Selling to the US

[Tuna]

I'm just looking at a business retailing products online designed and made in the UK (plus possibly some components brought in from abroad that can be up-sold with the main purchase). What's the easiest way to sell them to the US? I may have a contact in the states who could help at some level (local distribution?), and this is definitely a small-scale operation so I'm not interested in selling though larger sites. The product is sold off it's UK origins, and I'm hoping to create a bit of a brand so at this stage, it's about managing the retail 'experience' myself whilst keeping shipping, taxes and so on under control.

It's far too early to start setting up complex business relations. This is an experimental business in an early stage, but as I'll be selling online and the US is such a large market, it seems foolish not to try my best to make it 'easily available' and competitive as possible to sell there.

[davepoth]

The US is an odd one in international trade. The culture makes it much easier for British people to sell there, but some of the processes are decidedly idiosyncratic (and a few are downright silly).

You've got the first part sorted out by finding a US distributor. You need to have a US entity as the Importer of Record, and they must have an "economic interest" in the goods. This basically means that you need to sell the goods to them, and they need to sell them on at a higher price. I doubt that will be too much of an issue. Any duty will be for the distributor's account, but that should be taken account of when you are working out pricing any way. You can establish the applicable duty using:

http://madb.europa.eu

Which is possibly one of the best things that the EU has ever done. It's currently broken though.

There may be a few pitfalls depending on what type of items are being imported - for example, a leather bound notepad might be subject to some specialist marking requirements, or maybe some sort of health certification.

For things sold to consumers, there are mandatory standards for certain things:

http://www.cpsc.gov/en/Regulations-Laws--Standards...

Chances are that anything sold in the UK will meet these but it's best to make certain.

[foliedouce]

As it's experimental, how about selling on Amazon US to start with? Access to the market place at a cost, but it will save a lot of time / effort on marketing or setting up distributors.

You could FBA it so you don't have to worry about anything except replenishing Amazon's warehouse when stock is running low.

I've heard that eBay in the USA is not quite the race to the bottom as it is in the UK, I'm about to test this theory myself so I will reserve judgement for now, but it maybe worth a look.

[DSLiverpool]

Anything electrical send to America may on occasion be opened and smashed up at the discretion of homeland security so bear that in mind. Amazon FBA is a good call, if you get a load of returns though expect to be shafted on reshipping.

[StevieBee]

I suggest that you get in touch with your local UKTi rep.

Funnily enough, I was at a regional launch with UKTi today and someone brought up the issue of exporting to the States.

UKTi will give you a lot of good support, contacts and navigation - highly recommended.