How To Order From Amazon.com If You Are Not From the USA
This post is for all those online shopping lovers who want to shop from Amazon.com but can't figure out how to do so. I made my first international shopping haul from Amazon.com a couple of months back and today I will be sharing with you all the difficulties I faced and how I tackled them!
I had a bit risky yet lovely and amazing experience with Amazon.com and would love to buy from them again! Learn about all the 'How-Tos' and 'What not to dos' while shopping from Amazon.com below:
The Difficulties I faced and how I tackled them:
- Import Fees: The first thing which stops a person from buying Internationally is the Customs and import fees which differs with every country. I was impressed with how Amazon shows the import fees for each product on the product page itself so you can calculate before buying. BUT, let me tell you a VERY IMPORTANT thing over here - Amazon does not charge the exact same amount of import fees as shown on the product page. The actual import fees charged will be shown just before the 'Place order' page and the actual import fees charged is either half of what was shown before or lesser.
- Payment Mode: Amazon has this crazy Credit card payment system which rarely accepts the credit card of your country. So how did I tackle this problem? By using an Amazon Gift card!! Yes, I bought a $50 gift card from a trusted store, added it to my account and then shopped using it. Amazon gift cards never expire and can be used on all the products sold by Amazon so - it's just what you need to do!
Where did I buy the Amazon.com gift card from?:
Some of the online stores which sold Amazon gift cards were charging too high and others just didn't accept Paypal accounts of countries other than their own. So finding a store which sold the gift card without charging much and a one who accepted an Indian Paypal account payment was another task. I had spent just too much time on creating my cart and doing the research so I just didn't want to give up now. So I kept finding a way out on Google and Voila! I landed on a this Quora page and found this website named Cheapestgamecards.com ( link from which I bought the gift card is THIS) which met all my requirements and would e-mail me the voucher. I bought a $50 gift card from them for $51.92 - it was a steal deal!! Once I added the gift card to my account, everything from there was a breeze.
Did my package get stuck in Customs?:
Yes. It did. But Amazon took care of it for me and had my parcel reach me before the promised time! :D I did not have to make a single call, infact I got to know that my parcel was stuck in customs by checking out the 'track your order' page which showed an exclamatory mark and read 'Package is stuck in customs, may take longer to be delivered'. I was upset and even afraid that I would have to pay the customs once the parcel reaches me but fortunately, nothing of that sort happened! Amazon clearly mentions in their shipping policy that they handle any of the customs and duty charges as they are already charging you a small amount for the same, so, there's nothing to worry about.
My order on Amazon.com(excluding the import and shipping fees which is added later):
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A few Important lessons I learnt from my shopping experience at Amazon.com:
- NEVER shop for more than $25!: The minimum order amount for international shipping on Amazon is $25 and I would recommend you not to exceed your cart above the same. My order amounted to around $65 and now I know that I should have broken my order into two and not shopped all at once. The reason? Well, I just learnt that Amazon charges lesser import fees for $25-$30 orders and the import fees ratio increases with the increase in the total value! If you have many products to buy than break your list into 3-4 orders.
- Choose sellers who ship to India: The seller from whom I purchased my products was 'Amazon export sales LLC'. This seller is basically Amazon themselves so you can choose 'Amazon fulfilled' or 'Prime approved' options to find all the products sold by this seller!
- A Paypal account can come in handy: If you don't have a Paypal account then create one now as it can come in very handy while purchasing your Amazon.com gift card and also for shopping internationally from websites other than Amazon!
- The quality of international products is different from what is manufactured and sold here in India - It's more superior!: This might sound weird but trust me, the quality of the Revlon Just bitten balms I bought on Amazon.com is way superior than the ones I bought in India. The formula of those purchased from Amazon.com are not drying at all and have a better staying power. The ones I purchased in India were sent by Revlon directly so obviously they are not fakes either - It's just the formula which is different!
- Patience is the key: Once you place your order you can't expect it to arrive the very next day. It is definitely going to take 15 days or more to reach you. In my case, I received my order within 10 days of placing my order even though it went through customs. I really appreciate it when something I have bought online reaches me before the promised time! ^_^
- Always keep your ID card handy: As it's an international order, the delivery boy always asks for your ID card before handing over the parcel to you. So keep that handy!
How the current Dollar price in your country matters:
When I placed my order on Amazon, the current dollar price in India was coincidentally low and this was a boon for me. So try shopping from Amazon when the Dollar price in your country is low, you will save more and get everything at a great deal!
If you have any questions then feel free to ask me. Until then, happy shopping on Amazon.com! ;)
Love,
~ Bushra
P.S: If you want to know the reason behind me shopping from Amazon.com and more about what I bought then check out THIS post on my personal blog.
