My Amazon shopping experience: November 2014

Posted on Wednesday November 19, 2014 at 9:42:10:

I recently did some shopping on Amazon during this month of November using my US package forwarding service and my Nigerian Visa card. I also made use of gift cards that I purchased from GYFT using my Paypal funds.

One particular thing I noticed about my US shipping agent was that I was billed almost immediately after I placed an order for them to ship my package to Nigeria. However the bill was later reversed by my local bank and I got another alert later in the day for a higher fee. It seems they increased the exchange rate to about NGN178/USD from the initial NGN160/USD I was charged. Perhaps. they mistakenly used the wrong exchange rate then as I got two sms alerts.

Since I'm already used to online shopping on US websites from Nigeria and my favourite destination for now is Amazon, I remained loyal to consolidating my packages at my US address so that I would be able to save some money when I finally ship them in bulk. I have to tell you that shipping your item to Nigeria in single units through DHL will cost you more than if you were to ship them in bulk after receiving them from different sellers.

So, I decided to buy a couple of things on Amazon before Christmas and some of them for personal use while others would be for resale.

One thing I also did was to buy the items on Amazon using my Naira Visa card and selected my default currency as Naira so that I'd at least know how much I bought the items and also know how to apportion shipping cost to all the items by the time it arrives Nigeria.

Here is a breakdown of my shopping costs on Amazon before final shipping to Nigeria:
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- October 27, 2014: 1 of: Levi's Men's 505 Regular Fit Jean, Black, 36x29 N6,338

- October 27, 2014: 1 of: Levi's Men's 505 Regular Fit Jean, Black, 35x30 N6,338

- October 27, 2014: 1 of: Levi's Men's 505 Regular Fit Jean, Black, 36x30 N6,338

- November 1, 2014: 1 of: PUMA Men's Roma SL NBK 2 Sneaker,Dark Denim,12 M US N8,300

- November 1, 2014: 1 of: Keds Men's Champion CVO Sneaker,Black,12 M N8,250

- November 2, 2014: 1 of: Bostonian Men's Ipswich Oxford Shoes (Black size 12) NGN 10,978.81

- November 6, 2014: 1 of: Dockers Men's Perspective Moc Run Off Toe Oxford,Black,12 M US NGN 10,153.27

- November 9, 2014: 19 units of SanDisk Cruzer 16GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive- SDCZ36-016G-B35 N18,531

Total US shopping costs: NGN 75,227

International shipping cost to Nigeria: N36,031.47(About $201.80) factor: 1.4789

Apportioning international shipping costs per item
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I also had to apportion international shipping cost to all the items I purchased Amazon as this would help me know how much I finally paid for the items in Naira. My basis of apportioning the shipping costs were based on the purchase/acquisition cost I spent on the items.

My basis of apportioning international shipping costs were based on purchase price rather than shipping weight since there weren't much items that I would consider as having too much weight. They were mostly light items and the heaviest ones were just the jeans. So, you can decide to apportion your shipping costs based on weight, size or price.

Final combination of total shopping and shipping cost for the purchased items
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- October 27, 2014: 1 of: Levi's Men's 505 Regular Fit Jean, Black, 36x29 NGN 9,373

- October 27, 2014: 1 of: Levi's Men's 505 Regular Fit Jean, Black, 35x30 NGN 9,373

- October 27, 2014: 1 of: Levi's Men's 505 Regular Fit Jean, Black, 36x30 NGN 9,373

- November 1, 2014: 1 of: PUMA Men's Roma SL NBK 2 Sneaker,Dark Denim,12 M US NGN 12,274

- November 1, 2014: 1 of: Keds Men's Champion CVO Sneaker,Black,12 M NGN 12,205

- November 2, 2014: 1 of: Bostonian Men's Ipswich Oxford Shoes (Black size 12) NGN 16,235

- November 6, 2014: 1 of: Dockers Men's Perspective Moc Run Off Toe Oxford,Black,12 M US NGN 15,015

- November 9, 2014: 19 units of SanDisk Cruzer 16GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive- SDCZ36-016G-B35 NGN 27,405

- Final Total costs to Nigeria = NGN 111,259

The average exchange rate of 1 USD to the Naira as at this date using Google currency tool is about NGN 173.

So, I spent a total of N107,327 to purchase all these items and I'm also expecting that I don't have to pay custom duties on this package and if I do, I may also have to add it to these cost and apportion it to each of them based on their prices.

As an online shopper, you might feel the need to calculate your total costs when buying things on Amazon from a faraway country like Nigeria and you'd have to include things like international shipping costs and probably custom duties if any.

My shipment has been sent and I'm expecting to receive it in Nigeria within the next 5 working days and I'll also be able to track it online on the DHL website so as to know the exact time it is with the delivery courier. Were my purchases really worth it? Well I think it was since I've checked the local prices for some of these items in Nigeria and noticed that they are a bit higher. It might have cost me more if I spent less money and purchased single items

Update: I was charged a heavy duty of 20% for my package. This has increased my final costs by 30% to a total of N144,947. So, I may have to adjust the total cost of each item I purchased by 30%.

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