or for Australia?
I need to buy a present (toy) for a 7 year old who lives in Australia. Alas, no Amazon Australia. Any locals who might recommend a good internet shopping site that delivers there?
I don’t buy too many things here in AU from online stores, especially not toys for kids (though I have bought geek toys for adults).
But here’s a price comparison site that appears to lead to online Australian toy shop sites.
Since you’ve had no other replies, I’ll throw Big W into the ring. I’ve never used them online, but they are a large chain in Australia, so I’d expect their online shopping to be reasonably good.
If you wanted a DVD, I’d recommend ezydvd, who i have used often, are reasonably priced and very cheap for shipping
Good cheap Aussie online sites that I or my friends use are:
I use Fishpond.com.au for books and DVDs.
The problem with Internet Retailers here in Australia is that they’re not significantly cheaper than walking into a store and buying the same item for the most part, so it hasn’t really taken off here to the extent it has in the US.
Be careful about doing this. We tried the same thing (granted, it was about 4-5 years ago). I placed the order, used my Visa card, got a confirmation email, but the product was never sent and I was never charged. I’m not sure what happened there, but I suspect that my American address and credit card looked suspicious to them or something. I ordered the gift through Grace Brothers, a department store that’s now called Myers. If I tried this again, I think I’d place the order over the phone.
That said, there isn’t a large internet retailer selection going on in Australia. Gowings used to have a site, but they’re out of business now. I’ve found that most of the more popular stores (Target, clothing stores, etc.) do not have internet shopping available. Martini Enfield, I don’t know that buying online is significantly cheaper in the U.S. than walking into the brick and mortar store, either. I think the biggest draw is convenience and being able to find items that aren’t in your local store.
That’s a good point; I tend to buy books online because my local bookshops just don’t carry the sort of books I’m after or don’t have all the books in a series I’m reading or whatever.
At any rate, Online Shopping for general merchandise that isn’t books, DVDs, CDs, or the like really hasn’t taken off here- the only “Big” retailers I’m aware of who use it are Big W, K-Mart, Dick Smith Electronics, and the Coles and Woolworths supermarkets.
Depending what the item is, perhaps Sapo could just buy the item in the US and mail it out to Australia? I know it won’t get here in time for Christmas but I’m sure a 7 year old will be thrilled to get a parcel with a gift from America in it that they won’t mind.
I don’t know about Australia, but some countries are just plain ridiculous when it comes to customs. My package could be stuck in some customs office for months to then be returned to me, going by my experiences with Mexico and Canada.
Certainly the issue here is not so much the savings or the variety but the fact that I can get something over there in time.
Thanks for all the responses. I will get around to doing this tonight (I hope), so there is still time for those with other suggestions.
I’ve never had too much trouble with Australia customs (we send packages fairly frequently, as my husband’s family & many of our friends are there). Make sure you don’t have any plant or animal material (wood, potpourri, food) and it should sail right through. Even most commercially packaged foods go through, but they might be held up for inspection. Something like Lego or a doll wouldn’t be any problem at all.
Customs is great, though - if it does get stopped, they’ll unwrap your stuff, then wrap it up again for you. I once unthinkingly sent a thing to my sister-in-law that included some sachets with potpourri in them. They unwrapped the gift, carefully removed the potpourri from the sachets, then replaced the sachet bags into the gift and wrapped it all up (including bow!) very neatly. She was like, “What the hell were all those little empty bags for?”
That’s scary, insane and hilarious, all in one.