A guide to increasing your business potential by offering international shipping for small items (under four pounds), including most clothing, while maintaining the equivalent of seller protection.
Why offer international shipping?
Simple - it increases your customer base. More potential customers equal more sales. If you run auction style listings, remember; International customers not only increase the value of the items they win, but also the ones they don't.
What service to use?
This guide is targeted at items weighing under four pounds shipping weight. In this case, the answer is almost always USPS First Class Mail International. Why? Simple - it's the cheapest possible option, it's dependable (from the US. More on destination countries later), and it's relatively quick. An inexpensive shipping option will raise the potential value of any item you offer it on.
But what about PayPal Seller Protection? Am I covered?
No, but you don't care. Read on.
In almost no case is USPS First Class International Mail covered by PayPal Seller Protection. Contrary to popular misconception, neither is USPS Priority Mail International in most cases (it is trackable to "some destinations" - the problem here is there's no readily available list of what those destinations are). USPS Express Mail International is the only international service to consistently meet the requirements of PayPal Seller Protection in every case. To make matters worse (or so it would seem), USPS First Class Mail International can't be insured at the Post Office. For this reason, many sellers who ship international choose to offer only USPS Express Mail International. While there are no hard data, common sense would dictate this would drive away many potential customers, and significantly lower the item value for those who stay.
The answer? Third party insurance. And it has other advantages as well.
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