You may consider international shipping if you want to ship from your local storage space.
This gives you three options: express shipping, which arrives within 1-3 days; air freight, which arrives within 5-10 days; and ocean freight, which takes 20-45+ days, depending on the routes. Express shipping is the fastest but most expensive, while sea freight is the cheapest and slowest.
You might be able to offset the shipping cost by increasing the product price and still offer a reasonable shipping fee to customers.
However, the real challenge is dealing with customs and other unexpected events during the long route, which may delay the package further.
Chances are that you cannot afford that delay. Why? Because around 1 in 3 shoppers will leave the carts if the shipping time is too long.
Neither can you overpromise the timeline, as the disappointment can backfire. In fact, a single bad experience can make 61% of customers switch to another option.
That’s where the international warehouse can help.
Having the inventory close to customers significantly cuts shipping costs and a faster delivery time.
If you ship from the warehouse within the same country as a customer, you can waive all the customs clearance.
You’re looking at shorter distances if you ship from the nearest warehouse to the customer’s country. Plus, less can go wrong during transit. Delays from bad weather or other hindrances caused by transporting goods over long distances are automatically reduced.