understanding and creating international sales contracts is a necessary and important part of a successful exporter’s toolkit. an international sales contract is an agreement between a buyer and a seller that identifies the parties in the transaction, the goods or services being sold, the terms and conditions of the sale, and the price to be paid. a sales contract can be a verbal agreement between two parties, a collection of documents such as a purchase order and an order acknowledgement exchanged between two parties, or a formal, written agreement signed by the buyer and the seller. the type of agreement your company uses may depend on the value of the sale, the nature of the goods, and the complexity of the terms of the agreement. a written contract forces both the buyer and seller to think about the details of the sale up front.