A Package to Milan...

For previous journalistic work, I had been paid by editors of magazines in New Zealand, Australia, the Netherlands, Germany and Poland, and I had also sent artwork to customers and friends in Italy, the USA, Paraguay and Japan. I was therefore familiar with receiving international bank payments – as well as the postage and packaging requirements needed to send a valuable item abroad.

As a start-up business that needed to generate sales through carefully using the internet and Social Media, and hopefully establish a Glowing Edges Designs shop through my website or Etsy etc, I was very conscious that I didn't yet have any kind of online system in place, nor did I possess a machine to enable me to take credit/debit payments.

Although I had investigated PayPal, my first customer agreed that it would be best to use a traditional international bank payment and – having previously carefully taken into account the exchange rate, bank charges, postage and packaging and value for money in the price that I had charged – the transaction was then successfully made.

When I previously sent a package to Italy, it was delivered to the wrong address by the postman but, using the Royal Mail International Tracking and Signature service, I could now track the transit of my package and - after a few days - I was very pleased to read the word "bellissimo" after my Crepe de Chine silk scarves were safely received.