Ship single customer orders abroad, no contract

The short answer

Use a forwarder that takes single parcels without a contract. With India Rabbit there is no contract, no minimum and no monthly fee: you open a free business account, book each order when it sells, and get the parcel to our warehouse in Kerala. We weigh it, photograph it and ship it to your customer in the UK, Germany, the USA, Canada, the UAE, Saudi Arabia or wherever they are, and the tracking emails reach them in your business’s name.

How one order goes, start to finish

1. Open a business account. Only your name, your business name and an email are needed to sign up. We call every new business on WhatsApp within a working day before the first booking.
2. Add your customer and book the shipment: their name, email, address and what is in the parcel. Or send your customer a link and let them fill in their own address.
3. Get the parcel to us. Anywhere in Kerala we can collect it from your shop. From the rest of India, send it by any domestic courier.
4. We weigh and photograph it. The price comes from our scale, and the reading is in the photo.
5. The shipping is paid, by you or by your customer through a payment link we email them, and the parcel goes. Payment comes before the parcel ships; there is no monthly billing.

What “no contract” means here

• No minimum. One parcel is booked, weighed and shipped the same way as fifty.
• One published rate. The same rate card everyone sees on the calculator; you do not negotiate a tariff to get started.
• Your name on it. Tracking emails carry your business name, and partner-branded packaging is possible.
• Stock with us if you want it. Send stock to our warehouse in Kerala and we hold it for up to 30 days, packing and shipping each order as you book it.
• No plug-in to set up. Bookings are made in the business portal, so it works the same whether you sell on Instagram, WhatsApp, Shopify, Etsy or your own website.

As a guide, a 1 kg parcel, about one packed saree, is ₹2,500–4,000 to the UAE, ₹4,000–5,000 to the UK, ₹4,000–5,500 to the USA, ₹4,000–5,500 to Canada and ₹4,000–5,000 to Australia by direct courier, with our handling, GST and payment charges included. These are published ranges, not quotes, and duty at your customer’s end is separate.

By what you sell

• Sarees, handloom and boutique clothing. The most routine thing we send. Describe each piece plainly, such as “cotton saree, 1 piece”. More on shipping sarees and handloom for sellers.
• Home decor and handicrafts. Fine as courier parcels, including large or fragile pieces, which we pack with extra protection at no charge.
• Books. Malayalam and other Indian-language books ship routinely; see shipping books abroad.
• Handmade jewellery. Fashion and handmade jewellery in brass, beads, thread, terracotta or other non-precious materials ship normally. We cannot ship gold, silver or diamond jewellery. See shipping jewellery abroad.
• Snacks and food. Sealed, labelled vegetarian snacks, sweets and pickles are the easy case, and each country has its own food rules. See shipping food and pickles abroad.
• Ayurvedic and skincare products. Creams, oils, serums and liquid cosmetics ship; perfume, aerosols and nail polish do not. See cosmetics and skincare and Ayurvedic products.

By where your customer is

The process is the same for every country; what changes is the transit time and the duty at your customer’s end. Country pages for sellers: the UK, Germany, the USA, Canada, the UAE and Saudi Arabia. By default, duty and import tax are paid by your customer to their own customs when the parcel arrives; see who pays customs duty on my order.

The two ways a parcel leaves here

Everything on this page turns on which of these you are, so it is worth settling first. There are two, and we run both.

If your business is registered as an exporter

You have a GSTIN, an IEC and an AD code. Your parcel ships as your export: it goes under your own IEC, and you authorise our carrier to file the shipping bill (CSB-V) on your behalf. You pay the freight, and the commercial invoice carries your business.

If your business is not registered as an exporter

We call this the simple route, and it is the one most Instagram sellers, boutiques and small shops start on. On this route you do not export at all. Your customer abroad receives the parcel as their own, under our personal forwarding terms — the same terms any individual uses to send their own belongings home. You book the shipment here, put your own bill for the order inside the parcel, and send it to our warehouse. We weigh it, photograph it, and send your customer a link to pay the shipping. As soon as they pay, it goes, and they get tracking in your name.

Where to start

Open a business account and tell us what you sell. We call every new business on WhatsApp within a working day, usually to settle exactly the question this page is about, and you are on the right route before your first parcel moves.