Teach Soap

Ok, so I got this convo on Etsy yesterday from a gal in Europe who is interested in ordering some wholesale soap for her gift shop. I emailed her my wholesale price list and I'm waiting for a response, but several questions pop up in my mind since I haven't done an international order before.

First of all - shipping. I looked up how much it would cost to send the large flat rate box to her postal code (which she provided to me). It would be $60.95 to send a large flat rate box. Oy... And I'm not even sure how many soaps I can fit into it... which is something I'd obviously have to look into. But why would someone in Europe even do this when there are great soap makers there already? I'm thinking that whatever profit she'd make from selling it would be eaten up with shipping costs.

Could this be a scam of some sort? She seems like a "real" person, but you never know. She did give me her full name and the town she lives in, and after doing some google searching there is someone by that name who lives in that town... but being so far away kinda makes me nervous... Has anyone been burned by this kind of deal?

that does seem odd, but it could be totally legit.
Questions that come to mind: Has she ever ordered from you before? If not, why would she want a wholesale order from you when she's never tried your product?

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

You would also need to follow the rules and regs in her country. Some places require your recipe to be registered and approved before you can sell your soap.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

I've never done any international orders so can't tell you much. Can you search for her shop to get more info? Maybe she hasn't thought of how much the shipping costs. She might think she can charge more because it will be foreign to her customers and therefore exotic? I have to agree with Linda that it seems strange if she wants to wholesale but had never tried your products. Good for you though!

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Linda

I learn so much when I can't leave well enough alone!

Yeah, she's never ordered from me before, so yeah, that part seems strange to me too.

I don't know the name of her shop, only her name. There's a bit of a language barrier so I just haven't gotten that far with her yet.

I'm guessing that she may be in shipping sticker shock (I know I was!). But I just wanted your opinion on it, because it seems kind of strange.

On top of that, she's from a certain country that is in a deep economic recession and has been on the news often for that reason... Kinda makes me wonder, someone is actually able to have a gift shop in that situation? I guess I'm still worried about it being a scam. How would that even play out, since obviously I'm not going to send my products half way around the world without payment. I'm trying to think about what I need to watch out for.. what would the red flags even be?

Something isn't right here, but I can't put my finger on it. If you ship in a priority flat rate box, you will loose any tracking ability info as soon as it crosses the US border into another country. She could say she never received it and wants her money back. What would you do then?

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Hmm....

That's scary. To ship UPS would be like $200. But obviously they have international shipping/tracking.

Maybe I'll just tell her no if she emails me back. The whole thing is boggling my mind.

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

I would say no. None of it makes sense. My Sister said it is too easy to be scammed and she's always refused to ship anywhere but the US (she doesn't even ship to US Territories. Just Continental US, Hawaii and Alaska.