Selling Across Borders
International selling expands your customer base beyond the UK's 67 million people to hundreds of millions of potential customers globally. The challenge has traditionally been logistics — how to get products to international customers without maintaining warehouses in every country. Several approaches solve this problem with different trade-offs.
Amazon's Global Programmes
Amazon's Remote Fulfilment lets you fulfil orders from European marketplaces using UK FBA stock. For the US marketplace, you can send inventory to Amazon's US fulfilment centres and sell with local Prime delivery. Amazon handles the last-mile delivery in each country — you just need to get inventory into their system.
Cross-Border Direct Shipping
For your own website or non-Amazon channels, you can ship directly to international customers from the UK. Services like Royal Mail International, DHL, and FedEx offer tracked international shipping. Delivery times are longer and costs are higher, but you avoid the complexity of storing stock abroad. Some customers accept slower delivery for products they cannot find locally.
International 3PLs
If volume justifies it in a specific country, you can use a local 3PL in that market. You ship bulk inventory to them and they fulfil individual orders domestically. This provides faster local delivery and avoids per-order international shipping costs, but requires managing a remote warehouse relationship and dealing with import compliance.
Tax and Compliance
Every country has its own VAT or sales tax system, import regulations, product compliance requirements, and consumer protection laws. Selling internationally without understanding these obligations creates legal and financial risk. Start with markets that have clear, accessible compliance requirements and invest in professional advice before expanding into complex regulatory environments.
International selling is achievable without physical presence abroad, but it requires careful planning around logistics, compliance, and customer expectations in each market.