Overcome The Challenge Of Shipping Technologies Overseas

If you’re a reseller who has attempted shipping your expensive IT equipment to a client in another country, and experienced an unfortunate delay, you’re aware that the complexities of cross-border transactions should not be downplayed.

When dual-use goods arrive at the border, customs personnel treat the materials with great caution, because they can be used for both civilian and military purposes. Some countries will even require that they be shipped to special data centres for clearance, which may or may not be anywhere near where the reseller’s clients are operating from.

Furthermore, there are various documents that must accompany the shipment and if there is one wrong calculation, or omitted field, the shipment can suffer costly delays.

However there is a way to move this along, by seeking an IOR (importer of record) who’s business is that of an importer of record and tax recovery services like TecEx. This gives you a partner with a great deal of experience working with these types of transactions – meaning many of the pain points associated with the distributions process are alleviated.

The IOR will take responsibility for the goods post clearance even in the case of a lease, as they’ll be a local tax paying entity of the receiving country that can take the place of a traditional customer. Companies like our example business: TecEx, not only promise compliant clearance, they help with the pre-approval process too, and see the shipment reaches its destination on time once cleared. They can do this for transactions occurring in over 120 countries, and can even recover value-added tax back from 40 of these countries within 6 months of the shipment’s clearance.

Companies in this business need to focus on delivering best lead times, ensuring pre-approval between 1-3 days once processing the reseller’s quote, and full clearance 3-4 days thereafter. This allows resellers to provide their clients with an accurate date for the technology’s arrival, proving they’re reliable. When it comes to quotes and prices too, this is also very competitive and our sample importer only charges landed-cost so there are no surprises on the final bill, even if countries alter their regulations once the process begins. Finally, they also provide the benefit of a hands-on service; reselling enterprises can track their assets as they move through the process using an online portal where they may also liaise with their client services representative should they have any special requests.

It’s extremely challenging for resellers to grow their business internationally if they take on the responsibility of clearing sensitive shipments on their own. More often than not, this can leave them in a precarious position, dealing with more than just a delayed shipment, but unhappy clients. If they’re not careful, they can even unknowingly break the law. Rather than putting this pressure and stress on themselves, it’s highly recommended that they partner with an expert in imports to do the legwork and guide them through. Working with an importer of record saves reselling businesses time, money and worry. Because these companies are so familiar with the process, clearing technologies doesn’t have to become a complicated endeavour; with the help of an importer, resellers can expand their businesses freely and continue fostering relationships with clients across the globe.