Package and intermediary: do you need an intermediary?

    Very often in the comments to our publications we come up with questions on the need for an intermediary. For example, some American stores send packages directly to Russia. Why do we need a parcel ? Today we will tell you about this and, of course, we will be happy to answer your new questions in the comments.

    As a good example, let's take a simple situation: you decided to buy certain goods in an American store. Suppose it will be a popular Amazon. You have been choosing products for a long time, stopping at 15 items.



    Where to deliver?


    Here you will find the first surprise. Yes, Amazon sometimes offers direct delivery to Russia, but not all products. And there may well be a situation in which 10 goods can be sent to you, and the remaining 5 - not. What to do?

    Here you will come in handy Banderolkin service . As a rule, in the USA delivery is free, with the Parcel post, incoming parcels are also free, so here you have absolutely nothing to lose. Moreover, having received the goods in your account, you can immediately check it for integrity, compliance with the order, size and many other parameters with the help of special requests . This is much more convenient, simpler and cheaper than getting the goods in Russia and discovering that the seller or several of them were mistaken.


    And sending goods using the Parcel is very simple: choose the Qwintry Air method, if the package contains electronics or fragile goods, USPS Priority (Russian Post) or USPS Express (EMS), if the package mainly contains clothes, or EcoPost is our new method delivery, which is cheaper than all of the above - we carry the package to Germany on our own, approximately as in the Qwintry Air method, and then transfer it to Russian Post.

    By the way, all delivery options with Russian Post are tracked by us, and the prices are exactly the same as on the official USPS website (they are even lower for EcoPost). Yes, we do not make extra charges, as we buy USPS services in bulk and “sell” at retail cost. Therefore, for you to send a parcel with the help of a parcel means almost the same as asking, say, your American friend to do this, except that the packaging will be much better (we filled our hands on this!).

    But the most important thing is that all your many purchases will be sent in one package, which, you must agree, is much more profitable than paying for the packaging and delivery of each product separately.



    How to deliver?


    But it may be that Amazon can send all the goods you have chosen to Russia on its own. It would seem - cheers! And an intermediary is not needed, and a little time will be saved. But here you can expect another pitfall: Amazon has dozens of warehouses and six Fulfilment centers throughout the United States. Where exactly is the product you have chosen?



    Well, if your orders are located in one such center - in this case they will be collected in one package and sent. Everything is simple here. And if in different? Then they will be collected in different packages. Moreover, Amazon does everything automatically and, in fact, does not very well understand who sends the parcel and where. He sees only the customer and the delivery address. Will any product arrive tomorrow? Well, Amazon will not wait and today will send all that is, and tomorrow will collect another parcel.

    And here we do not consider the situation when goods are sold on Amazon, but are physically located in stores or in warehouses of sellers. In this case, you certainly should not expect them in one package.

    Of course, Amazon offers to group all purchases, but promises to do this only if there is such an opportunity.



    The Parcel helps here again: agree, it’s easier to wait for all the parcels in our warehouse, pack them in one and send them in a convenient way, rather than wait until they all reach you at different unpredictable times.

    How to deliver?


    Another question that we partially answered above. The parcel offers delivery methods such as USPS, Qwintry Air, and EcoPost.

    Amazon, as a rule, uses either USPS or commercial services - UPS, FedEx or DHL Express. The disadvantages in these cases are obvious: parcels are not packaged perfectly and in the case of USPS (and, consequently, Russian Post), there is a great chance to get at least a torn box, and in the worst, a parcel without goods.

    For commercial postal services, packaging is not so critical, but there is one unpleasant feature: for goods costing more than 200 euros, customs clearance is required. In general, there is nothing to worry about, but you have to be nervous and fuss. An example of such a design has already been on the Geektimes pages.

    In the case of the Parcel, both issues are resolved: packaging is a priori better, because this is the basis of our work. With customs clearance, everything is much simpler: 1000 euros and 31 kg per individual per month. Yes, for Qwintry Air, even before sending the parcel, you need to fill out a detailed declaration, but you must agree that it is much easier to indicate the name of the product, the article on the seller’s website and the seller’s website, rather than looking for the HS codes of the TS and the notification number.



    In general, an intermediary is very convenient and very inexpensive. In the case of the Parcel, it can even be much cheaper than direct shipments.

    Does this always work as we described above? No not always. Sometimes sellers offer very nice shipping prices, especially if this is some very small product. And in this case, we always say: choose the delivery that will be more profitable for you. But such cases are not common and they relate to such things as covers, headphones, chargers for mobile phones or tablets, etc. If the product is slightly larger and more expensive, then an intermediary would be a more suitable option. And if there are several such goods, then even more so.

    In one of the following articles we will tell how the Parcel works from the inside. You'll like it :)

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