6 Year-End Online Shopping Tips You Should Know

1. What to Do if Your Credit Card is Rejected?

Sometimes the credit card issuer blocks the overseas transaction as a default setting. You can call their customer service center to clarify and solve this problem.

If the overseas websites don’t accept international credit cards or PayPal, you may search for the item on some other e-commerce websites like Amazon, Walmart, or eBay.

If you have filled in Buyandship’s overseas warehouse address as the billing address / chose “same billing address as shipping address” and your trasaction was not successful, please try to fill in the home country address you have used to apply for the credit card as the billing address.

2. Change Your Website’s Region

Sometimes you may need to manually change the online store’s region so you can access to the USA site, if you’re automatically directed to your current location.

For example, if you go to Ralph Lauren’s site, you may be directed to their Asia site (https://www.ralphlauren.asia/en) and you have to manually change the URL to https://www.ralphlauren.com to access to their US site. For Vans, you’ll also need to select “USA” region on the top right-hand corner.

3. Overseas Shopping Payment Options

Local Currency VS. Foreign Currency – Which One is Better?

When shopping on overseas online stores, some sites might ask if you want to pay in your local currency or foreign currency (e.g. USD if the merchant is based in the U.S.).

Always choose to pay in the currency of the country you’re buying from. If you choose to pay in your home currency that means you let the merchant to convert it, which the exchange rate is usually less favorable. On top of that, your bank may also charge you additional foreign transaction fees since the transaction is conducted with an overseas merchant.

PayPal vs Credit Card – Which One is Better?

There are several ways for you to pay for your online purchases, especially when you’re shopping overseas. A number of online stores accept multiple payment methods, including credit/debit cards and PayPal. More international online stores are offering a variety of payment gateways, but which one is the most suitable option for your shopping needs?

Check out the pros and cons of PayPal and credit card to helps you decide which one is better for you.

🔗 Further Reading: Buyandship Shopping Tips: PayPal vs Credit Card

4. Add Delivery Instruction when You Shop on Amazon US/JP

Amazon is one of our users’ favorite websites because you can shop for almost everything from there. To make your Amazon parcels delivered to you smoothly, we strongly recommend you to follow these few guides so your package can be sent to our warehouse in a more secure way.

For shopping on Amazon US, please add a delivery instruction “Please do NOT leave the package if nobody is there to receive it.” via Your Addresses page.

For shopping on Amazon JP, please choose a delivery setting as “置き配を利用しない (in Japanese) / Do not use unattended delivery (in English) / 不使用放置点交货 (in Simplified Chinese)” before making the payment.

🔗 Further Reading: 1 Min Step to Avoid Missing Your Amazon’s Package

🔗 Further Reading: New Delivery Option on Amazon Japan

5. Taxation

According to the Australian Taxation Office, a Goods and Services Tax (GST) will be charged on most of the goods and services in Australia, including the overseas imported goods.
From 1 July, 2018, GST also applies to the low-value imported goods (AU$1,000 or less). 10% of the value of goods or services will be charged as the GST. If the Total Product Value doesn’t exceed AU$1,000, Buyandship will collect the 10% GST for the Australian Government. You will need to pay the GST directly to the Australian Customs when the Total Product Value over AU$1,000.
Please also note that for the goods over AU$1,000, the clearance agency will charge AU$92 for the high value brokerage fee of each consignment. There may be other custom duty or relevant taxes which will be collected by the Australian Border Force, subject to the local laws and regulations, when the parcel reaches Australia.

Please make sure to declare your item’s unit value correctly – the unit value should be in the corresponding foreign currency, for example, if you declare an item bought on a Japanese site and shipped to our Japan warehouse, it should be declared in JPY; If you declare it wrong, your item value may go up and it means you have a higher chance to get taxed.

Meanwhile, although parcel consolidation can help save shipping fee, we suggest not to consolidate too many parcels in one shipment order, as it also means there is a bigger chance to exceed the tax threshold. If you have many items, we recommend to ship them via a few shipment orders.

🔗 Further Reading: How Duties and Taxes Are Calculated?

6. Is the Item You Want Allowed to Ship with Buyandship?

Please read the prohibited items catalog before shopping from overseas online stores. if you are unsure about your product and whether it is allowed to ship, please feel free to contact our Customer Service Representatives via our website’s live chat / Facebook inbox and send them your product links.

🔗 Further Reading: Prohibited Items Catalog