How Expensive is International Shipping?

[platinum1400]

I recently had to return two dresses to a company in England. I'm in the USA. I rarely, if ever, send a package internationally, so I was shocked at the price. Some of the options were $200+!! The absolute cheapest option via USPS was $77. I never would have thought it would cost that much to send two lightweight dresses.

Is this in line with what other people have experienced? The weird thing is that I buy clothing from other countries (in Europe and Australia), but I've never had to pay anywhere near that much for the shipping. I'm almost wondering if the post office misquoted or something.

I was considering selling internationally, but if shipping costs that much, I don't think I want to deal with that. Thanks for any feedback.

[fm2000]

How much does the package weigh?

Try using eBay's shipping calculator, that will give you an idea what it will cost to send via USPS. It shouldn't be that much if the package is 2-3 pounds, but it will be pretty expensive compared to domestic shipping. https://www.ebay.com/shp/Calculator

When you sell internationally, you will also be charged 10% of the shipping cost you charge the buyer as an additional fee (on top of all your other fees), and with the very high cost of foreign shipping that 10% can be significant. You may need to factor that into your costs if your items are of a small value relative to the shipping cost. There is also the high liability involved with international shipping (buyer can claim it didn't arrive and be out the item and high shipping cost, or if the item is returned to you for whatever reason you have to pay to have it shipped back to you, unlike domestic shipping.) Depending on your item's value and your personal risk tolerance, it may or may not be worth all of the potential grief.

[martin2001]

The cheapest rates for packages up to 4 lbs are with pirateship. One price worldwide is $35.99 with 99% of packages (my experience) receiving the delivery confirmation. Avoid South America. Longer processing times at the Italian and Greek customs. The EU and UK buyers (also Australia and NZ) are charged approx. 20% VAT tax.