Shop owners from the U.K.

[Tee Tastic]

Hya,

Are there any shop owners working from the U.K.?

I would like to know wheather it's worth advertising from here in England because the Apperal is shipped from the U.S.A., do people order goods from here even though they know it will come from America??

Also, how long does it take from ordering in the U.K. to receiving?

[Adam]

Hi,

I'm from the UK and have been doing this a number of years. Just because we are located over here doesn't mean we can't run stores that appeal to the US market. But on the other hand all my online ventures that sell in USD have UK, European, and Australian customers.

I tend to add things like "We ship worldwide" on my pages and include some currency conversion in banners. It helps the visitor understand that they can purchase from my store.

You wouldn't believe how many people actually think they can't purchase in USD. I've had people email me saying, "why are your prices in $". Implementing ways to prevent people asking you that question helps you sell more to Intl buyers.

I would say don't limit yourself to just appeal to the UK market. If you have no choice, if what you want to sell will only appeal to someone in Blighty then yes they will buy from you knowing that the item comes from America. Just make sure they understand things like the delivery time, customs charge, exchange rate etc etc.

An item can get here from American by Airmail in as little as 6 days. You have to add that to the production time - so you are looking at around 11-12 days. Don't quote me on that though :D

[samuelballantyne]

I'm from New Zealand and I just added an auto-matic currency convertert to my web-site. I'm pretty new here so I'm not sure if it's helped or not but I think it's a good idea for any over seas stores. You can get it for www.dynamicconverter.com (http://www.dynamicconverter.com) if you want to see an example of how it works you can got to my page www.printfection.com/likeit (http://www.printfection.com/likeit).

[Pussycat]

I´m in Germany - of all sales I have had here and in my other shops only 2 have been to Europe. The postage/packing is way to expensive (my $2 tee kost me $12.99), also in Germany anything over $20 they charge you customs!

I´m quite happy selling to the American public, until maybe Kevin and Casey do what not enough POD´s do: open a European branch!. And us Europeans know that there´s a lot of would-be customers here. I did have a look and one of the competitors that has branches here and even opened a shop. But as you are very limited with the graphic format you can use I soon forgot that idea.

[moonduster]

Hya,

Are there any shop owners working from the U.K.?

I would like to know wheather it's worth advertising from here in England because the Apperal is shipped from the U.S.A., do people order goods from here even though they know it will come from America??

Also, how long does it take from ordering in the U.K. to receiving?

I am in the UK, and I have to say that while yes, people in England will buy from your store, the majority of sales will be from the US (unless your subject/design is one only someone in England will relate to). Of course, it doesn't hurt to promote in your own country, but don't spend a lot of money and time on it. I just settle on having business cards to hand out when people ask me what I "do," and when people ask about the shirts I or someone in my family are wearing.

I have a lot of children's designs too, so sometimes I will print up a bunch of magnets or buttons somewhere else with my store URL on them for my daughter to hand out to kids and teachers at school for special events such as Valentine's Day or before the Christmas holidays. (I can't wait until Printfection starts offering things like that!)

[Sparrow]

Thanks for the tip on the money converter! I have flagged that site and will need to find the time to wrap my head around that. I checked your site and it looks like alot of time went into setting up each product. But this will be of real use to me. I get some international vistitors ( who buy ) and it continues to grow.


I have Babel Fish for translation right now. I need to upgrade to more languages somehow. In case anyone out there needs to know - Babel Fish is Free and translates (I think 8 languages - I have not looked recently). It gets used on a regular basis. It is a good option for your customers. Spanish speaking people in USA use it too.

Onward,

[samuelballantyne]

I'm glad that site helped someone. Just one problem I've had with the code, in the pricing section it stretches out your main table. However I've fixed this by adding the code ".pricingPrice1, .pricingPrice2 {font-size:5pt}" to the CSS page which makes all the text smaller so it fits on my page. Something to look at. Hope this helps.