Consumers with an eye for American goods can ‘rent’ a delivery address in the US and have the items forwarded to the UK.
Shoppers who want to buy goods only available in the US can now ‘rent’ an American address which enables them to ship products to the UK.
Many US online retail companies only offer limited delivery services to the UK, with items such as iPods and other electrical goods not being shipped outside of the US. But the UK shipping company Parcel2go has launched a service giving customers a US mailing address to accept delivery of goods only available to US consumers.
It then forwards the goods to the UK using companies such as Federal Express, UPS or City Link.
Parcel2go founder, Fil Adams-Mercer, said: “Around 95% of US websites will not ship outside the US because of customs bureaucracy. With America being as big as it is, it doesn’t need the rest of the world. Now UK customers will be able to use us as their ‘address’ in the US when buying from these sites. Parcel2Go will then arrange delivery on from there.”
Purchasing products on the dollar rate means some items may be cheaper, for example a fourth generation 8GB iPod Touch on the US Amazon site works out at an estimated£47 less than if you ordered it on Amazon UK ; however subsequent delivery and shipping fees bulk up the overall cost, meaning the service is only likely to prove cost-effective if the customer uses it several times a year.
”There is a demand for a service like this because when the pound was two to the dollar, people were ordering deliveries in their thousands because it was much cheaper than buying things here,” Adams-Mercer said. ”Also, some products like the iPad were only available in America first – and there is a niche market of people that want to get products when they are first released.”
Via EPR Network
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