foriegn based us store - can it be done?

[dnordberg]

Im relatively new to osc, dont have a store but have been playing around with it for some time.

 

I was wondering if its possible to setup a store using US dropship vendors to sell to mainly US clients.

 

I dont live in the US nor do I have a US passport but I do have a bank account there.

 

Can I use my US credit card to establish relatioships with dropship vendors and SSL certificate providers to host a site there and dropship to mainly US clients?

 

Is it legal for me to be based outside the US?

 

Does anybody have experience in this field? What problems have you experienced that have affected your sales (lack of customer service, etc)?

[dnordberg]

Doesnt anybody have a store dropshiping based outside the US?

[jaysin]

I don't see that you would have any problem other then the customer have to pay customs duties to get the products. Or you can use some company services in US. I may be able to help you if you tell what are you planing to sell.

 

How did you opened a US account without coming to US?

[wizardsandwars]

You would need a Federal Tax Identification Number to legally sell in the US using US dropshippers. Your business must reside in the US to get a Federal Tax Identification number.

[ibandyop]

I was wondering if its possible to setup a store using US dropship vendors to sell to mainly US clients.

 

Should not be a problem, looks like your vendors are already

registered in the US and all want to do is help them sell the products

through your website. Some affiliates do this as well.

[wizardsandwars]

Affiliations are quite a bit different from businesses, though. I suspect that each affiliation program would be different. For a business, though, in order for distributor to drop ship for your business, they require a Federal Tax ID number.

 

You simply can't make money on a product being shipped from the US to the US and not pay taxes to the US on it.

[dnordberg]

Thanks for the response! So does every dropship vendor require a Federal Tax Identification Number?

 

Quoted from dropshipwholesale.net "When you sign up with a wholesaler, they will most likely ask you for your tax license number, or a faxed/emailed copy

of it to prove you are a legitimate business. " ... What about using other documentation? Ie faxed Business Registration documentation from the country you are residing in? I would think that an up an running website would be enough.

[wizardsandwars]

Legally, yes, all distributors in the US are required by law to ask for a Federal Tax ID number. They may not all do it, but they are supposed to.

[Guest]

This depends on how you come to terms with the supplier.

I trade things many different ways. Retail, Wholesale, Barter Exchange, Affiliate Program, Reseller Program. My products are primary collectibles and gifts, but I also sell industrial cleaning supplies and health products.

For me to sell to anyone that will buying wholesale for intent to retail, a SSN or Fed Tax ID is required to be on file. If I don't do my job and get this, I can be fined quite excessively and be shut down.

I also have a new Reseller Program that I am working on and testing. I have a Pilot Resellers that lives in Texas, UK and Australia, while my Office is in Tennessee. This reseller goes and markets the product whereever they choose. They fill out the order form using our information, so the customer is actually buying from my company. The reseller puts their Sales ID on the form and we record the order with them as the Sales Rep and give them their commission at the end of the month. Our agreement specifies that they are independent reseller and responsible for their own employee taxes with Social Security. The amount paid to the reseller is reported to IRS as required. If they don't report, it's on them. If they are in another country, they are required to report earnings to their local government. And as always, if they don't, it's on them.

I have a resellers in different locations around the world, including United Kingdom, Australia, US APO in Italy. However there are some countries that I am not permitted to obtain resellers in. For example, terrorist sponsoring countries.

Also, I am implementing an affiliate program using osC Affiliate. The great thing about this is I can set individual commissions. For the resellers that want us to do the order processing, we set the commission rate to that agreed upon in the agreement. The hard part is getting all the products listed in osCommerce. 10,000+ products is no easy task, even with Easy Populate.

[wizardsandwars]

So my question is, are resellers offered the same discount as the customers the purchase wholesale?

[Guest]

I want to clarify this. Customers pay retail, and may be eligible for discount of 10%. Some customers who buy regularly, get a higher discount rate. Customers will never be able to buy wholesale unless they can get the proper credentialing to be a retailer and buy the volume per month.

 

Resellers do have different rates, but this depends primarily on who does the paperwork.

If we are handling the orders, customer support, sales generation, etc, then the reseller gets 25% of sell price.

If the reseller is doing the selling, ordering, customer support, paying for their own catalogs, mailings, etc, the reseller gets 33% off.

The discount rate for reseller increases depending on their monthly volume. Naturally, the more volume they process, the more the discount will be.

I have one reseller that gets 50% off and they are selling over $5,000 a month.

They deserve a bigger discount if it was possible.