SellerSays

How to sell internationally: nine decisions, in order

Selling internationally is not one big leap — it's nine decisions in a fixed order, and most expensive mistakes come from taking them out of order (picking a market before checking compliance, or pricing before knowing landed cost). This page is the decision chain itself: what each step settles, what breaks if you skip it, and the SellerSays tool that answers it with cited numbers. Start at the step where you actually are.

1–3: Can I sell it, where, and what must I comply with?

Eligibility and compliance come before market choice, because they can veto it: CE-regulated products need certification and an EU-established responsible person before the EU is even on your list, and Germany/France EPR registration is enforced at listing time by the marketplaces themselves. With those gates known, choose the channel on numbers: the marketplace comparison ranks what each channel takes on your price and category, and the registration-thresholds page tells you whether direct selling drags you into VAT registration or a marketplace carries it for you.

4–6: Shipping, payment, and what the buyer actually pays

Shipping is two decisions, not one: the route (postal baseline vs courier quotes) and the delivery term — DDP vs DAP decides who pays duties and whether your buyer gets a doorstep surprise with a $17+ collection fee on it. Payment is its own margin line: checkout processors, receiving accounts, and conversion spreads differ by whole percentage points. Then price backwards from the buyer's side: the landed cost calculator shows what your price becomes after the destination's thresholds, duties, and taxes do their work.

7–9: What you receive, what you keep, and when it goes wrong

What lands in your bank is revenue minus platform, payment, and FX layers — the net margin calculator stacks all of them with your real costs and expected losses. Inventory-led sellers should also run the cash conversion cycle: growth is funded by the days between paying suppliers and getting paid out. Finally, model failure before it happens: the chargeback calculator prices disputes at official fees, and the reorder-point calculator keeps a customs delay from becoming a stockout.

Common questions

Where should a first-time seller actually start?
With one product, one destination market, and the landed cost calculator. If the numbers survive landed cost and net margin, work outward through compliance and channel; if they don't, you just saved yourself a very expensive lesson.

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