Buy from Online U.S. Shops That Don’t Offer Worldwide Shipping

How to Shop from Online US Retailers Who Don’t Offer Worldwide Shipping

I’ve been a fan of online shopping for as long as I can remember. It’s such a convenient way to shop — especially when you have kids! You can shop from wherever you are and at any time and get hold of things that might not be available in any physical shops local to you.

Sometimes, I run in to a problem though and that’s when I spot something from an American online shop and fall in love with an item only to discover that the shop only delivers to American postal addresses. It can be quite disappointing!

I’ve recently come across a really clever solution to this problem though. It’s called Planet Express and it’s a service that lets you shop online from the US by using the Planet Express warehouse address which has a US mailing address.

It’s really quite simple — you make an account with Planet Express which is free and then you add a $5 credit to activate your account. This $5 will later be used towards your shipping costs so you will not lose it. You’ll get a reserved space in the Planet Express warehouse and your own US mailing address with your own reference number.

Then you can go online and shop from any US retailers and have the packages delivered to the Planet Express warehouse. If you have several packages, they can be consolidated at the warehouse to save space and shipping costs before Planet Express ships the items to you worldwide.

Consolidation can save you 50% to 90% on shipping cost thanks to utilising the space better by removing unnecessary packaging and bulky boxes. Smaller packages are also charged at a higher cost per weight compared to larger ones so having one big box instead of many small ones will save you money too.

The warehouse staff can also take photos of the items for you, make sure you’ve received what you’ve ordered and that nothing is broken. They can also add things like extra bubble wrap and packaging tape to make your package more secure and the contents better protected in transit.

Just like that, you can get international shipping from the US with this package forwarding service.

I’ve had a look at the Planet Express website for more detail about how it all works and it’s all very straightforward and there’s no hidden costs. You can check out their package plan for full details of the costs of the service (all very reasonable and affordable) and you can use the postage calculator to find out the price of shipping your items to your destination by putting in details like your country, state, city and zip code as well as the value of the package contents and the size of the package.

You can even use Planet Express if you’re a retailer, online shop or business and need an e-commerce fulfillment service.

The payment methods you can use are also very convenient and safe and include PayPal, Amazon Pay and Wire Transfer. If you want to use your credit or debit card, you can do so via PayPal or Amazon Pay. Currently, Planet Express offers credit card payments for people in the EU, Bolivia and Japan.

Many US online retailers don’t accept foreign payment methods but that’s not a problem either as Planet Express offers a service called “Shop For Me”. You fill out a form on the website with all the details of the items you would like to buy and then Planet Express will buy the items for you, provide confirmation details and tracking info. Once the warehouse has received your item from the retailer, it will be added to your account for consolidation, if applicable, or be sent directly to you.

I’m so impressed with this whole idea! It solves a big problem that I’m sure many of you have had too. My online shopping world has just been expanded to include many, many more shops and brands and it’s not expensive or complicated at all thanks to Planet Express.

This post is in collaboration with Planet Express. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.