You paypal account said you are in USA,but you said you import,to USA.
You also said from Europe to Israel?
Do you have factory/office in Europe or are you asking your suppler in Europe to ship for you?
Nothing you said about weather on EAST Coast or delay customs release is new,it happens all over the world,Russian customs (Siberia begged locals not to order that much from internet),Brazil consumers goods are so expensive,its citizens kept buying in bulk from overseas and shipments take over 1 month to clear.
I understand that Israeli has every resident on its data base to cross reference what they bought from overseas and who they are.
Once a German bought an item from me made of bone and resin,the German customs want to know the airline and the flight number ,what did it die of,and who is the vet ,and what else is on the plane with this animal? My buyer is so scared she did not dare to claim the item.
You have to review your business model,decide country by country what is the best way to ship ,DHL is much larger than UPS or Fed Exp and more intl in scope,INXPRESS is an organization you may want to look into to get a discount from DHL,the last time I talked to them,they come close to USPS priority overseas rate but with tracking,you know some USPS piroity does not have tracking overseas .
Your local mail service outlet will give you a discount when you use DHL just to earn your business,could be 15%,never hurt to ask.
As for Mexico,there is an outfit in BROWNSville,TX,for a fee ,they will take your package and drive across the bridge to clear customs and turn them over to a local shipper,which provides tracking,but you have to prepaid customs around 13 1/2%,MEXICAN with AMZN prime get free domestic shipping when they use this outfit as their shipping address,pay a small fee and customs and local shipping to get their electronic stuff on AMZN which would cost them a lot more in local store.
One advantage of using private carrier is that you can ask your customer to pay customs duty in advance and that facilitate customs clearance.
There will always be losses,you just have to be profitable enough to take some hits.
A lot of sellers lost money during the East coast storms around Xmas when flights were cancelled and rereouted and buyer file item not received,some do get their postage money back from USPS running into hundred of dollars,but they lost their merchandise.
If you are relying on your vendors to ship,you better know them well as you have less control over the shipment.
You may also want to consider having your own merchant account to accept credit cards,if your volume of business justify,the bank will represent you in a chargeback,it will relay back to your what the other party has said and do a better job fighting for you,
you discount rate would be lower,not 2.9% and transaction fee would be less than 30 cents,but there are other expenses involved.
also there is money order,postal order,intl cashier check,wiretransfer,if they want the goods bad enough,they will comply with your term
In the early days of internet,many of us get money order ,postal orders and personal checks and sometimes cash.and overseas buyers use wiretransfer or go to a bank and buy an intl cashier check.
Do you know that the Japanese post office and the Canadian post office sell US$ POSTAL ORDERS at a favorable exchange rate,now how difficult is tha for your customer to go to the post office and get one?
USPS priority guarantee /express going overseas are actually turned over to Fed Exp intl and ship from Memphis,it is cheaper than using Fed EXP intl.
I hope I have given you enough for your consideration.
also it does not sound like you have taken out any insurance.
