From Amazon or Ebay to Ukraine. How to Correctly Order from American Retailers

Yes, fast. Yes, cheaper.

Online shopping has long since become commonplace, but Ukrainians most often make purchases at local online stores or order goods from China. American online retailers and marketplaces such as Amazon or Ebay are much less popular, although that is where you can buy a quality product popular in the West and pay considerably less than at Kyiv outlets, for example, Nike.

There is an objective reason why Amazon or Ebay have never become popular in Ukraine: most sellers do not ship to our country (moreover, only a handful do so on Amazon). That is why Ukrainians have grown more loyal to Chinese sellers, for whose cheap goods we are a very profitable market. Besides, they ship here more or less everything.

Why you should still buy goods on Amazon or Ebay

Chinese goods are most often only cheaper than American and European ones, but there are no well-known brands there (apart from Xiaomi and Huawei mobile phones), and they are almost always of lower quality. On Amazon nearly all top brands are available, directly or through retailers, from Adidas to Apple.

An example? The winter New Balance Men's 574 sneakers cost 3,700 UAH at the brand's official Kyiv stores. On Amazon we found exactly the same model from an authorized seller for $75. Direct delivery to the address cost another $10. Savings — more than 40%.

Why ordering directly is not the best idea

Ordering directly can be an unjustified decision: instead of the promised 7 to 16 days, the same sneakers took 25 days. Moreover, they did not come from the US at all but from Britain — so there was no need to fly across the ocean.

The seller quickly processed the order and shipped it, and Amazon provided an international parcel number for tracking. At first everything seemed to be going according to plan: on the third day the status from Royal Mail (the British equivalent of Ukrposhta) showed the parcel leaving Britain via Gatwick Airport, but that is where it all stalled. The same status was shown by parcel tracking aggregators such as Parcel, while Ukrposhta said the parcel had not yet been registered in its system.

It seemed the delay was caused by Ukraine's customs, which has not yet been reformed, but no. Exactly two weeks later, when the final delivery date promised by Amazon had already passed, the parcel finally appeared in the Ukrposhta system and customs clearance was listed as the next step, but that step took only a few hours.

The goods were eventually received with a ten-day delay, but the direct delivery option is still questionable. The simplest and most reliable scheme, it would seem, is for the seller to hand the parcel to the local postal operator, which passes it to the operator of the recipient's country, which ultimately delivers it to its destination. Here it was let down by an unexplained delay between the status 'leaving Britain' and the goods being received by Ukrposhta.

How best to order from Amazon or Ebay

Do not rush to give up on purchases from Amazon or Ebay, because there is another delivery method. Which one?

The best scheme is as follows: find a Ukrainian company that delivers goods from the US (Canada/EU) to Ukraine and order the chosen item to their American address. After that, this company will transport the parcel within a week and hand it over at its Ukrainian address or send it wherever is convenient for you via Nova Poshta. You can probably arrange delivery via Ukrposhta, Justin, etc. if that is more convenient for you.

Since forwarding goods is not the main business for such companies, the service is usually cheap: $5 to $10 depending on weight and dimensions.

Moreover, the cost of forwarding goods from the US to Ukraine can be offset by free delivery from Amazon within the US, which is quite common. Besides, Amazon in America usually delivers very fast, often literally the next day.

How to choose the right forwarder

First, Google offers a wide choice.

Second, you can ask acquaintances for advice.

Third, pay attention to the state where the company's American office is located, because it determines the tax (it will be calculated automatically by Amazon and Ebay at checkout). The tax on purchases in New Jersey can be 6%, but there are several states without sales tax — for example, Delaware. Several Ukrainian companies with offices there are also ready to deliver goods to you.

We can recommend a couple of them:

Unitrade Express  — New Jersey

EasyExpress  — Delaware

Beware: customs

There is one unpleasant point that may make buying goods on Amazon and Ebay less profitable than you would like. Ukrainian customs levies a 30% tax on goods worth more than 100 euros. You will have to pay it both with direct delivery and when using forwarders.

Markups in Ukrainian stores on products such as Apple are huge. An iPhone 11 costs $700 in the US plus tax (which can be avoided), which is 17.3 thousand UAH. Official Ukrainian retailers sell it for 25 thousand. But you cannot save almost 8 thousand UAH by ordering from Amazon, because on top of the 17.3 thousand UAH you will have to add Ukrainian customs duty (it cannot be avoided unless you bring the goods yourself), which is more than 5 thousand hryvnias.

Although even with the tax the savings remain (25000 — 17300 — 17300x0.3 = 2510), keep in mind that in that case there will be no Ukrainian warranty.

But there are also many other goods from top brands that cost less than $100, first of all clothing and footwear. In most cases buying them will be much more profitable than in Ukrainian stores.

Amazon or Ebay?

It's a matter of preference. Amazon has much stricter seller vetting, so not just anyone can sell there. Ebay's moderation is much less strict, but this allows sellers to set even more favorable prices.

If you need analogies in Ukraine, Amazon is more like Rozetka and Ebay is more like OLX. But Ebay has far more new goods than OLX, where mostly used items are traded).

Evgeny Blazhko