What is a Parcel Forwarding Service?
A parcel forwarding service is essentially a mailing address that you can use for personal and commercial purposes without having to reside in that location. Typically, these are used when you don’t have a permanent address of your own in a city or a country.
Need to buy from Amazon and eBay but don’t live in the USA? Pick a parcel forwarder that suits your requirements and ship your purchases there. They’ll keep it for you till you’re ready to ship to your home, office or your favourite cousin’s home. Doing a business where you need to store items till they are ready to ship out for customers and need the pros to handle it? A parcel forwarding service will be a boon for your business.
In a nutshell, they are there to answer the door when the postal or courier service arrives with your purchases and they will keep it safely for you till you are ready.
How Parcel Forwarding Services Work
Parcel forwarding or package forwarding services as they are called in some other regions simply give you a mailing and/or postal address when you sign up with them. Once you are registered with them, you can use the address they provide as a shipping address at Amazon, eBay, BestBuy, and high-end fashion stores etc. Here’s how the procedure works for parcel forwarding companies in the USA:
- Sign up with a parcel forwarder (ideally)in a non-taxable state such as Delaware, Nashua, Oregon, USA
- Note down the warehouse address and phone number (if available) provided by the parcel forwarding company.
- Provide this new address as shipping address at your shopping website such as Amazon, ebay etc. Sometimes, these websites suggest changes to the postcode, follow the instructions of your parcel forwarder on this before approving or rejecting the change. Some forwarders allow the change, others insist that there should be no change in the postcode.
- The website or merchant ships the order to your warehouse address
- Parcel forwarding service will receive your items at their warehouse and notify you.
- Request photos etc.
- Fill out customs declaration and give instructions on repacking and consolidating your shopping/items.
- Choose shipping method and pay the fees.
- Wait for your parcel to ship. In most cases you are also provided with a tracking number so you can track the parcel.
- Pay fees levied by customs agents in your home country (or where you’ve shipped the parcel). In some cases, custom fees are waived.
- Receive the parcel at your home.
