Well, we’re not really heading south, but a couple of boxes out of our warehouse are! As you can see from the photo below, those are some nice beaches from way far south, and probably a bit warmer than ours here in So Cal.
Even though we’ve been online since 1998 (when I used to ship orders out of my garage), and we have customers around the world, it’s still exciting when we get an order from overseas. Maybe it’s because it reminds me that this is a small world and a global economy. The internet has really helped make it possible for a company like Arc-Zone to serve customers everywhere!
Our first international order came in the very first year we did business. We shipped a supply of Sharpie Tungsten Grinders and some specialty TIG welding torches to a distributor in Japan. Since then, we’ve shipped to all kinds of customers all over the world — and we keep track, pinning each spot on the map prominently displayed in our conference room:
This week we sent out a couple thousand dollars worth of high performance welding accessories to a customer in Venezuela. We worked directly with their freight forwarder so that they could minimize their shipping costs and ensure all the proper paperwork was in order to get through customs. Our warehouse team has experience in prepping orders, and our customer care team can make sure we ship orders in the way that works best for the customer — whether it’s Prepay and add the amount to the invoice, bill direct to the customer’s UPS account, or as our friends in Venezuela required, working with a freight forwarder.
It’s truly rewarding to remember where we started, and see how far we’ve come: From sending out a couple boxes a week from my garage, to shipping orders around the world from our very own warehouse.
