Why Brexit is still hurting my business every day

I don’t tend to talk about politics here, and this isn’t really a political post, but I wanted to share my experiences of the pain caused by Brexit over the last few years.

Shipping physical products

I’m based in the UK and the main products that I spend my time working on are playing cards. I launch new products via Kickstarter and then sell them via various ecommerce channels after that.

I also have some wholesale customers, but mostly it’s direct-to-consumer, so that means that at some point I have to get my cards shipped to people.

My customers are all over the world, which in a big part is due to Kickstarter’s global reach.

It’s easier for me, and a better experience for my customers, to ship to customers that are geographically closer to the source of the products. That’s just a simple function of cost and transit time.

For that reason, I work with third-party logistics (3PL) companies - in the UK, Germany and US. That way I can offer cheaper and faster shipping to more places around the world. I’ve written previously in more detail about shipping and fulfilment.

Brexit pain #1

Before Brexit, shipping from here in the UK direct to Europe was smooth and tax/duty free, so I didn’t need an extra 3PL partner in the EU.

Adding an extra shipping location in Germany adds 50% 3PL admin overhead. And it costs me money as I have to ship inventory to more locations and store it in more places.

There may be a small upside in that my customers in Germany and surrounding countries get slightly faster delivery time, but that’s nothing compared with the downsides. I could’ve chosen to do that within the EU anyway.

Brexit pain #2

Sometimes I still ship directly from the UK to customers in the EU.

For my most recent Kickstarter I did this and only used my UK and US 3PL locations to fulfil all the rewards. (This was for various reasons that I won’t go into here, including international sea freight logistical challenges caused by political instability in the Middle East.)

In short, when I ship to Europe from the UK these days, it’s a pain in the arse. Customers sometimes get stung with import duties that cost as much as the product, and items are way more likely to get damaged or go missing.

Import One Stop Shop (IOSS) is supposed to make shipping to Europe smoother, but it often doesn’t work, I think in part because people still don’t actually understand how it works.

Brexit pain #3

Kickstarter backers and regular ecommerce customers in Europe are now wary when it comes to dealing with a business in the UK. I’ve been told this directly, and have heard similar sentiments via other Kickstarter backers and creators.

This is a real shame.

As I said before, it’s preferable for everyone involved to purchase products closer to where they live. It will be cheaper and faster, not to mention the environmental benefits.

Big world

Shipping my products to Australia or Argentina just makes less sense for me than shipping within Europe. Arguably, the best situation would be only shipping to UK customers, but with a niche product like mine, that would be difficult to pull off. The second closest, and therefore second best customers are in Europe.

US Kickstarter creators and other businesses have a great advantage in that they’re part of one very big, and relatively affluent, homogenous commercial market. The UK used to have that same advantage when it was part of the EU.

It’s all very well suggesting that the UK is going to get trade deals with countries on the other side of the world, but those are not of equal value to trade deals closer to home.

When I have a physical product that needs sending to customer, a trade deal doesn’t magically make the shipping any cheaper or faster.

Even for UK businesses selling services and not shipping physical things, the simple factor of time zones means it’s a lot easier to deal with Europe than it is to deal with Australia for example.

Playing cards and bacon

Playing cards are about the easiest products imaginable to ship, yet still Brexit has caused me all these issues. I hate to think what it’s like for farmers or people dealing with more regulated products or restricted goods.

I’m obviously not the only one feeling the pain. There are countless stories involving all sorts of products where Brexit is adding costs to businesses, with no benefits or opportunities to balance them out.

There are always going to be logistical challenges with shipping physical goods. Occasional shipping problems will always happen, wherever your shipping to. Incorrect addresses, missed deliveries, lost packages. But if they happen 15,000 kilometres away they’re more expensive and take longer to resolve. No one wins.

I will continue to sell my playing cards all over the world. I’ve put in systems to make that work as well as I can, but less friction shipping my playing cards to Europe would be great and open up more potential customers.

I miss being in the EU customs union.