What You Need to Know About Drop Shipping Internationally

What You Need to Know About Drop Shipping Internationally

Drop shipping is a merchandising fulfillment technique where the seller doesn't actually stock a product, but instead sells an item to a customer, buys the product from a third party and the third party ships the merchandise directly to the buyer. This results in the merchant never having to handle the merchandise. The major difference with drop shipping, from the standard retail-shipping model, is the seller doesn't own the inventory. Because of this lack of control there are a few things you need to know if you plan to drop ship internationally.

First, finding good suppliers can be extremely time-consuming. For most merchants having suppliers they can trust is a cornerstone of their e-commerce business, as partnering with an unreliable vendor will quickly kill your reputation. 

Next, it is critical to find an international drop shipper with reasonable rates, and statistics prove a high shipping charge will stop customers from completing their order at checkout. Bigcommerce EDI Integration provides a variety of ways to charge for shipping and you will be able to pick which foreign countries you will to ship to and what rates you’ll offer. 

Perhaps the biggest hurdle to successful international drop shipping is finding an e-commerce integration solution that will automate much of the process with an electronic data interchange, commonly referred to as EDI. This process enables order-procurement documents to be sent and received automatically, and is typically a mandate of any successful business that ships overseas. However, as currency types and exchange rates, as well as languages, differ abroad, so must EDI standards. 

In 1979, the ANSI, or the American National Standards Institute, created the Accredited Standards Committee to set up uniform EDI criteria. While the X12 standards are used in the U.S., the majority of the world uses EDIFACT transaction arrangements. EDIFACT is the accepted international-EDI standard that was established by the United Nations, and by adopting the international EDIFACT system you will easily be able to efficiently drop ship to countries around the world.

Selecting a qualified third-party EDI provider that can follow both the U.S. X12 and international EDIFACT standards will allow you to conduct business both domestically and abroad. This will free up your team’s time to handle more important matters, like focusing on how to expand and improve your business in other areas. 

Incorporating a strong EDI solution into your drop-shipping program will also help eliminate common drop-shipping risks. For example, back-ordering is one very prevalent danger typically associated with international drop shipping, but with EDI inventory is updated in real time to ensure merchandise status is always current. 

While Bigcommerce is arguably the best e-commerce integration platform in the world it is currently not set up to handle EDI. As well as a host of other services to help you integrate with Bigcommerce and other e-commerce platforms, Amosoft is a worldwide leader in presenting only tested and perfected EDI infusion solutions. Our Bigcommerce integration services, including EDI, are simple and straight-to-the-point, and most of all affordable. Contact us today to see how Amosoft can help your e-commerce business succeed on the international market.