Banning Certain Countries from purchasing

[Virtual Banker]

I have noticed with Amember that they allow you to disable certain countries from purchasing.

What warriors experiences with banning certain countries. Considering it will be a high-ticket digital product I have already done the usual suspects like Romania, Russia, Indonesia, India, China (great apologies to warriors from these countries, but I have only ever seen fraud or refunds from these countries. actually never had a legit paying user that didn't refund. . go figure)

What I want to know about is the tier-2 countries like Singapore, Maylaysia and Middle Eastern countries like UAE or Saudi? Do I need to ban these too, or have people from these countries ever successfully purchased and not refunded. I have had a few purchases from singapore, and they were both refunded (of course) but I would like to think that there is the potential for business there. Can someone give me an honest outlook? Maybe a Warrior from the Lion City or KL?

btww. ... the product I am talking about for my test data had about a %4 refund rate from Western Country purchases and almost a %100 refund or fraud rate from tier-2-3 countries.

This new product will be high ticket and digital so we need to take that into account as well.

[jaaproos]

interesting question, could anyone give an answer, I am very interested in Indonesia myself.

[birdfood]

I've had trouble with customers from all over world not just Russia, Ukraine and other typical high risk countries.

Interestingly customers from Singapore, UAE, Saudi Arabia etc tend to be the most reliable.

[owol]

Interestingly, a lot of my customers come from "third tier" countries, and I bet my refund ratio is LOWER from them. I'm involved in managing a lot of Internet Marketing niche products though, so perhaps that's why?

[BIG Mike]

No offense to the Yanks or Brits here, but we do a lot of business with Asian and Middle-Eastern countries. Individually, they're not nearly as problematic as some of our US and British customers have proven to be.

Really, you should track refunds by country over six months or more and see how it goes. You might be surprised (or might not be). I wouldn't just assume that they're all bad customers though.

[jaaproos]

Originally Posted by owol

Interestingly, a lot of my customers come from "third tier" countries, and I bet my refund ratio is LOWER from them. I'm involved in managing a lot of Internet Marketing niche products though, so perhaps that's why?

Interesting, the opportunities for us are endless in those countries. How woudl you go about in such a third tier country? Is a country like Indonesia ready for a nice information product? I would love to learn more from this.

[jaaproos]

Originally Posted by bestdeveloper

the problem is - stereotypiс thinking: all Muslims - terrorists, all russian - drunk spammers, all italians - greedy, ect We can do nth with it, we or trust our clients, or not.

This has nothing to do with stereotypes, I just think that in some countries conversion rates are just very very low. On top of that the legal system and financial systems are such that security online cannot be protected.

My question is whether people are able to make any money online in countries like indonesia, vietnam etc. etc. ? And in what kind of way, CPA/own product in local language...

[BIG Mike]

Originally Posted by bestdeveloper

the problem is - stereotypiс thinking: all Muslims - terrorists, all russian - drunk spammers, all italians - greedy, ect We can do nth with it, we or trust our clients, or not.

All Greeks are Drunken Marketers and lie to the EU about their country's deficits

I've been running various businesses online for nearly 10 years now and in my experience with the international community is that people are just people, no matter where they come from. Some people are good, others are not, at about the same 80/20 rule as everything else.

Sometimes we lack tolerance for certain cultures because we often try to force them into the framework of our own culture rather than accept them within theirs. What may seem wrong in our culture may be perfectly acceptable in theirs.

[Underground SEO]

I wouldn't ban middle-eastern countries, I've also found them to be good customers, as have customers from asia.

[jaaproos]

Originally Posted by fryerben

I wouldn't ban middle-eastern countries, I've also found them to be good customers, as have customers from asia.

Cool thanks, could you tell us what countries in asia and are these products in english?

[davidfstyles]

Personally I've never blocked sales from specific countries. To me a refund takes what - 5 minutes max to process? I'd recommend to ask what your time is worth? If it's a high-ticket item you're selling... and 50% from a certain country cancel - that's like spending 5 minutes (refund processing) for a sale. But having said that... if your hourly rate is say $1 million per hour... well that's another question :-)

[jaaproos]

Ok, maybe I am thinking out of fear too much. What about opportunites to start an information product in Bahasa Indonesia. SO that means the entire business is focused on one country ie. Indonesia, are there people here already succesful with this kind of products?

[sloanjim]

I banned buyers from Singapore. About 6 years ago EVERY sinlge buyer from Singapore would charge back on me without fail.....so I simply stopped doing bizz with them. Maybe it was fraud through Singapore. No idea but I was sitting with the problem.

[sloanjim]

MIKE.........I am surprised no-one has pulled you over about this statement? Very ignorant.

No offense to the Yanks

[Anonymous Affiliate]

The refund/chargebacks ratios I get from Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia are triple the ratios I get from other countries. I really have no idea why, but I am seriously considering banning customers from those 3 countries...

[BIG Mike]

Originally Posted by sloanjim

MIKE.........I am surprised no-one has pulled you over about this statement? Very ignorant.

I don't think so...I'm a Yank myself actually.

[Chris Grable]

Originally Posted by BIG Mike

I don't think so...I'm a Yank myself actually.

Me too! What did he do wrong?