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The USA is also one country, one culture, one language, 300 million people as an initial market and a continent. Each of these lower the barrier to entry. The

The USA is also one country, one culture, one language, 300 million people as an initial market and a continent. Each of these lower the barrier to entry. The last point point about being a continent is that I can ship across the USA for far less than I can ship from one side of the EU to the other. The USA has economies of scale that Europe still does not have.

starik36 6y ago
> The USA has economies of scale that Europe still does not have. If anything Europe has larger economies of scale. EU population alone is 446 million and that's not including countries that chose not to be part of it.
- inglor_cz 6y ago
  Translating your product into 30 different languages is pretty expensive, as is finding local representatives who know their markets and can advertise efficiently. Americans are much more culturally alike to one another than they are willing to admit. And from the standpoint of e-commerce, shipping charges across Europe are expensive compared to the US. We do not have any common, reasonably priced service similar to US Post. Sending a package to Spain will cost me more than twice as much than sending it within borders of my own country, and the delivery will take several days.
  - starik36 6y ago
    What you said is true, but that doesn't take away the fact Europe still has larger economies of scale. Not every product needs to be translated. > Americans are much more culturally alike to one another than they are willing to admit I'd argue that French are about as different from Germans as Alabama is from New York.
TMWNN 6y ago
>The last point point about being a continent is that I can ship across the USA for far less than I can ship from one side of the EU to the other. I sell on eBay and Amazon. We Americans have no idea how good we have it in terms of shipping options. I can ship via USPS a videogame that is, including the padded envelope, 4 oz or less in weight for ~$3 to anywhere in the US (even AK, HI, and PR and other territories). I can ship as much as fits into a USPS-provided free padded Priority Mail envelope for $7.75, and reasonably expect that it will arrive anywhere in the US in two to three days. After FedEx ended its relationship with Amazon, it gave eBay Amazon's previous steep discount. In many cases, FedEx 2Day through eBay is by far the cheapest way to get a package from one US coast to the other, even cheaper than USPS Priority Mail and Priority Mail Cubic. This is guaranteed two days or less, as opposed to Priority Mail; think SLA versus lack of same. Such a discount is available to others, of course. I've written before about how I a month ago made $1700 in profit in three days by dropshipping a popular video game-related accessory from its manufacturer to dozens of customers around the country. I leveraged the manufacturer offering free FedEx shipping to fulfill my orders.
- welterde 6y ago
  Regarding the expensive shipping in the EU point. That really depends on the country one is shipping from. Shipping from Germany is extremely cheap - even internationally (even cheaper than the rates you mentioned). But shipping the same thing the opposite direction can easily cost many multiples more.
  - inglor_cz 6y ago
    This is an interesting asymmetry. I was able to buy from German Amazon with a shipping charge around 4 Eur to Czechia. But a package from Czechia to Hamburg cost me 12 Eur.

starik36 6y ago

> The USA has economies of scale that Europe still does not have. If anything Europe has larger economies of scale. EU population alone is 446 million and that's not including countries that chose not to be part of it.

inglor_cz 6y ago
Translating your product into 30 different languages is pretty expensive, as is finding local representatives who know their markets and can advertise efficiently. Americans are much more culturally alike to one another than they are willing to admit. And from the standpoint of e-commerce, shipping charges across Europe are expensive compared to the US. We do not have any common, reasonably priced service similar to US Post. Sending a package to Spain will cost me more than twice as much than sending it within borders of my own country, and the delivery will take several days.
- starik36 6y ago
  What you said is true, but that doesn't take away the fact Europe still has larger economies of scale. Not every product needs to be translated. > Americans are much more culturally alike to one another than they are willing to admit I'd argue that French are about as different from Germans as Alabama is from New York.

TMWNN 6y ago

>The last point point about being a continent is that I can ship across the USA for far less than I can ship from one side of the EU to the other. I sell on eBay and Amazon. We Americans have no idea how good we have it in terms of shipping options. I can ship via USPS a videogame that is, including the padded envelope, 4 oz or less in weight for ~$3 to anywhere in the US (even AK, HI, and PR and other territories). I can ship as much as fits into a USPS-provided free padded Priority Mail envelope for $7.75, and reasonably expect that it will arrive anywhere in the US in two to three days. After FedEx ended its relationship with Amazon, it gave eBay Amazon's previous steep discount. In many cases, FedEx 2Day through eBay is by far the cheapest way to get a package from one US coast to the other, even cheaper than USPS Priority Mail and Priority Mail Cubic. This is guaranteed two days or less, as opposed to Priority Mail; think SLA versus lack of same. Such a discount is available to others, of course. I've written before about how I a month ago made $1700 in profit in three days by dropshipping a popular video game-related accessory from its manufacturer to dozens of customers around the country. I leveraged the manufacturer offering free FedEx shipping to fulfill my orders.

welterde 6y ago
Regarding the expensive shipping in the EU point. That really depends on the country one is shipping from. Shipping from Germany is extremely cheap - even internationally (even cheaper than the rates you mentioned). But shipping the same thing the opposite direction can easily cost many multiples more.
- inglor_cz 6y ago
  This is an interesting asymmetry. I was able to buy from German Amazon with a shipping charge around 4 Eur to Czechia. But a package from Czechia to Hamburg cost me 12 Eur.