Buying from the US via comGateway

Recently, I made some purchases from the US as Christmas gifts to myself! hehe Just a tiny loot cz that's all I can afford then.

Brands that are not available in Malaysia are now added to my stash! I wish I could buy more, but this was enough to kick start hahaha I got my hands on LORAC, Em Cosmetics and Paula's Choice. How? Read on!

With freight forward service companies (or as I would call- middle man service), purchasing goods from the US is no longer far fetched! Not too sure about importing from other countries, but they should have their own companies too.

The ones I know of would be MyUS.com, vPost and the one I used- comGateway.

Basically what comGateway(or any other freight forwarder) does is provide you with a US address, which is their warehouse, have your shipments received and send it to you.

Such service is awesome as many brands are not only unavailable locally, but also only ship or provide free shipping within the US. Also, there are crazy deals like Black Friday which slashes the prices like craaaaazy! And that's where freight forward service comes in handy hehe

The following is the step by step on how to use comGateway. You're welcome :)

Step 1

Sign up for a free account and obtain your US address. Come visit me in Portland (Grimm :O)! hahaha Lame..

Step 2

Start shopping! You can either shop yourself and have your packages shipped to the US address given (if the merchants accept international credit/debit card or PayPal, which is what I use), or have comGateway buy for you using their BuyForMe form. They do have a service charge for that though...

Step 3

Once you've made your purchase, just wait till the packages arrive at the address. An email will be sent to notify whichever packages that have arrived at your address.

Once your packages have all arrived at the US address, you can choose to repack the items if the option is available. Repacking comes with a fee, but it helps with reducing the price of shipment.

For example, some goods may take up only half the box and if you were to ship them individually, you'll be charged more because of the size that takes up more space(in the plane, I assume). So, if you choose to repack your items, comGateway will open up all your packages and fit them better (ie. 5 packages becomes 1!) and not waste any space. Hence, it'll be cheaper.

But since both my packages from Paula's Choice and Amazon.com was packed well, no repacking option was available. That's what I like about comGateway! Repacking is only available if the savings on international shipping is significant. So you don't pay them unnecessarily.

Step 4

Pay your shipping fee. For my packages, they used DHL and I was charged $25.94. They did suggest I add on another 0.5kg of item as that'll make my total payment be $28, which means I save more...but I didn't wanna go over budget haha Maybe next time :P

Step 5

As soon as your shipment is on its way, you'll receive a tracking number- my favourite part of any mail!!! I just find it thrilling to track packages....and get pissed when they're behind time hahaha

Tadahhh!!

I love how fast the whole process is though it's coming from far away. It took my packages to arrive at the address within 5 days and it's shipped right after that(like I chose). comGateway allows your packages to be at their warehouse for up 30 days free. After that, they charge a certain fee.

Now you can shop all the US brands!!! Time to countdown to Black Friday hehe