International Frenzy
Hey E-preneurs!!! So, I just got my 2nd International order from someone all the way in Morocco, whooo hoooo!!!! But FIRST let me tell you about the first international order. So this order pops up on my screen and I was ecstatic, I couldn’t believe I was getting an actual order from someone in Belgium who has no idea who I am. When the order came through there was an urgent message asking me to review the order and make sure it isn’t fraudulent. The customer didn’t enter their phone number and their shipping address did not match their billing address so this caused a high risk to transpire. So I reached out to the customer via email and they messaged me back in a few hours letting me know that they did in fact place this order so after confirmation I thought it was time to ship. WRONG!
So I start to pack up the order until I realize one of the bags was missing I SEARCHED EVERYWHERE FOR IT and just could not seem to find it. Still to this day I don’t know where in the heck the bag went. I keep all my bags in my other room and occasionally I keep some in my trunk if I have to do a photo shoot. So this created problem number 2, now I had to figure out a way to tell the customer this.
I emailed the customer and apologized letting her know that after reviewing my inventory the bag was no longer “in stock” however she could replace that bag with any other bag on my website and surprisingly she was totally okay with it! Whew! So now I go off to mail her order (the customer already paid $20 for International Shipping) and when I get to the post office they tell me it’s going to be $58 bucks!!!! Of course, while I’m still a money conscious e-preneur I freaked out because now I have to come out of my pocket to pay for shipping!!!! I went ahead and paid because it had to get mailed out but boy is international shipping high. Not only did I have to pay extra but then they tell me I have to fill out the customs & declaration sheet (mind you this was my first international order so I knew absolutely nothing about filling out a sheet for customs & declaration). She helped me fill it out and then I shipped it off. I mailed off the order and within about 1 week she received the bags and left me a positive review. THANK GOODNESS!
Tip for you guys:
Keep up with your inventory at all times
Know how much shipping is internationally so you can charge accordingly
Communicate with your customers (Customer Service is #1)
Understand Customs and how to ship internationally
Use Shipping apps that lower your shipping cost (Because there’s no way I’m paying $58 again lol)
Take responsibility for your mistakes and GET SHIT DONE!
Dear Customer in Belgium, if you are reading this THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR BEING UNDERSTANDING!!!!!!!!!!