What is Cross-Border Shipping? In the simplest terms, it refers to the process of shipping goods/products from one country to another. Different modes include air freight, ocean shipment, and roadways transportation. For online sellers to reach a wider audience, cross-border shipping is integral to their overall logistical and supply chain. Despite its complexities and long duration, the right international shipping services enable an increased market reach, better customer experience, and higher profitability for online selling businesses.
7 Ways International Shipping Impacts Your Supply Chain Strategy
After gaining the right insights on cross-border shipping and its significance, the next step for online sellers is to understand how it can affect their supply chain strategy. Particularly for online sellers from India keen on scaling the business worldwide, these considerations are all the more important.
- Financial Considerations– Exporting products to a foreign country implies that you need to pay import duty, taxes, and customs fees as applicable. Of course, these financial implications greatly vary depending on the destination country and its regulatory framework. While pricing their inventory, calculating logistical expenses, and setting profitability targets, these additional costs should be kept in mind.
- Transit Susceptibility– Be it for lost/damaged shipments or customs delays, availing of cross-border shipping insurance from a reputed global service provider is a must. Online sellers need to sequentially assess and be prepared with all the necessary preventive measures to cover the vulnerability of their goods during international transit. Not only do online selling platforms assist sellers with contingency planning, but they also have concrete seller-protection policies in place.
- Inventory Management– To build a successful international sales network, you need to intuitively manage inventory in multiple zones to lower shipping costs and transit time. Overstocking can lead to wastage, and understocking can cause products to go out of stock. The stock levels, replenishment, and demand forecasting between different regions should be conducted meticulously.
- Transit Time, Delivery Cycle, and Documentation– Depending on the target country’s customs clearance procedures as well as the type of product being shipped, the transit time can greatly vary. Before listing their products for sale in a specific cross-border region, online selling businesses should meticulously go through the rules and regulations. Accordingly, prospective customers should be notified of possible transit delays and any additional charges that they would be required to bear. Overall, these considerations profoundly impact the SOPs for supply chain management. Liaising with the right shipping services partner can ease you through all the documentation and correctly align your supply chain strategies.
- Localization Parameters– For online sellers from India, managing a cross-border supply chain is certainly more complex than overseeing a regional/national logistical network. Apart from the financial regulations, different linguistic and cultural parameters have to be factored in. The shipment labels should be printed in the local language, and the packaging standards should comply with their regulations.
- Facilitating an Expansive Customer Base– From handling returns and providing round-the-clock customer support to prompt shipment tracking and delivery updates, catering to an international customer base warrants the latest technology, resources, and expertise. Online selling platforms facilitate customer support services for registered sellers, making managing such expansive logistical operations easier.
- Market Research and Expansion– Not only does cross-border shipping open up new sales avenues, but it also provides higher scope for holistic market research and expansion in different countries. The supply chain strategy in unfamiliar territories should focus on proper data collection/communication to aid future expansion plans.
Conclusion
On one hand, cross-border shipping opens up phenomenal business expansion opportunities, and the associated challenges should be tackled strategically. For online sellers from India, eCommerce platforms provide extensive resources and support to navigate this realm effectively. With ample research, careful planning, and collaboration with a seller-friendly online selling platform, a robust global supply chain strategy can be formulated for better cost optimisation, enhanced customer service, and higher profitability.
