#088 International Delivery Gullible! (04/02/2024)

Image: Total shipping costs for several real international orders

Welcome to this week's journal! If you've been following our previous journal #085 ( click here to enter ), you might know that since mid-January, we've been offering free international shipping on orders over a certain amount (HKD1200 for most European and American regions). At the time, I considered it an important step in realizing our vision of "going global from Kwai Chung".

However, two weeks later, after receiving some international orders and receipts for international shipping, I realized I had made a "big mistake" because the international shipping costs exceeded my initial calculations. At first glance, the international orders from the first two weeks seemed to be a loss. But we shouldn't run away from these problems. Some people might think it's better to just stop accepting international orders altogether, but I don't see it that way.

I believe that if we truly want to break free from our own framework and limitations, we need to find ways to solve problems, not avoid them. The world is vast, and we shouldn't stop here because of one issue. Re Pillow Co. needs to look further ahead and have an international perspective. Yes, we are a small company, and not many people abroad want to buy our products, but what we should do is to future-proof ourselves. Thinking about and calculating a feasible international shipping method doesn't require additional economic costs; it just requires some brainpower, time, and effort to research. Be a visionary. Therefore, this week, I researched the billing methods of each international courier company (this is all publicly available information, found online), and how volume, weight, packaging, and destination affect actual costs. My initial assessment is that the high international shipping costs stem from the large volume of the products and their packaging. When several items are packed into one box, there are often "boxes within boxes," further increasing the overall size of the shipment, which is inconvenient for transport and also environmentally unfriendly. Therefore, upon realizing this, I immediately modified the "Delivery Service" page on my website ( click here ) by adding a sentence to the International Shipping section: "For all countries outside Asia : To save energy and reduce shipping costs, we will use lighter packaging and avoid boxes within boxes as much as possible." I believe this will solve some of the international shipping problems. From now on, I will treat every international order I receive as an exercise, practicing how to create more efficient packaging to truly bring goods from Kwai Chung to the world.