Never Shopped Out: A Shopaholics Resource

 Tell us a bit about how you started Price USA?

The idea for Price USA came out of the frustration I had when I wanted to order some items for my son’s birthday party. I found some fantastic party decorations, but when I went to order it I found out that the shop wouldn’t ship to Australia. I kept looking around the web and eventually found what I wanted from a shop that would ship to Australia – the only problem was they wanted over $200 for shipping. I thought to myself that there must be lots of other Australians out there in the same situation and wouldn’t it be great if there was an Australian service that would let people buy all the great things from USA shops that won’t ship to Australia

Can you give us a quick overview of how the order process works?

The Price USA service is a little different to other mail forwarding services. Apart from being based here in Australia, we offer a full USA ordering service. Customers fill in my order form telling me what they want to buy, which shop they want to purchase from, and what shipping option they prefer. I check the order details (making sure the details are complete) and send a final quote email to my customers. If they are happy with the quote and my fee (5% of the total price), they pay me and I forward their payment onto my agent in the USA. He orders the item and ships it directly to the customer and sends in any mail-in rebates. The customer is emailed at every stage of the order process (placement, payment, order, arrival at my agent address, and final shipping to Australia) so they always know what is happening to their order. Once the order has shipped I check to see if I had overestimated the shipping cost (this is hard to get exactly right in advance) and refund any overpayment to the customer.

What would you say to those who have yet to try a mail forwarder?

Price USA is not a mail forwarder so I don’t know if I should comment on this question. When I started my business I looked at mail forwarding services out there and thought I could do better. Firstly, all the mail forwarding service are based overseas and I am sure many potential customers are like me and are hesitant to send their money to an unknown overseas company. My customers know that if anything goes wrong or have any questions they can pick up the phone and call me. Secondly, many of the mail forwarding services charge joining and monthly fees which can be off putting to new customers. Thirdly, most forwarding services can’t tell you in advance what your order will cost to ship to Australia. Fourthly, many of the services have lots of extra fees (eg repacking fees, ordering fees, consolidating fees, invoice fees, etc) that can really push up the cost of ordering. Finally, many companies in the USA limit the warranties on their products and rebates to USA residents. This means that if you order an item using your own credit card and send it to a mail forwarder, you may be without a manufacturer warranty. With my service, if you need to get an item repaired under warranty, you can ship it back to the USA and my agent will send it off to be repaired or replaced.

Tell us a bit about your optional warranty insurance? Would this cover returning/exchanging clothing that does not fit?

The option warranty insurance only covers the shipping costs involved in making a warranty claim – choosing the wrong sizes clothes is unfortunately not a warranty issue. Having said this I do help my customers return or swap wrong sized items. I don’t charge any fees for this service so the only cost is the shipping involved which is also at cost.

What payment methods do you accept? (ie. Credit Card/Bank Deposit/Paypal etc)

We accept Bank transfers, cash deposits, Visa, Mastercard, Paypal and Moneybooker payments. I like to encourage my customers to pay by bank deposit as this has the lowest fees and I can pass the savings on to them, however, if you want to grab a sale item before it sells out then paying by paypal or credit card is often the best way to go.

What are your favorite online stores to shop at?

This is a really hard question to answer since there are so many great bargains to be had in the USA! Some of my favorite stores include Tommy Hilfiger , Ralph Lauren , Sephora , MAC cosmetics , GAP , Piperlime , Zappos , Nine West , and Tiffany’s . While processing customers orders, I found out about some great bargains. This inspired me to share these finds with my other customers and resulted in my Last 40 orders page . It is amazing how many people use this page – once one person finds a great item I often get a huge number of copycat orders, myself included!

What is the most unusual item anyone has ordered through you?

Probably the 20 boxes of instant mash potatoes one customer ordered. They were so happy when they received their order it made me glad I start Price USA.

What is the coolest thing anyone was ordered?

This is a hard question as there have been so many cool things ordered! Probably my favorite has been nike id where you can custom design you own running shoes, watches, sunglasses. One customer found an amazing site selling reusable wall stickers  such as space invaders, sheep – you have to check the site out.

Missed Part 1? Read our Interview with Rachel from Parcel From Paris , a Parisan based Mail Forwarder and Personal Shopping service

Coming Next Friday: We talk to Greg from Bongo US, a full automated USA Mail Forwarder