Read this before you accept international orders from your website
If your business sells online, receiving your first international order can be thrilling. One of the great things about selling online is the ability to reach markets far away for a low cost.
But beware, the ease of conducting transactions over the internet belies the potential minefield of international trade. Before you leap into the global marketplace, seek professional advice on how to protect your self from the following real risks:
- Risks of fraud
Payment fraud is a very real risk in conducting any internet transactions. If payment fraud does happen on an overseas transaction you could be left completely out of pocket.The help of local law enforcement would be needed to help you recover your goods and/or payment.  In many countries law enforcement is corrupt or virtually non existent. Even dealing with law enforcement in countries like the US and the UK would be difficult for a company based in Australia.
 - Risks of litigation
If you trade with a consumer in a another country or even another state, which law will apply? There’s a good article on the ACCC website regarding this here.To reduce the risk, you should take legal advice regarding the risks and get them to help you draw up your e-commerce trading terms and conditions.
 - Risks of intellectual property and trademark infringement
Simply shipping an order to another country could open up your company to trademark or IP disputes. You need to first consider what legal protection you have for your brand and your IP in that market.But what if you just want to trade in something small like clothing? Is it really necessary to have all that legal protection? Well, consider the case of Absolut Beach Swimwear as discussed in this transcript of the ABC radio show “The Law Report” in 2001.This company had a registered trademark in Australia, but the decision to ship orders to the UK and the US meant that they became subject to the laws of those lands. It was a decision that eventually ended their business.Protect your brand by getting legal advice to ensure that your trademark, patent or copyright applies in the country with which you wish to trade.
The decision to trade internationally is often taken lightly by internet entrepreneurs, unaware that it is something that could spell doom for their business. Before taking that overseas order, consider the implications. The cost of putting the right protections in place may well be worth it.
About the author: As the owner of a web marketing business, I’ve spent the last 7 years studying ways to boost the conversion rates of my clients’ websites. Today, our best websites convert up to 20% of visits into leads and 50% of leads to sales. The target for our clients is a minimum 5% conversion rate on visits to leads which is staggeringly more than the typical website at 0.1%.
Bitemark specialises in designing, building, writing, managing and marketing websites with high conversion rates.
