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Get an overseas marketplace selling discount from the UK Government

By Dan Wilson

When I learnt about Selling Online Overseas at the TradeMe meet-up in London on Wednesday I declared it to be the “best kept secret in UK ecommerce.”

If you’re examining marketplaces in other countries and want to start selling to international buyers, then this is a must see resource, courtesy of the Department of International Trade.

A representative from the Department for International Trade detailed what the Government is doing for online traders at the event. The British Government, even before the Brexit vote, was keen to develop exports, especially by SMEs, and one key opportunity it identified was that offered by online marketplaces.

3000 firms were helped last year by 12 regional experts who can guide you to opportunities for export. You can find out more about that here. But you can also take a DIY approach with the Selling Online Overseas tool.

They’ve developed a programme that will help ecommerce SMEs find major online marketplaces in other countries and see whether these online marketplaces are suitable to sell your products. And the tool can also help you discover how to list your products on an online marketplace and provide information about costs of listing and how best to fulfil.

But most of all, get this, you can access special terms negotiated by the UK government.

I’ll repeat that. HM Government has negotiated special terms with 40 or so marketplaces globally (and that is set to rise to over 100 in the coming weeks) and that can mean preferential selling fees. Here are some examples:

Trade Me is going great guns in New Zealand. And if you qualify and apply this way you’ll get a 15% reduction in commission from 9.85% gross (including payment fees) to 8.37%. And I understand that to be a lifetime discount after discussion with the DIT rep.

If you fancy trading on US emerging marketplace star Newegg, and apply via the tool, you could enjoy commission reduced from 12% to 11% (and down to 10% for merchants selling over $100k/month).

Cdiscount is huge in France and Selling Online Overseas say: Try for free for the first 3 months (only pay commission on items you sell). This is valid during 2016 for all new registrations and subject to acceptance by Cdiscount.

Is anyone already taking advantage of these deals? I do hope so. But they are certainly worth looking at if it’s new. And we’ll keep you posted in the weeks to come as more arrangements are publicised. 

(SOURCE)