International shipping at a reasonable rate?

[Ronald Meador]

It looks to me like you can ship a product package from Canada or UK to the USA at a modest cost BUT when you want to ship that same package from USA to overseas they want like $20-25 which is crazy high and shuts me down on that action. I checked USPS, FedEx, UPS and a few others and all of them are up there. I know that about 10 years ago I was sending small packages from Florida to Australia for less the $5.

Am I missing something or is this it nowadays? Anyone have a work around to keep down the cost for the customer if you want to do ecommerce with overseas orders?

 

[Graybeard]

Global postal group reaches deal to avoid US withdrawal
Welcome to Trumpistan! The US Postal Service (USPS) is a US Government public corporation and has lost most of its subsides.
The China-US trade Wars were at the root cause. The US was allowing Chinese low rate postage on consumer imports as per the old treaty. The old rates were the shipping country's international rates and NOT the recipient country's rate --hence the change.

 

[Ronald Meador]

Graybeard I read the posted link. Thanks for that. They say they are looking out for us. What did they accomplish? I can still order lots of items right now from China that offer free shipping. WTF. The thing is these people must be on some serious meds OR somebody got paid to do this.

Here is a quote from the linked article:

"The Administration’s move is backed heartily by the National Association of Manufacturers (which believes US producers will see higher demand); the US Chamber of Commerce (which believes US producers will see higher demand); and the express carriers themselves."

US producers will see a higher demand?? Really more demand when our 'would be' offshore customer gets jacked way up on the final delivered purchase cost... No... I don't think so.

The article goes on:
"UPS and FedEx representatives provided statements in support of the move, but declined to speculate on the impact to their business. Three participants in talks confirmed that, if government-backed postal services become more expensive, private carriers’ prices will appear more competitive."

That is some real BS. UPS and FedEx have now followed suit with their own big rate increases.

Net Result That This Change Delivers For the USA Merchant Hoping To Do Some Global Sales: Go Pound Sand.

I guess it will remain like this going forward and closes the door for developing much of a customer list for my small package purchases.

 

[Ronald Meador]

Your suggestion of freight consolidation on over 50kg is an interesting pathway if I had a dedicated distributor say in UK or for all EU to receive and then reship to my actual retail customer over there. One more person to cut a slice of the pie with. I take it that in the merchandise value to weight consideration it would help if my over 50kg was able to consist of hundreds of retail merchandise units that in my case would consist of high value wellness products.

 

[Graybeard]

The (China) shippers are absorbing any rate changes from their profits most likely to the US (or raising their prices)
Of course UPS and FedEx widened their margins when they could.
This is small potatoes compared to the current FX trade positions for US Exports --but many of our factories are still closed down anyway --Pandemic.
Interesting thing I have seen the past 2 weeks what the USPS (post office truck) delivering packages for Amazon on a SUNDAY -- unheard of.

Consolidate your freight -- air freight over 50kg is probably very competitive right now. And then there is the merchandise value to weight consideration.