Have you ever worried you’ll be spending you hard earned savings on a gift that won’t ever be used by its receiver? Here’s our guide to how making sure you get the right gift, at the right price and have fun doing so.  Only 6 steps to follow!

Step 1: Start early

Start looking and shopping early! Why? Two reasons for this: First, each US merchant will offer deals at different times before and even after Christmas. Black Friday and Cyber Monday may be the biggest sales events in November, but that doesn’t mean that merchants only give huge discounts on that weekend. Deals continue. If you don’t know where to look, don’t worry, just follow us on Facebook and we’ll send you in the right direction.  Next, the secret to a great gift is great selection. As Borderlinx opens up almost all US and UK shops to you, you can find the present you need and have it shipped to you.

Step 2:  Manage you budget

There’s a lot to think about when making gifts but money is a big part of it. Make sure you save wherever you can. Borderlinx help you, not only by showing you where to get great prices on the products, but also with it’s built in services such as 30-day free storage, consolidation and repacking.

Step 3: Make a list

If you shopping for your family, friends, your neighbors, coworkers, postman, or even for your pet, your need to have an idea of how much you will spend for each one. You don’t want to spend more for neighbors than for your immediate family, right? List them based on your relationship, like start from family and end with the postman. Carry the list with you so that when you get that perfect idea, you can just write it down and search for the present once you’re home.

Step 4: Stay informed

In order to find fun gifts, no need to hunt for quirky presents. Just stay tuned with Borderlinx’s Christmas shopping pages. . If you registered our Newsletter, you will receive our weekly gift ideas straight in your inbox (if not, you can register now to my account! You can also see what wonderful gifts we suggest on our Facebook, Twitter or Google+!

Step 5: Don’t let borders stop you!

This is as easily said than done.  Just click here, you will find many great Gift ideas handpicked for you! Otherwise, you can always shop directly at other merchants’ websites, enter your personal Borderlinx address when you check out, we’ll ship them to you!

Step 6: keep track of your gifts

With so many presents bought, it’s easy to get a little muddled up! A simple trick to avoid your 90 year old grand-mother receiving a brand new tablet she doesn’t want is: Label each gift as soon as you received it with the designated receiver on a sticker or piece of tape you’ll remove later. You can then hide them well, in a safe place, where only you can find them!

Now, you are ready for a wonderful Christmas. Enjoy it!

The end of the year can be synonym of a lot of different things but the themes we see most often are: family, travel and gifting.  Whatever your end of year may look like, we have some ideas of what you might need to make it perfect.

End of year means travel plans:

NO.1

- Whether you’re planning a trip home, to a luxury hotel or backpacking around foreign territory, you need some choice and selection. After all, there is nothing worse than standing at the luggage carrousel trying to figure out which one of these black suitcases is yours.  So whether a wheelie suitcase or even just a handbag, see the colorful and varied selection of eBags. There’s so much choice, we know you’ll find the bag you not only need but also want. Our favorite for this winter is this best seller suitcase set just 233.99$, you can have these 3 different sizes luggage. All selections in eBag: http://tinyurl.com/lul3qkb

NO.2

- If you’re more of the adventure type, we’re ready to bet you never would have thought of taking a hammock with you. This Blue hammock from Eagles Nest Outfitters may however become your best travel buddy. Anywhere you go, you can set up camp and be comfortably sat, should you be staying for the night in a forest, or just waiting for the bus. See Eagles Nest Outfitters selection and get the one that’s right for you     : http://tinyurl.com/n8yh4a5

NO.3

- Finally, when memory falters, what do you have left? Photos! Out of the massive choice there is, we chose this one. It’s light, cute and social. With ‘Fujifilm Instax Mini 8 Instant Film Camera’, not only can you see your photos immediately, but also share them instantly with your friends or use them to decorate a big photo wall. Choose any of the pastel colors available. http://tinyurl.com/kjron6d

If you’re staying home:

Nothing to do at home, you say? Other than having a great time with your family, what are your plans for the rest of the time?

