Shiny Alex

Hi guys,

Do people in NZ shop online as much as we do in the UK?

And if I wanted to start importing bits from the US to sell (car wax) does anyone know a rough guide to how much import duties are?

In the UK iirc they're around 30% of the cost.

Cheers

stuartlittle

How much do people shop on line in the UK?

Over here you don't really shop for stuff thats not second hand on the internet. I suspect we're a few years behind UK in that respect. Hardly any high street retailers have online shopping, you have to leave the house.

In NZ people do a lot of buying and selling on a site called www.trademe.co.nz. Like ebay but deals with Nuzilund only.

Don't know about buying stuff from out of the country although this makes sense with the current strength of the NZ dollar. So why not. I guess you should check out www.ird.co.nz to look up import tax.
I have only used trademe.

Karen2000

Hi
I work for a company that imports carpets from Europe into NZ and Australia and we pay GST plus 12% import duty ,so I think it will work out about the same % as in Uk .I believe it is the same in most countries where the goods are taxed in categories and some attract a higher rate than others , for example our broadloom carpets are 12% but carpet tiles are Nil duty, I think that it is something to do with protecting industry within your own country. If I am wrong I am sure someone else will know.

One thing I do know is that air and sea freight rates are much cheaper than you would imagine , if I ever need to ship again I would definately do it myself along with a good freight forwarder.

I hope that helps Karen

Campbells

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It’s all here

http://www.customs.govt.nz/default.htm

You will have to pay the GST upfront and I would suggest you shop around for shipping / clearing agent.

I was quoted $1500 to transport a shipment from the airport to the N Shore. More than it cost to ship from China

You also need to get a client code from customs, this is pretty easy, and I think two days.

That refers to your company and it references your import history and I would imagine the GST balance also.

If you want more info I can offer some contacts, PM me

Cheers

PS : Look at www.trademe.co.nz that is a big thing here. Fairfax bought the Co ( Trademe) a few months back for $770 mil

Shiny Alex

Thanks guys

That Customs site is a bit confusing.


We pretty much buy most things online now, apart from food shopping.

Alot of stuff you cant get local but you can get it new from various shops around the UK.

uk+kiwi

In my experience, a lot. It's soooo easy, quick and stress free. I can't last beyond two hours on a 'big shop' -eg for Xmas, on a High Street.

I buy some groceries and most gifts and household/electrical items online. Last year this included two new beds, toys, almost all of our clothes, loads of books/DVD's, a kettle, a breadmaker, two PC's and an upgrade to our digital camera. And hubbie's mobile phone and my 'luxury' skincare items. I bought all our Xmas gifts online last year.

Ebay and amazon are huge in the UK and most 'big name' high street stores have online shopping websites. Eg M&S, Argos, Tesco etc

Campbells

Getting things from Oz is very common and ( as you prob know, e-bay has a sep Oz site).

In many cases you have to get things from Oz as it is not available here in NZ

E.g.:
Need a part for my outboard motor, not available in NZ / pr is very highly prices.

Wanted to replace the foams for my studio headphones, couldn’t get the NZ Fostex agent to organise so dealt with Oz agent, goods received within two days.

Needed to buy cleaner & special wipes for our camera CCD. Buying it in NZ was three times the price ( including shipping from Oz). Dealt with Co in Oz, was here within a week.

If you do a lot of business with OZ you can get good DHL rates and a next day delivery ( from NZ) to SA.

Otherwise you can use the NZ post office offers decent rates to courier over to Oz.

Shopping online here is very common and in most cases if we need to buy an appliance (for example ) we do some price checking online.

There are sites like www.pricespy.co.nz for computer parts.

Courier costs are very cheap here so it is way cheaper for me to buy a computer part or software or whatever online and pay $5 to have it here the next day rather than get in my car and drive 20 kms to find out they haven’t got it in stock !

I would say that your biggest challenge ( in terms of logistics) in selling something like car wax is checking that the chemicals etc are acceptable in NZ. My sister was faced with that in her business.

Shiny Alex

Thanks Campbells

The stuff I'm looking does have an Oz supplier, so should imagine they may be a little stricter with chemical stuff that comes in.

I know what you mean about shipping not being great though, I can order stuff from the US the same day as something in the UK and usually the US bits will get here first