How to shop online from sites that won't ship to Australia

Don't you hate it when you're shopping online and find an item that you love from an overseas website but then you discover that it doesn't ship to Australia?

Or you might find it ships to Australia but charges more because you're not a local customer. Well, there are ways to get around these pesky problems.

If you have family or friends living in that country, you can always get your orders delivered to their address and sent on to you. If that's not an option, then you can use one of the many parcel-forwarding sites that have been developed especially for this reason.

Basically they will provide you with a US address to enter when you make a purchase. Your goods will be shipped there and the service will then forward it to your address in Australia.

You can buy several items from different stores and the forwarding service can package them together so that you can save on delivery (although this may cost you a little extra). Some may even cut down the packaging to reduce the shipping costs.

You may find, though, that some sites will not accept an international credit card even if you have provided a local address. They may need the billing address and shipping address to match. Most of the parcel-forwarding sites will be able to buy the item for you so you can get around this issue too.

I must admit I have not used any of these services myself, so can't vouch for them, but some of the sites that you can use to shop from America include goopping.com, hopshopgo.com, myus.com, parceliton.com.au and reship.com. If it's a UK site you're interested in buying from, then forward2me.com and skypax.com both offer a forwarding service to Australia.

Of course, you need to compare the costs. There will probably be a handling fee as well as postage (generally based on the weight and size of the package). Some sites will also charge a membership fee and extra to store items for a certain time or to consolidate packages. To test the service, you may want to try them out with a relatively cheap item first.

It's worth noting that you can't buy absolutely anything. Some items are prohibited or restricted and therefore can't be shipped to Australia. This category includes alcohol and coffee, prescription and non-prescription medication, vitamins, nail polish and non-water-based paints, which are considered flammable/combustible, to name a few. Make sure you find out whether an item falls into the prohibited list before you spend any money.

Also look into the returns policy of the website you're buying from. Chances are it will only offer free returns from within that country so you may end up having to pay the postage to return an item to the merchant. Or find out whether the forwarding service will handle returns for you.

If you're buying electronic goods, ask about the warranty. Some only offer warranties to local customers. Something else to keep in mind if you're buying clothes is the size differences.

For example, if you're an Australian woman's size 12, you'll be a US size 8. There are a number of websites that can help you with size conversions.

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