Best Package Forwarding Services | Guide to Shopping & Shipping Internationally

The idea of shopping and shipping internationally can be a stressful one, especially when you’re factoring in costs, reliability, and the availability of certain products. Luckily, many of the best international package forwarding companies solve this problem and create an easy, reliable solution so you don’t have to worry about not getting certain products you need.

International Package Forwarding - a guide for shoppers International package forwarding can be an extremely useful service for those expats living abroad. Or perhaps you simply want a product that is only sold in another country.

Either way, this simple guide will be useful. It has been broken up into three parts, and you can jump to them directly using these links:

Who needs package forwarding? Features to consider before buying Best package forwarding services in 2020 For those of you who are researching the best international package forwarding services, there’s even an exclusive discount code that you can use toward the end.

Note: Some of the links in this article are affiliate links, which means that at no extra cost to you, I may be compensated for your use of these services.

Who Needs International Package Forwarding Consider this scenario: Let’s say you’re an expat based in China and can’t find a certain item on Taobao, JD.com, or Amazon.cn.

In this case, a packaging forwarding service can be used to buy items in the US or UK and have them shipped internationally to your home in China at a low cost.

What’s more, many stores online require the customer to have a USA or UK address.

Popular shopping websites like Amazon, eBay, Best Buy, and Target (to name a few) may have what you’re looking for, but if you don’t have a USA or UK address, you cannot purchase them.

Many people have family or friends that reside in the USA or UK and have their desired item shipped there, and then have them ship the item to where they live, for example, China or Thailand.

These popular online stores don't offer regular international shipping While this process may work, it creates an expensive hassle that can easily be prevented with a good packaging forwarding service.

It’s different from a virtual mailbox service, which is a service that allows you to virtually check your mail while you’re traveling. In that case, the service gives you a personal mailbox number, scans your incoming mail, and then you choose what you want scanned to you.

It's simple to forward packages to China through a package forwarding service By contrast, many of the best international package forwarding services give you a USA or UK address without all the extra scanning and opening services.

When you purchase an item from a USA or UK online store, you use that address, where it is then forwarded to your international address for cheap international shipping.

Get a private phone number to keep in touch with family back homeAccess blocked websites in China with ExpressVPN! Features to Consider in a Package Forwarding Company It’s important to note that you should always use a reputable package forwarding company when dealing with international shipping.

I’ve created a list of the best package forwarding companies that are reliable and trustworthy below, but before we look at that, let’s consider what exactly you should be looking out for with a package forwarding company.

Feature #1: Do They Offer Bundling? With bundling services, the package forwarding company can send you multiple items at once, without having to do several different transactions.

You can order from different retailers, have them sent to the package forwarding company, which will then bundle them together and send them to you all at once.

Bundling saves you money by consolidating all your packages into one international shipment.

Most package forwarding companies will offer this service (it just makes sense!), but they all do it just a bit differently.

Find out what their process is and how they assess any particular package handling fees – if any – before making a decision.

Feature #2: Can I Track All the Packages to Their Destination? You should always go with a company that allows you to track your package in case of lost goods.

In some cases – for instance when you’re shipping to a place like China – many shipping companies lose tracking abilities once it arrives in the country.

If you’re shipping expensive or important items, you’ll want to make sure that your international package forwarding service has multiple shipping options. This includes one that can track within the country where you’ll most often be shipping to.

Which leads us to the next item…