How to start shopping in the US — 7 simple steps to overseas shopping!
Online shopping in the US is not only convenient but also highly cost-effective. You can buy clothing, electronics, and shoes in the US at prices 2-3 times lower than in Russia and CIS countries.
For many who are just getting started with shopping abroad, everything seems confusing and even a bit scary. In reality, ordering from US stores with delivery to Russia or other countries is no harder than regular online shopping.
This article is for those who have never shopped at American online stores but have long wanted to try. Shopping in the US is easy, fun, and truly cost-effective!
Step 1. How does it all work?
In order to make purchases in the US and receive them in your country, first of all, you need to choose a mail forwarding company.
Mail Forwarding (or "your address abroad," an intermediary) is a service where you make purchases yourself and use the warehouse addresses of the intermediary company abroad.
Pochtoy.com is a mail forwarder that provides every client with a free personal address in the US for receiving, storing, and further shipping your purchases.
It's simple: just complete a quick registration on our website, fill out your profile, and get your personal address in the US!
We also offer the "Purchase with an operator" service, where our professional staff can buy the item for you if you don't have a foreign card.
It's time to start placing your first orders at US stores!
Step 2. What do you need to place orders at US stores?
First of all, to shop in the US on your own, you need a personal payment card to pay for purchases. American stores accept Visa and Mastercard. However, it's important that your card is not issued by a sanctioned bank. If you have an active foreign PayPal account, you can use it for payment. Please note: Russian PayPal accounts are currently not working, so you need to use a PayPal account registered in another country.
For purchasing items from American online stores, we recommend opening a dollar card at a foreign bank — in this case, you pay directly in dollars and don't lose anything on conversion. Although, of course, you can also shop with a card in your country's currency and top up your personal account balance in tenge or Belarusian rubles (relevant for Kazakhstan and Belarus). The main thing is that your card has online purchases enabled (you can check with your bank).
For a purchase with an operator, a Russian bank card will be enough — you can use it to top up your personal account balance. You can also top up your balance with cryptocurrency.
Step 3. How and where to shop?
The US has a huge number of stores where you can find literally anything. On our website, you'll find a list of popular options to start with, but you're not limited — you can order from any store of your choice.
The order process at American online stores generally looks like this:
- registration (email and password)
- entering the shipping address (the address of our warehouse provided to you)
- adding payment information (your card details)
- choosing items and paying
- waiting for the order to be shipped to the warehouse
Usually, the store ships the package to our warehouse within a few days. Detailed step-by-step instructions for placing orders at specific stores can be found here. Overall, the process is the same at almost all American online stores.
Step 4. The order is placed, what's next?
Essentially, the hardest and scariest part is already behind you. Now all that's left is to wait for the store (seller) to ship the order and provide a tracking number to track the package within the US.
Where can you track packages (within the US)?
99% of all purchases placed at US stores are shipped by the three largest delivery services in America:
- USPS — the US government postal service (United States Postal Service);
- UPS — an American commercial company (United Parcel Service);
- Fedex — another commercial delivery service (Federal Express).
If the store shipped your order via some other service, you can always track the order in your store account.
After the store (seller) provides the tracking number, you need to add it to your expected packages with us. As soon as the package is received by the warehouse, it will appear in your personal account (you'll receive an SMS notification or an email about this).
Step 5. The package is at the warehouse, what now?
There are two options here.
- Immediately after the first order arrives at the warehouse, prepare a package for shipment;
- Wait for your other purchases and combine them all into one package (consolidate).
Consolidation is combining several packages (orders) into one single package.
The second option can be considered more cost-effective, since the greater the weight of your package, the more favorable the shipping terms. Keep in mind that with all delivery services without exception, the first kilogram is always the most expensive, and each subsequent one is significantly cheaper.
We recommend the first method (immediate shipment) if you're not planning to buy anything else in the near future and don't need to combine several orders into one package.
We offer free storage of all your purchases at the warehouse for 70 days.
Step 6. The package needs to be shipped, but how?
First of all, you need to choose a delivery service. You can calculate the shipping cost in advance and decide on a delivery service using our shipping calculator. You can read in detail about each delivery service, maximum weight limits, and so on in the questions and answers section.
Once you've decided on a delivery service, you can proceed to prepare the package and send it for assembly.
When the packages have arrived at the warehouse (all the ones you want to ship now) and appear on the Purchases at the warehouse tab, you need to mark the packages and add them to the package being formed (the "Add to package" button).
Step 7. The final and most enjoyable step
Once the package has been shipped from the warehouse, an international tracking number will appear next to it, which you can use to track the movement of the package. When the package is available for pickup, you'll receive a notification (an email in your inbox or an SMS message about handing the package to a courier, for example). To pick up the package, you need to have ID documents (passport) with you.
We recommend checking the contents of the package and the integrity of the items in the presence of post office operators or delivery service employees. After checking the package, take it home and enjoy your new purchases!
As can be seen from this article, shopping in the US with delivery to Russia (and other countries) is really simple and easy. If any points remain unclear to you, you can always ask questions in tickets in your personal account or to an operator in the online chat.
