Worldwide seller risk to BRICS

[petfet]

Hello,

My name is Matthew, I've been stalking the boards for some time and I've gone several hundred (or thousands) post deep for advice and wisdom from those that have been in the eBay market for a while. Right now im in the process of creating a business plan or plan-of-attack for selling my product on ebay. I have a supplier, product and price-point in mind and I'm fully aware of the competition I have and posting best practices to rank well (Free shipping, returns, etc.).

The question I have is this:
Initially I will be focusing my sales efforts to the US & Canada however should I succeed I will expand my shipable countries to most of the world. After my research I've noticed a lot of people have problem with BRICS (or for those who aren't financially savvy BRAZIL (And LATAM/Latin America), RUSSIA, INDIA, CHINA & SOUTH AFRICA). Now I have no issues limiting these countries however they are known as "emerging markets" where the countries have far more growth than the developed world, so does it make complete sense to alienate these from my shipping, and potentially cutting my profits with the mindset of risk aversion and avoiding postal losses, etc.

Matt.

P.S. Thank you rose-dee, pierre & mr grumpy face (you know who you are! 🙂 for your continued help and advise on these boards over the years.

[mr.elmwood]

They may be emerging markets, but, they have far less disposable income. Think in terms of 1/6 a North American's spending ability.

Just making up numbers, my market breakdown is:

Canada 5%

World     5%

USA      90%

I am actually considering eliminating most of the world as I moving to retirement mode. Some areas are "opportunities". I need less of that in my life now.

I could do more in Europe if postage costs were lower, but, that is not going to happen. Logistics and disposable income can easily trump the desirability of your product.

[ricarmic]

You may have already read this thread, but just incase, here is my experience, and I do send a fair amount of stuff to these countries, especially Russia and China. Note that Russia is better these days....

http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/My-experience-so-far-regarding-self-insuring-more-items/m... 

[petfet]

Funnily enough your post was the reason for my follow-up. Your return rates whilst small have a very high return rate for a few of the BRICs, which is a cause for concern if your planning a growth based business.

[mr.elmwood]

What is the rate of growth in a market you refuse to sell to? What are the profits of not selling?

You are line itemizing sales. That is a one way ticket to failure. Revenue minus costs equals profit.

[pierrelebel]

"considering eliminating most of the world as I moving to retirement mode."

That is exactly what I did a few years ago. 

First, I eliminated all of South America, Eastern Europe and most of Asia.  Why?  A relative high percentage of shipping problems compared to Canada, USA and Europe.  Later I eliminated everything but Canada and USA.

Was there an negative effect on sales?  Yes, of course.  But, overall, it was better for me not having to waste so much time and efforts.  Some sales are not worth having.

In the meantime, back to the original question, it makes sense to start selling to Canada and USA only and build the business with fewer shipping problems.  Problems include potential overseas buyers complaining about and trying to negotiate high shipping charges or leaving less than perfect feedback and DSRs because of those high shipping costs.

KISS.  At least at the beginning.

Good Luck.

[ricarmic]

OK - If I was to suggest the order to keep them in, in my experience Russia has gotten a lot better in the last 6 months, so I would keep them, if you don't mind the extra work for Latin America I'd keep them second, and China/India/SA last.

When the time comes, you can expand to sell stuff anywhere, build margins in for a 1.5% or so loss rate, see what happens, and drop the ones where your loss rate/time consumed on questions etc is too high.

Your experience will be different than folks in other categories. Mine is in stamps, whatever you are selling will be different too..... and that more than anything would dictate the reason to start in north America only first then expand later.....

[reallynicestamps]

I've never had trouble with Russia and the former Soviet republics, but for some reason most of my sales there have been copies of Roberts Rules of Order. Which may actually explain why my problems have been few.

I've seen a suggestion that new sellers should check the countries that shipsurance.com will not insure. This gives a pretty good list of places that a reasonably large company has had trouble with, based on statistics rather than emotion.

You already know about never shipping overseas by Surface, I'm sure. But did you realize that you can set multiple shipping rates for international destinations ? The Shipping section of the Sell Your Item form allows you to Choose Custom Destionation several times. Could be useful.

But I agree with pierre, start with Canada and the USA.

Oh, and bookmark Google Translate. It can be helpful. Or hilarious.

[kh-leslie]

Hello Everyone,

Due to the age of the thread, it has been closed to further replies.  Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thanks for understanding!