NO.1

-If you don’t have one already, it’s time to get your game out? Call your friends over for a few games. Make sure you practice first so you have a good chance of winning though! Recommendation from amazon: http://tinyurl.com/k99wfzt

NO.2

-Use the opportunity to make prepare your New Year’s resolution: in 2014, you’ll be fit and healthy, you’ll lose weight, thanks to this little coach you wear on your wrist. The new and improved FitBit is now available in the US. It’s better than ever and your weapon to master a healthy lifestyle.  See more: http://tinyurl.com/otq3on3

 NO.3

-Whether you’re more of the “sit down with a good book” type or the “travel the world with my hammock” type, you’ll need an e-Reader. We like the kobo. With a large range of readers, thousands of books now weigh less than 200g and the comfort of reading is the same as that of a paperback. But on an HD screen! You can find the books online cheaply or even sometimes for free. See more here: http://tinyurl.com/nxg56lt

Buy them now and be ready for your end of year break or get them for someone you want to spoil. If the idea you need is not in this post, don’t worry. We are actively looking for good ideas for you and your close ones. Whether it’s fashion, geeky, techy, qwerty or a holiday classic, we are on the lookout for you. Check out this week’s suggestion on our Christmas hub for her, for him or for the kids.

For Men: http://www.borderlinx.com/offers/men-gift-ideas

For Women: http://www.borderlinx.com/offers/women-gift-ideas

For Kids: http://www.borderlinx.com/offers/children-gift-ideas

My purchases have arrived! Let me tell you all about the experience, how they look, and whether they have been repackaged. Follow me to find the answer.

BEFORE RELEASINGMY ITEMS

After my order was processed, I had to be patient and wait for my items to arrive in Borderlinx US hub. A few days later, I received an email telling me that my items arrived in my Borderlinx suite address. I can release them now or leave them there for 30 days free of charge. That’s plenty of time to shop some more, but I must be reasonable and ship them now.

I went to my account which shows how many goods are waiting to be shipped in the right corner of the page, just like the image in below. I know both my purchases have arrived in the hub and are waiting for me in my suite.

I click on the  link ‘2 goods awaiting shipping’ and am happy to see that all details of the items are here : retailer name, reference of product, product description, date received and value. Makes it easier for me to know what has arrived and what is still being delivered and to check that all items in list are from right merchants. As all my items had arrived, I clicked the button ‘ship now’ to release the shipment.

Ahh of course, I must now enter my personal address to receive my parcels. I didn’t do this when I signed on so it makes sense that I need to do it now. Let’s see… this looks pretty standard.

After I clicked ‘ship now’, I went to my shipment history to see my items’ status.

Right now, all I can do I wait

MY ITEMS ARRIVED!

They arrived in my hand just 5 days later, which is far less than I thought. They are in good condition, and the tablecloth has been repacked to be about half the original size. Overall,  it looks good.

However, the book was a little more disappointing. To be honest, it is too small and I didn’t see this in the picture from the merchant. So I need to remind you to be careful for all information and pictures in the internet when you are shopping! The box seemed big compared to the actual book and at first I thought they’d forgotten to repack it. I spoke to the CS team and they explained that it could not be repacked because it was already the minimum size: any smaller and the DHL label and documents would not have fitted. Makes sense really! Next time I’ll make sure I get the full sized edition.

Here are some pictures for you to see yourself. (I put a pen beside it, so you will find how big the box actually is.)

The tablecloth has been repacked as  you can see it in the picture in below. Before it arrived, I had a small delay with DHL, they contacted me more than once and said they could not find me, probably I forgot to enter in my account the security code of my apartment building. So after I confirmed my address with DHL customer service, it arrived on the next morning as planned.

As a conclusion of my first ever Borderlinx experience, I can say that indeed as a whole it is a little bit more complicated than shopping in store or on merchant site directly, but it’s still easier than I thought. Before I shopped, I studied the Borderlinx website, to find out what items are prohibited and what ‘volumetric weight’ is, etc.  Then, I filled in all information needed and started to shopping. Also I’m glad with the delivery time, just 5 days (excluding the DHL issue)

As a customer, I liked this shopping experience and have no complain. If you aren’t lucky as I am, or you have some problem with your delivery, do contact Borderlinx customer service, they are ready for you 7/24.

Hi, I’m Alicia and I’m new to the Borderlinx team. I noticed that you have a lot of questions about how to use Borderlinx’s service. So I think, this is a chance, in this blog, to write about my personal experience using Borderlinx. This post will concentrate on my experience at registration and shopping with Borderlinx. Come back for my next posts to find out how it all goes, what I liked, disliked and my overall impressions as I go along.

ONLY THREE STEPS for REGISTRATION

Step 1: I opened www.Borderlinx.com, clicked on ‘Join now’ and went to the registration page. It’s not very long and it seems clear and easy. So far, so good! I just put in the info requested in the form.

