My Amazon direct shopping experience

Posted by Felix Okoli on Friday April 17, 2015 at 14:32:43:

I recently mentioned that Amazon USA now delivers many more items directly to Nigeria and I did place an order for some computer accessories with them and I'm glad that they did deliver. Yes! Amazon now delivers items directly to Nigeria.

I ordered for a bunch of Sandisk flash drives from Amazon and after adding the items to my basket, proceeded to checking out, chose my delivery address as Nigeria and put in my house address(I used to use a USA shipping address), I noticed that they accepted to ship it because the next page read "Choose your shipping options". If it was not an item that the Amazon seller doesn't offer shipping to Nigeria yet, then it will return an error saying "Sorry, this item can't be shipped to your selected address. Learn more. You may either change the shipping address or delete the item from your order".

So, after I've chosen my item, added it to my cart and proceeded to checking out, I was able to add my delivery address in Nigeria and saw my total bill which could be displayed in Naira or US dollars. The total bill for buying things directly on Amazon from Nigeria included the purchase cost, shipping and handling fee as well as the import fee deposit.

One thing I like about their billing system for international buyers such as those from Nigeria is that you'd be able to see the total bill you have to pay in Naira or dollars and this would be the same bill that will be deducted from your Naira account if using a Naira Visa or Mastercard. If using a USD card, then only the USD value will be deducted.

So, they normally calculate the import Fee bill by estimating how much custom duties they have to pay on your package and that was something my US shipping service didn't offer yet as I still had to pay for import duties separately even when receiving my item with DHL in Nigeria. Also, Amazon delivers through UPS and I think I'm loving their UPS service since it seems cheaper.

In terms of their shipping cost, I think it's the cheapest I've seen with fast international delivery couriers that I use and it seems cheaper than others I've used because I paid just for 4lbs(1.8kg) for it.

I placed my order on Amazon on April 11th and received my package on the 17th of April - Just 6 days! I was also able to track it from my Amazon account by going to the order history for the item.

Some of the things I've noticed that Amazon now delivers directly to Nigeria includes flash drives, phone accessories, Books, DVDs, Baby items, Solar chargers, Electronics, Flat screen TVs, Jewelry, Shoes, Video Games, Watches. You can checkout items listed in the categories here. It is only those items that are marked Eligible for international shipping that are more likely to be delivered to Nigeria and you should start buying.

Although there are still many things that Amazon doesn't currently deliver to Nigeria such as their kindle fire tablets, apple iPhones, laptops and so on, there are already a lot of items that they deliver directly to Nigeria and straight to your doorstep using UPS - Their preferred international delivery service partner.

I would wish that Amazon would start delivering stuff like Kindle tablets to Nigeria since they are the main seller and have recently opened up direct shipping services to Nigeria. I would also wish they deliver laptops, clothes and so on.

The key is to Shop on Amazon as an international buyer and go for those items eligible for international shipping.