Hello. I would love to buy your products. However, I am stopped by the fact that I have to enter email and agree to terms before I can even see shipping options and costs.
Please consider making the shopping process easier and more pleasant.
I am in EU and concerned that it might not be feasible for me to order your products due to high import fees, tax, customs, VAT, etc. that I would probably need to handle myself. Do you plan on establishing a dealer in EU or a shipping site in EU such that items can be shipped from within EU without customers having to deal with the customs, tax, etc?
Currently we ship all kits from Thailand but setting up some fulfillment in the US and EU could be something we might do in future. Currently most customers do not get charged customs and VAT.
Please do! Maybe Amazon is the easiest way to do so? On top of reducing delays, you'd reduce uncertainty. Here in Portugal, the problem isn't really custom fees - but customs completely blocking/losing/returning the product. Really hard to get packages from abroad to get through our super incompetent custom services. But that's not a problem if it comes from within EU.
Amazon is terrible for small companies. Sure, it boosts your income and customer reach, but that's just the cheese to get you in the trap.
After you are locked into their ecosystem, they prevent you from selling for less elsewhere, even on your own site, they coerce you into paying them ad fees to boost your listing in their search results, and if you don't pay them enough they will put your competitors above you and redirect searches that are specifically for your product to other similar items.
Then, if despite all of that you do well, they will find some company in China to make an "Amazon Basics" version of whatever it is that you're selling and then undercut you on price and boost their listings above yours.
You might even say that this is a win for consumers since they get fast cheap access to products, but the product quality is always a race to the bottom and because this happens so often it results in the death of product innovation from good companies because they have to spend so much brainpower and energy keeping the Amazon machine happy while it consumes them.
Ebay is a little better, but that is also rapidly enshittifying as well.
Hi, I get your point. Thus, whenever I'm looking for a product on amazon, I go to the website of manufacturer and try to get the intended product from there.
It can be a bit of hassle sometime, like having to pay for shipping or the delay in receiving it compared to amazon prime, or the option for return.
But apart from covering the shipping (which sometimes is okay for a product with higher value), I prefer to use the original website instead of Amazon. Few reasons being:
1. Genuine product
2. I don't want to help Amazon grow its huge empire
3. I want to support independent companies
So, hearing your comment, I'm glad I'm doing the right thing
Even if all that’s true, Amazon let’s me buy things knowing when I’ll receive it and with the confidence that I can return it (and always for cash) without jumping through hoops.
That makes it better than buying from indie sites just about every time.
I've heard that you should vote with your wallet for what is important to you.
Whatever Amazon has to offer is not worth what it costs to me, so I vote in other ways by shopping elsewhere, and should I have something to sell I will use other means to sell it.
> EU dealer would have to pay the same import fees and VAT. It would be less of a hassle, but probably not cheaper.
In my country (and I guess many other EU countries - although it varies from country do country), it is a huge hassle and expensive too. And if you make any mistakes in the red tape you get hit with all sorts of ridiculous fees. Also, the package is usually delayed in customs for weeks or months. Whereas packages shipped from within EU typically arrives within next business day of them arriving in the destination country.
So avoiding the hassle is well worth it in order to get to the EU market.
Also, it may actually be cheaper. In my country, the local post office adds a "handling fee" of 30 EUR just for the service of informing you that you need to pay customs, VAT, etc. on the item.
At least this is 30 EUR that can be saved on each item.
I am in EU and concerned that it might not be feasible for me to order your products due to high import fees, tax, customs, VAT, etc. that I would probably need to handle myself. Do you plan on establishing a dealer in EU or a shipping site in EU such that items can be shipped from within EU without customers having to deal with the customs, tax, etc?