1. Advertising
    y u no do it?

    Advertising (learn more)

    Advertise virtually anything here, with CPM banner ads, CPM email ads and CPC contextual links. You can target relevant areas of the site and show ads based on geographical location of the user if you wish.

    Starts at just $1 per CPM or $0.10 per CPC.

Starting an online store from abroad

Discussion in 'eCommerce' started by Imarmite, Nov 20, 2016.

  1. #1
    Hi all thank you for reading my post. Can i ask your experinced opinion?

    Im trying to start an online store on a well known site. I have a British passport, a uk address, a uk bank account etc.

    The site i joined up with (name on request) is saying that i may not be able to use their free payment gateway as i dont live in the Uk!

    Ive spent time and money thus far and paid for logos etc. I want to try my very best. It does not make sense to me as an online store is not a physical business (usually) in a street in a country.

    What if i set up an online store in the UK, then moved abroad but kept my online store! Would it be shut down by the provider of the site? No logic.

    I dont live in the uk and so what? Am i wrong or are they wrong? What are the rules? Must you live in the country where you click your store is although its online? I cant believe that no one else runs a store away from their birth country!?

    Im worried about it and think I may not be able to do it. They told me to use a third party payment gateway!
     
    Imarmite, Nov 20, 2016 IP
  2. sarahk

    sarahk iTamer Staff

    Messages:
    28,494
    Likes Received:
    4,457
    Best Answers:
    123
    Trophy Points:
    665
    #2
    Service providers (ad companies, payment processors etc) know that certain countries give them legal protection and the users are more reliable.

    If you get set up in the UK you will earn a reputation with them before you head overseas and while you are setting up they have a few more safeguards in place. Your willingness to trade with anyone anywhere may be appropriate with what you want to offer but you can be sure these companies don't turn down business without a good reason.
     
    sarahk, Nov 20, 2016 IP
  3. Imarmite

    Imarmite Greenhorn

    Messages:
    3
    Likes Received:
    0
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    21
    #3
    Hi Sarah Not sure I understand your reply? Sorry. Im new to this game. I am overseas from my birth country but have set up an online store. The fact that I am NOT in my country but picked the UK in the store set up, should be irrelevant as an online store has no country, town or street its ONLINE? See my point?
     
    Imarmite, Nov 20, 2016 IP
  4. sarahk

    sarahk iTamer Staff

    Messages:
    28,494
    Likes Received:
    4,457
    Best Answers:
    123
    Trophy Points:
    665
    #4
    I see your point but you need to see theirs

    Example: Company A provides merchant services and set up in 2000
    They started small and only offered services to English speaking countries
    By 2010 they had a revoke rate of 25%
    That year they started offering services to countries using Language X
    Their revoke rate for the English speaking countries stayed stable at 25% but rose to 50% for the new customers. The legal fees and complications of doing business meant that they weren't making a profit from the remaining 50% of good customers. At the annual shareholders meeting the CEO was challenged about the reduced dividends and by 2012 they were no longer accepting new customers from those countries.

    Now you are taking this personally but the company you are dealing with doesn't really care about YOU, they haven't got time to investigate YOU and find out what a fine fellow you are. Instead they review your risk factors and decide if you are worth the risk. It seems that you're not. Unless you want to single-handedly rehabilitate the reputation of your new home country you just have to accept it and move on.
     
    sarahk, Nov 20, 2016 IP
  5. Imarmite

    Imarmite Greenhorn

    Messages:
    3
    Likes Received:
    0
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    21
    #5
    ??? Does not compute: EX: Jon Bloggs in the USA moves to Italy. Wants to sell online. He finds an E-commerce website and joins it. At set up, it asks him what country???? He thinks hmm.... I'm an American and my Italian is bad, so he chooses the United states as his stores country. His Credit card is American but his billing address is in Italy as he lives there (credit cards need a billing address where they come from i.e the bank). The online store platform get's confused as the user (Jon) says he is American, lives in Italy but has an online store set up as United states.

    The online store is VIRTUAL. It has no walls, roof or address or city anywhere. Jon has a valid credit card and an American passport.

    What to do? Should Jon who has never had a parking ticket and is NOT a criminal, fly back to the US to set-up his online store then fly back to Italy and try to make it work? Should he set-up a store again choosing Italy as the country? OK so he does this then the stores language is in Italian but he can't understand Italian to set up the store! Should he learn Italian? Should he just forget it all? Should he open a bank account in Italy and get an Italian credit card but still set up his store as being in the United States? Will the online store hosted by the E-commerce website based in Canada allow it???

    An online store, is as the tin stays, ONLINE. He wants to drop ship via his online store interface and sell products from China to his country although he lives in Italy. He will not store, produce or export anything from the USA but he lives in Italy. It is all sold from the supplier in China to other countries via sales from an online store. The store owner gets paid by the online shopper and pays the supplier in China. Should be easy right? The supplier gets paid the store owner gets paid and the shopper is happy with her new shoes. She does not know they are from China. Where Jon is or his online store is not important.

    Conclusion: So if you dont live in the country you can't set up an online store and you can't choose your birth country? You have a passport, address and bank account for your country but don't live there so can't set up an online store while you live abroad? = NO you can't. So what is the WWW and a virtual online selling store? Any logic?

    What can Jon do? Is there a moral here?
     
    Imarmite, Nov 20, 2016 IP
  6. sarahk

    sarahk iTamer Staff

    Messages:
    28,494
    Likes Received:
    4,457
    Best Answers:
    123
    Trophy Points:
    665
    #6
    What's going on here? Why are you arguing about your utopian ideas when in your opening post you wanted opinions about whether you'll be able to get a payment processor? What do you actually want to know?

    • Find a company that deals with Russia or Italy or whatever
    • Sign up
    • Start trading
    • Don't fudge anything when you sign up
     
    sarahk, Nov 20, 2016 IP
  7. Importexport

    Importexport Member

    Messages:
    140
    Likes Received:
    13
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    35
    #7
    I think there is a simple solution to your problem, but with you having started on the wrong foot you might now find it a bit difficult to remedy the problem.
    • If you have a UK bank account and address, you should be able to obtain a UK credit card. That would entitle you to use your UK address as your billing address.
    • By identifying yourself as a resident of the UK (having a verifiable UK address?) you can set up your business as a UK resident.
    • The business location can, as you correctly understand, be anywhere on earth. Many UK businesses use .com domains rather than .co.uk.
    • Your difficulty now lies in the fact that you have already joined up with someone like https://www.shopify.com/ ?? and they will forever regard you as a resident of whichever country you nominated, unless you can prove residence in the UK.
    To overcome the obstacle I described in that last point, you might find it necessary to join a different service site and start again.

    Finally, I would suggest you give serious thought to the potential problems of dropshipping from China. There are many of them. If you only have capital of a few hundred dollars, it is possible to establish a real, sustainable business by importing small quantities of inventory direct from manufacturers in China, and NO, you don't have to even touch or see the products.

    Walter Hay
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 21, 2016
    Importexport, Nov 21, 2016 IP
  8. Marcowb2708

    Marcowb2708 Member

    Messages:
    13
    Likes Received:
    0
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    36
    #8
    Not sure if you refer to Ebay, but the same thing happened to me between Mexico and the US, and they won't let me. My advise is to get a business partner, that's what I did. Good Luck!
     
    Marcowb2708, Oct 3, 2017 IP
  9. Larry Thibodeaux

    Larry Thibodeaux Greenhorn

    Messages:
    100
    Likes Received:
    1
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    18
    #9
    You should be able to start ecommerce if you're in the uk without any problems.
     
    Larry Thibodeaux, Jun 25, 2018 IP