subject: Tips For Cheap International Shipping [print this page] Whether you have an online business, a loved one in a foreign country, or just like sending that dude you met online presents it can get quite expensive to ship internationally. While most tips for shipping domestically apply to international deals there are a few differences that can be helpful to know when looking for cheap international shipping.
Do a Good Job Packing
The first and what to me is the most important tip with cheap international shipping is to make sure you pack the item extremely well. It has to cover a lot of ground or air in this case and may get jostled around a lot more than one going via ground staying in the country. This doesnt mean you have to make a perfect foam mold for it inside a airtight sealed box, although it couldnt hurt right? Just make sure everything in the package is secure and nothing jiggles when you shake it gently and add an extra piece of tape across the top for extra protection against accidently coming open. The reason I say this is a tip for cheap international shipping is because if the item isnt packaged well and breaks youll end up sending another one which is definitely a waste of money.
Condense Shipments
If you have a single buyer who purchases multiple items over several different venues, a prime example being someone winning four of your eBay auctions within days of each other. Well if this or a similar situation happens be sure to just combine them into one single secure shipment as this will definitely save you money. When you ship a package there is a base charge that you will get charged for every package and then other fees on top of it; and its by far cheaper to just get charged the base rate once and have the fees be a little higher due to the increased weight of the single package.
Compare the Rates
Now Im going to talk just a little about the different prices offered through different carriers. Now I dont endorse any carriers and Ive used them all at least once which tells me that they can all have the lowest price at different times, so from that Ive discerned the very valuable lesson to ALWAYS COMPARE RATES!! Never use the same carrier over and over again simply because you think they are the cheapest. Now I cant argue with people that have had bad experiences repetitively with a certain company, thats a whole different beast. But if your only reason for using a company is because you havent checked the competition then you have no right to complain about the high rates. The easiest way to find cheap international shipping that I know of is to compare the rates online since you get instant results and then know which carrier to take your business to rather than driving to all of them and then driving back to the winner. Online services such as ShippingSidekick will show you rates from all the different carriers back to back and can make finding cheap international shipping much easier.
So if you have a destination abroad you need to ship to be sure to pack the shipment securely into as few shipments as possible, and always, always, always compare the rates of the main shipping carriers.
