How to order from Japanese sites and get delivery to the UK with Shipito?
If, like me, you drool over ingenious Japanese products, beautiful Japanese books, or cosmetics websites, telling yourself “one day, I’ll go to Japan,” know that you can get them without going to Japan. There are solutions!
Why buy Japanese products?
- Japan has an incredible second-hand market . I’ve already bought second-hand clothes in near-new condition. The Japanese really take care of their belongings, which is refreshing.
- Japan has products that don’t exist anywhere else, like this umbrella, the lightest in the world
- Japanese craftsmanship is incredible
- Quality products are cheaper than the equivalent in the UK.
- Some cosmetics are sold at exorbitant prices abroad, whereas they cost next to nothing in Japan
How to get delivery to the UK?
You can simply use a package forwarding service like Shipito. These services give you a postal address in Japan, and they take care of forwarding your parcels to the UK. The good news is that they can even consolidate multiple parcels!! that way you’ll receive them all at once, and they’ll remove unnecessary packaging that serves no purpose.
So you pay:
- package reception fees ($3.25 USD)
- package storage fees (free for up to 7 days)
- package consolidation fees ($5.5 per package)
- shipping fees based on actual weight
- any customs fees (it’s random)
Unfortunately, the common point of all these services, is that you don’t know exactly how much it will cost in the end because the weight isn’t known in advance. You just have to trust them and avoid ordering items that are too heavy.
Once the parcel arrives in the UK, depending on your luck at the time, you may or may not be subject to customs fees. Shipito honestly declares the package’s value, so if the market value is high, you won’t escape customs. It’s up to you to find good deals on Japanese second-hand sites to keep the market value as low as possible. Personally, I never exceed $100 (14,000 yen) to avoid drawing too much attention.
Once you’re signed up on the Shipito site (which primarily handles packages from the US, so you’ll see USA everywhere), go to “My Account” and select your Japanese address by default. That’s the one you’ll provide to Japanese websites (also include the phone number they give you so the delivery person can contact the warehouse).
As soon as a package arrives at the depot, you’ll receive an email. You can either ship the package home right away or add services (package consolidation, sending multiple packages at once, adding protection, etc.)
My 400g package cost me €26 in total (Shipito fees & UPS shipping fees). And my roughly one-kilo package set me back €40 in fees overall, and fortunately without bank fees because I also have an international payment card that lets me avoid fees when paying in foreign currencies.
The customs declaration was done by me. The Shipito team thought the amounts were too low, so I contacted customer service via chat showing the invoice, and they stopped bothering me about the declared amount.
The UPS Worldwide Saver JP package took only 2 days to arrive.
However, by going through UPS, I paid €7 in customs and €21 in UPS handling fees (for customs). So that’s an additional amount to consider.
Here are a few extra tips:
- Use an international credit card to order from Japanese websites. You’ll pay in Japanese yen, and if you use a international card like mine, there will be no fees.
- Check shipping costs before ordering: the site Shipito offers a calculator to give you a rough idea of the shipping costs from Japan to the UK via DHL.
- Be patient, delivery times can be long because parcels must first be received by your forwarding service in Japan, before being shipped to you in the UK.
In my case, from ordering on the site to receiving in France, it took a week. A package worth 33 euros, after shipping + customs + ups = 82 euros total. It’s still worth it because there are products I can’t find in Europe. And for products available in Europe, I calculated that I still save 20 euros.
I hope these tips help you order from Japanese sites and get delivery to the UK!
See you soon!
