I decided to devote today's article to shopping from American sites such as Amazon, Ebay, Etsy, Carters, etc. Due to the fact that I personally have a need to buy something directly from the US quite often, I hope my post will be useful to you.
On these sites you can:
# firstly, to buy various gadgets and useful things that simply do not exist in our post-Soviet space, for example, various magnetic key holders , which I have had my eye on for a long time 🙂;
# secondly, to buy clothes much cheaper than they are sold in Russia and Ukraine, which is especially true for branded items and children's clothing, on which they wind up crazy interest;
# thirdly, don't forget about various mega-discounts for July 4 (US Independence Day), black Fridays, etc.
So, I will give an example of my today's purchase - I found a replacement shaving head for my husband's electric shaver on Amazon. The official representative of Braun in Ukraine said that they simply don’t deliver it to us, and the analogue should go on sale (it’s unclear how long to wait) at a price of $26 (again, the price upon delivery of the goods may change).
On Amazon, the replacement block is in stock and available for purchase for $22.86.
My actions:
The biggest snag in shopping is that such sites DO NOT deliver (or deliver for a very decent amount) goods to the CIS countries. Therefore, you first need to acquire an address in the United States.
There are a lot of companies that rent a “personal” address in the States today, for example, shipito.com, shopfans.ru, etc. Let's see how the shipito.com site works.
1. Registering an account on shipito - New Account.
1.1. Choose a tariff plan - "individual parcels" or "virtual mailbox".
The main difference is that if you shop constantly, the second tariff plan provides for combining several received parcels into one and sending already one parcel to your home address, which significantly reduces the biggest expenses.
A good example of savings from combining parcels.
1.2. We fill in the fields with personal data and HOME address, confirm the email.
The site will ask you to verify your identity by uploading a scan of your passport or driver's license, but this is not required. In this case, your account will simply have a monthly spending limit of $1,000. I think it's enough for shopping 🙂
1.3 We replenish the deposit. I chose the "individual parcels" tariff and used PayPal to top up my balance by $5. Registration is free, this amount will subsequently be debited for sending each parcel (1 parcel - $ 1).
2. We get a dedicated address in the company's warehouses for use.
Shipito.com offers addresses in 3 US states and a warehouse in Austria. You can use any of the suggested options. What is the difference? Delivery to Ukraine from California, for example, is cheaper, BUT, unlike Nevada, this state is not TAX-FREE, so when you buy, you will pay another tax (tax). Some states do not deliver certain types of goods, read carefully and count the benefits.
3. Registering an account directly on Amazon. The registration process is no different from the usual one, I will not describe it.
4. Adding an American address to your account.
In the personal account "Your Account - Settings - Add new address" fill in the fields with the data received from Shipito.
Only US phone numbers are accepted in the Phone Number field. It can also be rented or bought, for example, from Skype (but expensive) + there are a bunch of applications for smartphones that allocate foreign numbers.
I do this - I go to any site that rents out phone numbers, select the suggested one and enter it on Amazon. In reality, it is not available to me (I do not own it), but they are unlikely to call there either. But without it, alas, registration is most often impossible.
Do not enter a Shipito address. Sellers refuse to buy if orders are received with a different address, but they already have such a phone number in the database.
4. Adding items to the shopping cart. Select the one-time purchase option "One-time purchase" and click the "Add to Cart" button.
My refill will ship for free in the US if purchases are over $35, so I add the Gíllette Venus refills I need to my shopping cart ( $16.99 for 8 pieces, which is also a great deal on its own).
5. Payment. We go to the basket, select an American address in the Ship to field and proceed to payment - Proceed to checkout. There you can also choose free shipping, which assumes for purchases over $35.
6. We monitor the shipment and the movement of the purchase using letters from Amazon and the Track your package function (available in your personal account on Amazon in the Orders section or via the link from the letter.
7. We check the goods after receiving.
As soon as the purchase reaches the Shipito warehouse, you will receive a notification by mail, and you will see your package and its general photo in your personal account.
The disadvantage of the individual tariff plan is that you can only store one package in the warehouse. Until you send it home, your new PO box will not be able to accept it.
For an additional fee, service workers can fill out a customs declaration, unpack the parcel and take a photo of the contents so that you can make sure that the goods are in conformity, they can check its performance when it comes to equipment.
8. We form the shipment home.
Our parcel is highlighted with a yellow background, because. all required fields for submission are not filled.
8.1. Choose a delivery method.
8.2. We fill in the customs declaration.
Follow the link "Customs declaration" fill in all the specified fields. By clicking on the photo of the parcel, we indicate the name of the sender. Nothing complicated.
The parcel "lights up" green.
9. We are waiting for at least 20 days 🙂
10. Update on the 10th day.
So my package arrived, very quickly and conveniently.
Polina Morozova, especially for shop-ultra.ru
