but also other countries such as France and China. In Italy and Greece, you can only offer home delivery via MyPack Home with PostNord under our agreement, while in France, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, both delivery to a parcel shop (MyPack Collect) and home delivery (MyPack Home) are available when you ship from Denmark.
Each carrier is different in this regard, and setting it all up requires thorough preparation. You also need to consider how you will handle customs and VAT when shipping outside the EU.
An example for a worldwide setup
We’ve put together an example of a WooCommerce web shop selling to private customers (B2C) from Denmark under Shipmondo’s shipping agreements.
Denmark
Here we offer delivery via both PostNord and GLS. We offer home delivery and delivery to a parcel shop in both cases. So far, so good.
The rest of the Nordic region
We’ve grouped together the rest of the Nordic countries – Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands – in one zone. We can’t use GLS in this zone division, since Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands are not supported by GLS under our agreement. However, PostNord can deliver to all of the Nordic countries, but only with home delivery MyPack Home, to Iceland, Greenland or the Faroe Islands. Because of this, we offer only the MyPack Home delivery method in this zone.
EU
In the EU zone, we’ve put the rest of the countries who are members of the EU. Here you can use GLS’s product Euro Business Parcel. However, Malta is not included in this zone, since GLS doesn’t deliver to Malta. Instead, Malta is included in the last category, consisting of all other countries.
The rest of the world
So lastly, we have the zone that covers the rest of the world. Here we have DHL Express, a good option for delivery across borders and continents to all countries of the world. Hence, we have set up the DHL Express product Express Worldwide.
Pro tip: You can set only one price per zone, so it’s a good idea to split the zones up into even more zones, which allows you to offer more variation and even sharper prices for each zone. You can add as many zones as you like. Theoretically, you can set up a zone for each country.
Although a carrier and a particular product can be used in a group of countries, there may be a price difference on the actual freight from country to country. Therefore, it may be a good idea to do an additional segmentation. If you want to offer more carriers, you can make further division and compare prices to find the most optimal setup. For example, you also have the option of using PostNord EMS for overseas countries.
With this setup you can ship to the whole world and at the same time optimize your setup of delivery methods, so you minimize the workload and maintenance of shipping products and prices. This will also allow you to manage all your orders at once in your Shipmondo account. Among other things, you can book freight, and print labels and the required customs documents easy and efficiently. Your shipment templates will be imported into your order integration, so that you can add a template matching the delivery method. See the complete guide.
Alternatively, you can set up the shipment templates for the Denmark zone, and add another zone with the other countries, without adding delivery methods. However, you can set up only one price for all other countries. All orders will be imported into your Shipmondo account and you can manually book the freight for each order that you want to send abroad.
Local initiatives to bring you success abroad
Typically, it’s not enough only to offer delivery. It takes more to achieve success in a new market. Therefore, you should also consider your business foundation, marketing, language and payment methods. They are all factors which can affect your sales and success abroad.
First of all, you need to look more closely and assess whether your product or service is in demand. Is the product needed, and what do the cultural differences mean? You should also consider how to become visible in the country you want to enter; maybe you need to allocate more resources and manpower to marketing?
You also have to consider the language on your web shop. In many parts of the world, English is not widely spoken, so if you want to be spot-on with your communication, you may need a translator. Apart from the web shop, you should also consider how to tackle customer enquiries and support.
Last, but not least – well, in fact, quite crucial for your sales – are the payment methods. If the payment methods you offer aren’t supported abroad, it will be almost impossible to get orders. You have to look more closely into which payment solutions your potential customers abroad are using.
You can read more about local initiatives and the considerations that you should take into account if you are considering expanding to the Nordic region.
One last piece of advice: follow the demand
It can be a handful to offer delivery and open your web shop to the whole world all at once. It requires thorough preparation to achieve success in a new market.
So, you should consider splitting up the expansion of your web shop into steps where you feel that there is a demand, or you believe that it makes sense in your case. Sadly, there isn’t a checklist; it’s all about getting your timing right when growing your business.
You are welcome to send us an email at support@shipmondo.com if you have any questions about your options for shipping to a part of, or the whole world.
