# How to ship online shopping packages from US websites to Japan?



## Crazy Shopaholic

Would like to know how you ship packages of products purchased on US websites like eBay, Amazon, coach, drugstore to Japan? Thank you for your comments.


----------



## Guest

Lots woud ship direct to Japan no? I know in the UK you can buy a mail forwarding service, i got one when we went to Australia. Great for migrants anyway for normal mail but they also forward ebay, amazon etc if you use it as your delivery address. You would just need to find one with reasonable fess in the usa if thats where your purchases are being made.


----------



## larabell

You should first check Amazon.co.jp to see if they have the same thing. In many cases, they do and the shipping is free and quick. Also, Amazon.com (in the US) will ship some products to Japan for a reasonable fee so I would imagine Amazon in the UK might too. Search for the Foreign Buyers Club (FBC) out of Kobe. If they don't have what you need, they do have a re-mailing service (in the States) where you would have the package shipped to them and they would ship it to you. There are probably others if you look. May private PO Box shops (UPS, MBE) will re-mail things if you rent a box there. I have no idea how hard that would be if you can't be there in person to sign the forms.

I've also used friends and family in a pinch. Probably not as useful if you don't know anyone in the States.


----------



## Bevdeforges

There are a number of package consolidation and forwarding services in the US that give you a US shipping address. You can then have them consolidate your purchases and ship them to you in Japan (or wherever). 

Just google "package consolidation and forwarding" and you'll get a list of the most commonly used. Do be sure to look up reviews of the various services, because they aren't exactly cheap (you pay for shipping and customs/VAT plus any monthly or annual membership fee) and in some cases customer service can vary. There is a Better Business Bureau report with ratings of the 10 or so leading services. Very interesting and worth a look.
Cheers,
Bev


----------



## rob_thomson

larabell said:


> You should first check Amazon.co.jp to see if they have the same thing. In many cases, they do and the shipping is free and quick. Also, Amazon.com (in the US) will ship some products to Japan for a reasonable fee so I would imagine Amazon in the UK might too. Search for the Foreign Buyers Club (FBC) out of Kobe. If they don't have what you need, they do have a re-mailing service (in the States) where you would have the package shipped to them and they would ship it to you. There are probably others if you look. May private PO Box shops (UPS, MBE) will re-mail things if you rent a box there. I have no idea how hard that would be if you can't be there in person to sign the forms.
> 
> I've also used friends and family in a pinch. Probably not as useful if you don't know anyone in the States.


I agree that Amazon.co.jp can be useful. As for eBay, often it is just a case of choosing the right sellers (i.e., those who are willing to ship overseas). Also check on eBay Hong Kong for the item you want...


----------



## larabell

But shipping costs are usually borne by the buyer, not the seller, so cost seems like a strange reason. I even had one guy (a small-time online calendar sales site) refuse to send me a calendar even when I offered to pay a couple extra bucks over the usual shipping charge just for his trouble. It's more likely there are customs or reporting regulations they don't want to deal with -- or, in the case of new products, they might not want to compete with (existing or future) distributors in other countries.


----------



## Bevdeforges

Have noticed lately that there are a number of vendors (even on Amazon.com) who simply will not be bothered shipping outside the US. I suspect it relates to the paperwork involved in cross-border shipping. And also the fact that the shipping rates charged by those vendors who will ship internationally always seem so extortionate, especially if they try to include VAT and/or customs charges in with the shipping. 

Lately, I've been hearing that some big US vendors are refusing to ship purchases to "known" freight consolidators with US addresses. Now that's one I really don't understand. I do know that the consolidator I use has just recently tightened up their policies, and now requires a copy of an actual invoice confirming the value of the goods you have ordered, rather than just your assertion as to the "value" of the items. 
Cheers,
Bev


----------



## larabell

With Amazon.com, it depends on the item (and possibly the country... I can't test that since I only live in one country). Some things, like books, are no problem. On other things there may be a line on the page for the item that says they can't ship that particular item to my home address.

That and your comment about consolidators, taken together, may suggest that they have contracts with various suppliers that prohibit them selling to certain countries -- probably to avoid undercutting the manufacturer's distributors in those countries.


----------



## larabell

I wouldn't necessarily lay this on Amazon, though. They already do ship a lot of the products they sell overseas (I know because I buy stuff from there regularly). I'd be more inclined to blame publishers and manufacturers who, for one reason or another, contract with distributors on a region-by-region basis... possibly so they can offer a more localized version of the product at different prices, depending on the country. If the contract between, for example, Sony and Amazon says they can only sell the products in the US (because Sony doesn't want Amazon.com undercutting their local sales), there's not much Amazon can do. To their credit, they do offer many of the same products on their local site, Amazon.co.jp.

Anyway, don't let it piss you off too much... for those rare occasions where you can't source a product locally (unlocked cellphones that work in Japan seem to be included in that category), you can always have the item shipped to a friend or family member and have them drop it in the mail for you. That's what I've done before. Sometimes it even costs less that way.


----------

