Hey all – quick update here. I’ve been working tirelessly on getting the ducks in a row and it’s been a rollercoaster.
Short version: I think I’ve finally found a path forward and have a call today to confirm.
Long version: The EU seems to be like our California on steroids with red tape and regulations and the last thing I want to do is launch a product and then either get shut down or lose all of our profits paying fees or losing out on VAT, shipping, etc.
My initial thought was to partner with a distributor over there and we had one in mind that we’ve been working with on a different project, but they’ve been pretty unresponsive and my gut tells me that it would be a disaster in the long-run to work with them, so I had to scrap that idea. It’s still my backup plan if things fall though, but I couldn’t, in good faith, put all my eggs in that basket. So, that led me down a path to work with various smart home distributors out there – the problem was that they didn’t have any interest in a single SKU right now and I couldn’t give them a solid answer on estimated volumes, so it likely just wasn’t worth their time.
Which brought me back to square one… trying to do this ourselves.
Collecting and remitting VAT seems easy on paper, but the practice of it was a real pain with huge consequences if not done correctly, so I thought all was lost until I stumbled across a program that Shopify offers where they will be responsible for collecting and remitting VAT on our behalf (for a fee). Great.
From there, we just needed a reputable fulfillment agency and again, most of them wanted to see a large volume of orders and I couldn’t promise them anything right now as I just don’t know what the yearly volumes would be.
However, I did find a couple that were willing to work with us as they saw what our US sales were and are willing to take a chance working with us in the EU if it means they could potentially take over our US fulfillment.
The best part is that the fulfillment agencies both tie directly into Shopify and have fulfillment centers in both the EU and UK and I can ship our products directly from the manufacturer to them and they will fulfill them.
I have a final call today at 3:30 EST to confirm all the various costs associated with it and integration methods.
It was important to me to get all the costs do set the correct MSRP to get the profits we need to sustain and grow in the EU.
Anyway, I know this has taken much longer than anticipated, but I think I’m finally in the clear and will know more today!