Episode 235 of the Secret Sauce of Outsourcing podcast (host John Jonas, Jan 14, 2023) explains new options for sending gifts to online Filipino specialists (OFS). Amazon recently added a free-shipping option to the Philippines for orders over $49 that include a qualifying item, and promises no customs duties for shipments under 10,000 PHP (≈US$200). The host warns about caveats (qualifying-item rules, regulated goods like electronics/medication, variable delivery times, possible damaged packaging) and recommends local marketplaces Shopee and Lazada as faster, cheaper alternatives with strong local courier networks.
Questions this episode answers
Episode 235: Sending Your OFS Gifts From Amazon.
January 14, 2023.
Orders over $49 with a qualifying item.
Shipments under 10,000 Philippine pesos (about US$200) are stated to avoid customs duties.
Chapters
Welcome to the Secret Sauce of Outsourcing podcast that's dedicated to making you better at working with OFS online Filipino specialists. This is episode 235, sending your OFS gifts from Amazon. So this hasn't been a thing in the past, and just recently Amazon added the ability to ship to the Philippines for free. So you can now send your OFS gifts from Amazon. Say, okay, so let me take a step back here. So you've been able to order from Amazon for the Philippines for a long time? I don't know, decades. But it was always expensive. The shipping was really expensive and options were really limited. And so recently Amazon contracted with a couple local courier services for the last mile delivery. And they have made it so that for if your order is over $49, then, and you have a qualifying item in your order, then it ships for free to the Philippines. And then on the other side, there's always been like customs duties. The Bureau of Customs in the Philippines has always been really strict with this. And so if you order from Amazon, then people receiving it would likely get stuck with a bunch of customs taxes and the Bureau of Customs, 1, in an attempt to clean up their image. And then two, probably at Amazon's lobbying in order to get people to order from Amazon, they have promised that unless your order is over 10,000 Filipino pesos, which is about US$200, so it's not that much. If your order is under 10,000 pesos, they won't get any customs duties. If you do go over the $200 or 10,000 Filipino pesos limit, Amazon will tell you what they think the customs duties are going to be. Now, there's a couple caveats here. Number one, you have to have a qualifying item in your order. And what qualifies for free shipping to the Philippines, I don't really know. So you'll have to kind of explore if you're wanting to ship them something. And then my OFS says it's still not a good idea to send anything regulated, which is like CDs or electronics or medication or perishable things, which would mean that most of the things that you probably want to ship, like a laptop, you probably shouldn't order from Amazon. So delivery times are still questionable whether or not it'll be really fast or it'll be a couple weeks. So one of my office ordered a bunch of books from Amazon. It took them about eight days to get there. The box was really torn up when it got there, but he had a bunch of books. And so it was kind of heavy. And so maybe that's why it was torn up, or it might be because it had an Amazon label on the box and so whoever was looking at it was interested in what's inside and they may have ripped it open and then seen there's a bunch of books and they lost interest in it. Just something to be aware of. Now, having said that, we can order through Amazon. I have a son in the Philippines serving as a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and we were talking with him this last week about Amazon being able to ship to him and he said, yep, that's cool, but will you ship me something through Shopee, which is Shopee ph? So Shopee is a Philippines Co. And Lazada.comPH is another really great option for this. These two companies are local to the Philippines. You can buy all kinds of stuff there. He said, it's really cool. They have all these couriers, usually on scooters or motorcycles. They go into a local fulfillment place, they pick up a bunch of boxes, they stack them all up on their motorcycle and they drive around town delivering them. So delivery times are really fast. Shopee and Lazada are local, not necessarily just to the Philippines, they're Asia based, but they definitely have a really big presence in the Philippines. And delivery times are fast. Stuff is cheap. It's a really good option for sending stuff to your team in the Philippines.
