I did not only sell wall decals, posters and pictures to America. I also sold a product weighing more than 30 kg, which seemed impossible to send profitably by post. But shipping from Estonia to the USA had a surprise in store for me.
About eight years ago, someone contacted me through a recommendation. He knew I sold on Amazon and asked me to help with their product. I asked what they made. It turned out to be metal gym wall bars reaching from floor to ceiling.
My first thought was, are you serious? One set weighed between 25 and 40 kg. I imagined the cost of sending something that heavy across the ocean and was ready to politely decline. But I decided to run the numbers first. That was when things became interesting.
Back then, similar sets in the USA cost around 1,000 dollars. I priced ours at 500 to 750 dollars. At the time, eligible shipments worth up to 800 dollars could enter the USA without import duty, and our sets fell below that threshold. FedEx also offered me excellent special rates for bulky shipments.
The result surprised me. We made 50 to 100 euros in net profit on each set while flying it across the ocean. Sending individual orders from Estonia through FedEx worked out cheaper than sending pallets to an Amazon FBA warehouse. By our calculations, Amazon's storage and handling fees for oversized goods would have used up all the profit. We barely lost any time either, because FedEx delivered in two or three days back then. We expected delivery within the USA through Amazon to take about the same time.
Of course, there were problems. The first batch showed that the factory packaging could not survive the journey. We had to repack everything and reinforce the packaging.
Assembly was the second problem. American buyers found the structure very difficult to put together. The standard instructions were not enough, and people got frustrated. We had to film detailed videos showing, step by step, which bolt went where.
We sold these sets successfully for quite a long time. Then the supplier and I agreed to go our separate ways. Apparently, they decided to enter the market themselves.
The experience taught me that even heavy, bulky goods can be profitable to export. In our case, shipping directly from Estonia worked better and cost less than using Amazon's warehouses. The key is to sit down and calculate everything carefully.
