A chatbot answering international shipping questions needs five facts in writing: which countries you ship to, what it costs, how long it takes, who pays import duties and taxes, and what can't be sent where. With those on one clear page, it can answer most cross-border questions before the order. Without them, it can only say "please contact us", which is exactly what an overseas shopper with a full basket doesn't want to hear.
This guide lists what to write down, how to lay it out so the bot quotes the right country, and which questions should always reach a person.
The questions overseas shoppers ask
Cross-border questions are more anxious than domestic ones because the costs are less visible. The common ones:
| What they type | The fact the bot needs |
|---|---|
| "Do you ship to Canada?" | Your list of countries, or regions you don't serve |
| "How much is shipping to Germany?" | Rates or rules per region, and any free shipping threshold |
| "How long to Australia?" | Delivery windows per region, in working days |
| "Will I have to pay customs?" | Whether duties and taxes are included or collected on delivery |
| "Can you send perfume to the US?" | Restricted or excluded items by destination |
| "How do I return from abroad?" | The international returns process and who pays postage |
Most of these have one correct answer per region. The job is to write those answers down in a way the bot can't mix up.
Duties and taxes: the answer that matters most
The question behind most hesitation is "will I get a bill when it arrives?". Your policy needs to answer it per destination in plain words, not just trade terms.
There are two broad set-ups, and the International Chamber of Commerce's Incoterms rules give them names:
- Duties and taxes included (often called DDP, delivered duty paid). The customer pays everything at checkout and nothing on delivery.
- Duties and taxes collected on delivery (often called DAP, delivered at place). The customer may be asked by the carrier to pay import charges, sometimes with a handling fee, before the parcel is released.
Many stores use one model for some regions and the other elsewhere. Say which applies where. A sentence like "For orders to the EU, VAT and duties are included in the price you see at checkout. For orders to the US, Canada and Australia, any import charges are collected by the carrier on delivery" gives the bot something exact to repeat.
If you can't say how much a customer will pay, say that too, and tell them where to check: their own country's customs authority. A bot that guesses an amount is worse than one that says "this depends on your country's rules, and the carrier collects it on delivery".
Lay out costs and times by region
A single paragraph covering twenty countries produces muddled answers. A table produces exact ones. Put it on your shipping page, with one row per region:
| Region | Cost | Delivery time | Duties and taxes |
|---|---|---|---|
| UK | Free over the threshold | 2 to 3 working days | Not applicable |
| EU | Flat rate | 4 to 7 working days | Included at checkout |
| US and Canada | Flat rate | 5 to 10 working days | Collected on delivery |
| Rest of world | Calculated at checkout | 7 to 15 working days | Collected on delivery |
That is a hypothetical layout, not a recommendation for your rates. Fill in your own, and add the carrier you use per region if customers will want to track with it.
Two habits help the bot quote the right row. Name the region on every line, rather than relying on a heading above the table. And list the countries inside any grouping like "rest of world" or "EU" once, so "do you ship to Norway?" has an answer.
Restricted items and things you won't send
Some products can't go to some places: aerosols and perfumes, batteries, food, plants, alcohol, anything flammable. Carriers and destination countries set these rules, and they change. Write down what applies to your catalogue:
- Which products you don't ship internationally at all.
- Which products are blocked for specific countries.
- Whether those products are hidden at checkout for those countries, or the customer has to know.
Then tell the bot to lead with the restriction. In SpideyChat's "System prompt (persona & instructions)" field, something like:
If someone asks about shipping a product abroad, check the restricted items list first. If it can't be sent to their country, say so clearly before anything else. Never suggest an item can be shipped somewhere unless the shipping page says so.
Returns from abroad
International returns are the question shoppers ask last and regret not asking. Your policy should say whether overseas customers can return items, who pays the return postage, whether duties paid on the way in are refunded, and how long a refund takes once the parcel arrives. If the honest answer is "returns from outside the UK are at your own cost", put it in writing. It is better heard before the order. Our post on how ecommerce chatbots handle shipping and returns questions covers the domestic side of the same policy.
What should always go to a person
A bot trained on policy can't see a parcel in customs or a carrier's invoice. Hand these over every time:
- A parcel held at customs or returned to sender.
- A customer who received an unexpected charge.
- Address problems and delivery failures.
- Anything involving a specific order and a refund.
Ask for the order number, the email used at checkout, the destination country and what went wrong before handing over. If someone on your team is online, SpideyChat can pass the conversation to them. If not, it opens a numbered support ticket and gives the customer the reference. The full field list is in our guide to handling where is my order questions without an order integration.
Language is usually not the problem
Overseas shoppers often write in their own language. SpideyChat replies in the language the visitor writes in, even when your pages are only in English, so a German shopper asking about duties gets a German answer from your English policy. The wording of the policy still matters more than the translation, which is why the details above come first. More on that in can a chatbot answer in Spanish from English pages.
Once your shipping page has the region table, duties line and restrictions, test it on your own site: ask "do I pay customs to the US?" and see whether the reply is the one you would give.