Best Shipping Strategy for New ECAs

Shipping costs are always a very important cost consideration for ECAs. In some cases, shipping costs can even be higher than the actual cost of goods depending on where in the world the ECA is operating from. For a fairly new ECA, since you want to sell your products and in a very competitive market, you must watch your shipping costs very closely.

Generally speaking, the farther you ship your goods, the higher your shipping costs. For that reason, I am inclined to recommend to fairly new ECAs to limit their shipping to their geographical regions of the world at first to “test the waters” of international commerce. By the time you get known in the business and your customer base is encouraging, you can decide to expand further afield. That to me is what makes good commercial sense.

How to Assist New ECAs Set Up Their Stores

Yes you can assist any new ECAs you refer to set up their stores but that assistance should be within some limits. In my opinion, the most beneficial assistance you can render to any ECAs you refer is to encourage them to study and be very familiar with SFI products listing rules. That done, encourage them to ensure they comply fully with the rules when listing their products. If they follow your advice, they will not have any major listing challenges that may warrant your intervention unduly.

The next step is to address the common concerns of many new ECAs. Some of these concerns usually center on:

How will I list my products?
How do I promote my products?
How do I package and ship my products?
With what currency do I sell my products?
How do I get paid for any products I sell?
What does it cost me to list my products?

These concerns may be infinite and many may actually arise after the ECA has read the listing rules. I believe the best assistance you can render your newECAs at this juncture is to address these concerns and related ones as best you can but within limits. Because of these limits and ECA individuality/independence concerns, it may be preferable to allow the ECAs themselves to raise these issues with you before you address them. That to my mind is the best way to avoid undue interference in the business affairs of your new ECAs.

Best wishes.