Last chance for holiday shopping from Europe. Consider Brexit when ordering from United Kingdom

The Black Friday and subsequent Cyber Monday shopping holidays which took place over the last weekend have put enormous stress on online shops. This means that some European online shops might not be able to post Christmas items purchased after last weekend in time.

According to Marita Mägi, head of the international segment of Omniva parcel business, both Black Friday and Cyber Monday have broken several e-commerce sales records. “Sales records mean that all sellers are currently drowning in work to ship holiday shopping orders as quickly as possible,” Mägi explained. “In the case of some European e-shops, it might be too late to fill orders so that the items reach Estonia before Christmas.”

Mägi adds that, in the case of Estonian e-shops, there is still time in most cases to shop until the middle of December. However, it is already too late to shop from China, the USA and other third countries, unless you opt for the more expensive courier delivery. The final days for shopping from Europe are here.

According to Mägi, special attention should be paid to orders from the UK because, from 1 January, the same conditions that apply to goods ordered from third countries shall start applying to orders from the UK. “This means that shipments from the UK will be equal to shipments from the USA or China; VAT is added to goods costing over 22 euros and customs duty is added in the case of shipments worth over 150 euros,” Mägi explained.

Mägi says that the client may get a bad surprise if they order in December and the seller ships the item from the UK in January. “In such a case, the customer must still pay the additional costs and taxes for the goods, regardless of the fact that the purchase was made in December,” Mägi explained.

Mägi reminds shoppers to hurry when ordering Christmas presents from Europe and, while doing so, pay close attention to the delivery terms of the e-shop or seller. It is also worth considering that in the case of most e-shops, items are not immediately shipped, but it takes the e-shop a couple of days to prepare the order. After the major shopping holidays, this period may be even longer.