This is a question and answers post, which will be answering the common queries related to the Indian customers about shopping from Amazon.com (US) and then get it shipped to the India. Questions are: Can I shop at Amazon.com from India? What are the shipping charges of Amazon.com for India? Do I have to pay customs duty / taxes to receive the product from Amazon.com in India? What are the customs duty charges? Do I need a credit card to make the payment to Amazon.com? What if Amazon does not ship a specific product to India? Amazon.com, the e-commerce giant is one of the most trusted online shopping portal. For the Indian customers, Amazon also has its base in India and the site can be accessed by visiting amazon.in. Amazon.com on the other hand, allows customers from India and few other countries to shop from their US website and get the product shipped to India. So, the answer from the first question is Yes. Indian users can shop on Amazon.com and get their product shipped to India. However, the process of purchasing products on Amazon.com is different from what you have seen with Amazon.in. Amazon.com provides free shipping to all the orders placed on its website, but it is only restricted to the united states. If you are living in India, then you don’t qualify for the free shipping. What are the shipping charges of Amazon.com to India? The shipping charges for shipping anything from Amazon.com to India depends on the product size, dimension, weight and of course, the value of the product. Amazon will typically ship products to India through DHL. The shipping cost can be anywhere from $10 to $50 dollars depending upon your order. How many days it takes to get products delivered to India? The Amazan.com website provides the estimate of 9-11 days before the product reaches the Indian customer through standard shipping plan. You can opt for faster delivery using the premium shipping plans listed on the website. Do I have to pay custom duty / taxes to receive the product from Amazon.com in India? Yes, customs duty applies when you import any product from the US. Same is the case with Amazon.com. However, in the case of Amazon.com, the website will automatically calculate the customs duty charges and add it to your total order amount at the time of checkout. Once you make the payment for your product shipping Custom duty, amazon.com will take care of the rest. The customs duty on the products depends on the kind of and value of the product you are importing. For example, if you are trying to import an $80 headphone, the customs duty will be approx $20 excluding shipping charges. If you are trying to import an $350 value product, the customs duty would be approx $100 excluding shipping charges. Note that, customs duty for the similarly priced different product can be lesser or more than what is estimated above. Procedure to Shop at Amazon.com from India. Step 1: Create an Amazon.com account The first thing you should do is create an Amazon.com account. If you have an Amazon.in account, that will not work with Amazon.com. Creating an account is very simple. Fill out the form with your name, email address, and other info. Now go to your account and add your residence or office address where you would like to get the product delivered by Amazon.com. One important thing to remember while adding your residence address information that to clear customs you should also provide your KYC details. So, while adding the residence address, also add your PAN card number, Driving License number, Aadhaar card number or voter ID card number in the address field. Step 2: Find the product The next thing is to find the product which amazon ships to India. Not every product is available for shipping to India. You can filter products available for international shipping by clicking on Ship to India tag at the left side of product category and under the refine section. One you have found the product, check if it can be shipped to India. But, before adding to the cart, scroll down and click on the warranty link. This will allow you to know whether the product you are ordering has an international warranty or the warranty is limited to US and Canada. Once you have added all the products to the cart, proceed to checkout. To make the payment, you can either use your Visa or Master credit card issued in India. If you don’t have a credit card, try ICICI bank platinum debit card with international transaction activated on it. You can make payment to most of the US and UK based merchants with this card. Before you make the payment, check the final amount which will include Product cost shipping cost and the custom duty charges. Make the payment and wait for the confirmation in your email account. Once the product has been shipped, you will get a tracking code to track the delivery status of your order. What if Amazon does not ship a specific product to India? Now it happens that Amazon may not ship a specific product outside united states and the product is also not yet available with Indian retailers. Or you may see a really good festive season deal on Amazon.com, but the product cannot be shipped to addresses outside the united states. What can you do in such situation? You can use the mail forwarding services. The mail forwarding services are offered by third-party local residence in the united states. You can register with a mail forwarding service like myus.com. Once you register they will give a virtual address in the US. You use that address while ordering your product from Amazon and send it to the US address given by mail forwarding service. Later the Myus.com will re-direct the package / product to your local resident address in India through any courier service. The only problem with this method is that you will be paying not only for the shipping and customs duty but also have to pay the mail forwarding service provider to get the product delivered to India. However, if you really want a product which cannot be shipped by Amazon to India and you don’t mind spending few extra dollars, then mail forwarding service can do the trick for you. So, that’s it guys! Do let us know if you have any other queries in the comment section below.
