Cross Border Ecommerce – Part 2: How to Buy from Overseas

Let us look at something which people think is harder than it actually is. Buying stuff from overseas (and either re-selling them in India or just keeping them for yourself).

Surely, many of you have had the following conversation:

Me: How do I import from overseas? I mean how do I take     advantage of the ecommerce revolution in India to sell to more than 1 billion of my countrymen? Imagine, selling just a product for just $1 to a billion people would make me a billionaire!

‘Helpful’ Friend: Arey bhai, who sab nahin hota hai. Woh sab bade log ka kaam hai. Contact chahiye. Hai kya tere paas? Customs patha hai?

Me: No, but cross border ecommerce in India is really picking up in India. What if something in China can sell really well in India or if I want to import from China to India for myself? Is there a courier or website to send parcels from USA to India or to buy on Amazon in America and ship to India?

HF: Suno na. Mera cousin ka dost ka doggy ke friend ka owner China main rehta hai. Main unse baath karu? Uske pas ‘Contacts’ hai.

Me: Ugh, forget it.

Thankfully, life is a bit easier than this.

There are many websites which offer services to import from overseas. 

Useful Websites:

This is a very good website. 

Aramex owns shopandship.com. We think it is perhaps the easiest way to import from overseas. All you have to do is to register and pay a fee. Then you just have to upload your ID details like Passport. This is what people mean when they talk about ‘KYC’. Don’t be intimidated. It just means any identification. 

Local Address in the US:

Aramex even gives you a local address in many countries (which is really an Aramex warehouse), that you can ship your stuff to (if the website in China does not ship anywhere except to China). 

Customs duties (also known as)

The tricky part is paying customs duties because products will indeed have customs duties.

Aramex or any other courier can provide you a (fairly accurate) estimate for customs duties which you can either pay upfront or after the parcel goes through customs.

That is it. Yes, really. It really isn’t as daunting as it may seem.

Another useful website (myus.com): 

Shipping Website for US

What if you’re lazy?:

If you really don’t want to go through the entire hassle of registering on one of these websites (and paying for their service) and want someone else to do it instead, then go this link:

http://www.ecourierz.com/send-parcels-to-india

All services in one website - eCourierz

Fill in the form with your details (or just call us) and we will do the rest for you.

It doesn’t get any simpler.

So, next time: 

Helpful Friend: Remember that thing you said you wanted to import? I used my contacts to import it. Abhi chahiye kya?

Me: 

If you want any more information or what to make use of eCourierz.com for your international shipping or cross border ecommerce business, then get in touch at support@ecourierz.com

Stay tuned.