Tip: for the security of our account, our password should be composed of at least 8 characters with a mix of letters (A-Z, a-z) and numbers. I really don’t have a long and secure password, but as it’s a means to protect my account, I create one.

Step 2: I clicked on ‘create my account’, the page you see below appeared. No more questions for now. I’ve done all there is to do here. The whole registration process was indeed short and easy so far.

Step 3: One more step!   As expected, I received a confirmation email asking me to confirm my email address. This is quite a standard procedure. I clicked on the link in the email and received a Welcome email and my suite addresses in a couple of minutes. Voilà! I just finished my registration. It only took 3 minutes! Honestly, it’s that simple! Time to go shopping in US and Europe as if I lived there.

Now, lets spend more time looking into this Suite address email:  A very important email for my shopping.

It indicates my suite addresses. These addresses contain a series number with format XXXX-XXXX, which is my identification number in Borderlinx.

Careful! This number is very important!  You’ll need to enter it along with your Borderlinx address when you checkout from a merchant site. Borderlinx will identify our parcel with this number.

REMINDER:  Add personal address

Before I shop, I have one last thing to do: add my personal shipping address, by clicking on ‘my personal address’ in the ‘My Account Links’ column in the top right corner.

Tip: MY ACCOUNT PAGE

This page is composed of 3 parts, account details, repacking service and my suite addresses.

-Account details: By anytime after registration, if I want to check or modify my information, I can come here to do so.

-Repacking service: it’s completely free, but I can choose to use it or not. I’ll use this service, because the repacking can save our transport fees a lot.

If you want to know more, see this: https://www.borderlinx.com/pages/faq/repacking-service

-Suite addresses: I can’t remember my suite addresses at all times, but I can find them here whenever I need them.

SHOPPING with Borderlinx—Concierge

Time to go shopping! There are great suggestions on the Borderlinx website, it’s very convenient. I decided to buy a travel book and a table cloth which cost 30.72 USD in total.

We all know how to shopping online, so I chose to try out our Concierge Service. Why? Because some merchants don’t accept foreign credit card, see more: http://www.borderlinx.com/pages/customer-services

I opened the Concierge page, clicked on ‘Place an order’ and then completed the forms you see below. I placed 2 separate orders, because I bought 2 items from 2 different merchants. I was as little worried about giving my credit card details at first but I noticed this page is secured.

Please note that you’ll need to place separate concierge orders for each merchant.

After placing my orders, I received 2 confirmation emails including all details of the items I bought. I like these emails, it includes all info I need to know!

What is Cashback? 

Each cashback website has its own rules, but in general, cashback websites are a type of online rewards program that pay their members (usually via Paypal) back a percentage of money they have spent on online goods and/or services. Since this money is deposited into a customer account, it can be directly used to help pay for your shipping fees so that you get the most out of your money.

1. Be Frugal: We love Be Frugal, their site is easy-to-use and completely free to join. We especially love their Couponomatic add-on that automatically adds coupon codes at checkout, so you never miss a deal. Search tens of thousands of deals, promo codes and coupons – create an account to start instantly earning up to 30% cashback at over 3,000 online stores.

2. Fat Wallet: What started as a modest online coupon group has morphed into a cash back giant that provides its online community with shared coupons, deals, cashback offers and all kinds of tips and helpful advice. Their massive selection of deals is what earned them the number 2 spot on our list.

3. Top Cash Back UK: ”The UK’s most generous cash back site”, Top Cash Back is England’s most well-known rewards site. You can opt to receive your cash back balance as an Amazon.co.uk or Love2shop Shopping Card to earn a bonus payment. Members also receive a £10 credit when they refer a friend.

4. Shop at Home: Shop at Home has been helping savvy online shoppers find great deals since it was founded in 1986. They boast an impressive selection of online coupon codes (over 100,000!) and also feature Top Coupons & Cash Back Double Deals.

5. Quidco: Currently helping over 3.5 million Brits earn shopping rewards, Quidco is simple to use and offers cashback from over 3,500 of Britain’s top retailers including Amazon UK, Tesco, Boots, Asos, and Marks & Spencers.

Don’t have a Borderlinx account? Get one for free today and start taking advantage of all these cash back bonuses.

We’re happy to introduce our new Borderlinx Premium Partner (BxPP) Program.

For who is it? 

e-Commerce businesses, blogs, deal websites and most other webpages can take part in the program.

What are the benefits?

