After pulling out of 12 foreign markets last fall due to high cost and fulfillment complications, Batteries.com is set to re-enter those markets through a new arrangement with DHL, the international delivery service, Batteries.com president Dale Petruzzi tells InternetRetailer.com.
“We stopped global shipping because it was too costly,” Petruzzi says. Using a third-party provider of shipping and related services that processed shipments through Miami, it could take about a week for foreign customers to receive their orders.
Although the third-party service provided helpful features such as guaranteeing customers’ credit card payments, the related fees pushed up retail battery prices too high, Petruzzi says. “Our customers would have to pay $40 to $70 more for a $20 battery,” Petruzzi says. “We had a hard time competing.”
When Batteries.com relaunches its global sales in April, DHL will pick up orders from Batteries.com’s single warehouse in Indianapolis and ship directly to the retailer’s customers in Europe and South America. A lower overall shipping fee structure will result in $15-$20 added to retail prices, instead of $40-$70, Petruzzi says.
And since foreign customers in, say, Europe can receive their orders within 3 or 4 days, the extra $15-$20 is more acceptable by customers, he adds. “Now we’re hoping global will add 10% to our domestic sales.”
Batteries.com, No. 321 in the Internet Retailer Top 400 Guide to Retail Web Sites, with $7.5 million in 2004 sales
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