The FINANCIAL -- The popularity of online shopping on US sites is significantly
increasing amongst Georgians. Weekly parcels of about 10-15 tons are
delivered to Georgia from the USA via more than 10 transportation
companies.
Georgians tend to buy mainly clothes and shoes online, but shopping of home appliances or car parts and accessories are quite common as well, claim representatives of transportation companies.
The first transportation companies oriented at online shopping were founded 4-5 years ago, but at that period few people knew about the possibilities of shopping in the USA from Georgia.
“During this period the service of transportation has significantly developed,” said Nino Tsereteli, Executive Director of USA2Georgia. “Now parcels are delivered much faster and we offer a home delivery service across Georgia as well. It has supported the development of online shopping in Georgia and increased the number of our customers as well.”
“Currently we have up to 60,000 customers and we receive 5 shipments weekly,” she added.
Georgian customers consider the wrong size or colour of items delivered to them as the main problem with online shopping. To solve this problem some transportation companies already offer a parcel insurance service.
“Mistakes aren’t common. But if a customer wants we do offer insurance of the parcels,” said Andro Beroshvili, Director of Global Transporter. “The price of the insurance varies from 1 to 3 percent of the cost of parcel. We have had only a few cases where we have had to pay compensation for a loss.”
The general price per kilogram for shipping from the USA to Georgia is 8 USD equivalent in GEL, which is the price offered by USA2Georgia. Global Transporter, however, offers 6 USD per kg for each subsequent parcel.
“The majority of our customers tend to buy products within the 300 GEL (170 USD) range as production worth over this limit goes through duties,” Beroshvili said. “The most popular websites for online shopping with Georgians are amazon.com, 6pm.com, eBay.com and urbanog.com etc.”
Online shopping in the USA is already quite common among Georgians. A short while ago some transportation companies started shipping from Europe as well. Although the USA still remains the leader in the market.
“We are in Europe, but online shopping in the USA is easier and more convenient for Georgians as well as cheaper. All products cost at least 10 percent cheaper in the USA in comparison to Europe,” Tsereteli said.
“Apart from the low prices, the USA has a much more convenient internal shipping system which results in a high number of online orders in the USA from Georgia,” Beroshvili added.
There are some restrictions on imported products such as food products, easily flammable goods such as perfume, paint and firearms, pornographic production, animals, seeds, bones, fur and products including narcotic substances as well as the coins and banknotes of any country.
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