- e-Commerce Businesses: Expand your business to more than 47 countries while earning a commission. We have an array of tools for you to use – integration is free and simple. International orders require no more effort than domestic orders.

- Blogs, deal websites, or other webpages: Your readers may not have heard of Borderlinx or know that we give them the freedom to shop where they please. Introduce our service to them and earn a commission for referred users. We provide you with an array of creative material that you are free to display on your site.

How can I sign up? 

Simply get in touch

Check out our dedicated Premium Partner Page here for more information

Members of our Borderlinx logistics team are trained to recognize and repack items that are inefficiently packed by the online merchant for international transit. Although the extra space in each package may not make any difference to the minimal cost for domestic transportations (and many merchants provide free domestic shipping), since international shipping costs are calculated based on volumetric weight, this extra space can represent a lot of money.

Our free repacking service can help you save; here are a few concrete example of how the service can reduce shipping costs:

Example 1: 

These 2 phone covers were originally shipped in a 10.1 x 17.8 x 25.4 cm. box (4 x 7 x 10 in.), representing 1.39 kgs. (3.06 lbs.) of volumetric weight. The phone covers were repacked into a padded pouch with dimensions of 2.5 x 25.4 x 30 cm. (1 x 10 x 12 in.) Volumetric weight was cut in half.

Example 2: 

This pair of shoes was sent in a large 48.2 x 33 x 15.2 cm. box (19 x 13 x 6 in.), with a volumetric weight of 4.85 kgs. (10.7 lbs). The shoes remained in their branded box (per our repacking policy) but the box was placed in a bag, saving the customer 4 kgs. (8.8 lbs.) of volumetric shipping weight.

Example 3: 

Clothing was sent by an online merchant in a 12.7 x 30.5 x 30.5 cm. box (5 x 12 x 12 in.) with a volumetric weight of 2.35 kgs. (5.2 lbs). The clothing was repacked into a padded bag, reducing volumetric weight by nearly 2 kgs. (4.4 lbs).

Nearly half of all shipments benefit from our free repacking service, however please keep in mind that certain items cannot be repacked.

See more examples of how repacking works.

We’ve heard you tell us that our shipping fees can sometimes seem unreasonable. We’ve
therefore decided to test the experience from your point of view and bought the same product, a lightweight t-shirt in black or white, and had the items forwarded from the US to Paris, France by three different cross-border services: Comgateway, Borderlinx and MyUS. All of the items were shipped by the same carrier (DHL Express).

Let’s have a look at the details of each package that we received:

Borderlinx

Borderlinx parcel

Borderlinx parcel contents

The t-shirt was repacked into a DHL padded envelope; all unnecessary packaging that was added by the merchant was removed. The package arrived in good condition.

Borderlinx packaging

The parcel took two days to be delivered to France from our Dayton, Ohio export facility. At only $24 for shipping charges, this was the least expensive of the three.

Comgateway parcel

Comgateway parcel contents

The t-shirt along with the merchant packaging was placed into a standard envelope, the package arrived in good condition.

Comgateway packaging

The shipping time was the longest of the three, taking a total of 5 days to make the journey from the US to Paris. It was also the most expensive at $35.65 for international shipping fees alone.

MyUS

MyUS parcel

MyUS parcel contents

MyUS is the only service of the three that charges a registration fee and possible monthly costs as well, depending on the type of membership that a customer chooses.

The t-shirt was repacked into a larger DHL box, along with the original merchant packaging and some protective filled-air packets. This repacking service is offered for free by MyUS, but in this case, the item was repacked into a bigger box.

MyUS explains their repacking service in the following manner:

“Many merchants pack your merchandise in boxes that are too large or not properly prepared for international shipping. To help save you money and protect your purchases, we take extra time to ensure that all of your merchandise is properly packaged for international shipping.

Our FREE repackaging service will save you money in shipping costs, especially by reducing the dimensional weight of your packages. Our repackaging also helps ensure your purchases are not damaged during transport.”

In our test, MyUS’ repacking of the t-shirt may have increased the dimensional weight, possibly increasing the shipping cost.

MyUS packaging

The t-shirt was delivered in two days and arrived in good condition. Overall, MyUS tied for the fastest delivery time and was the second costliest at $35.30 for shipping fees, not factoring in any membership or registration fees.

We will continue to run live tests of our service and keep you updated on the outcomes.

Definitions:

 Shipping Weight: As marked on the carrier invoice.

International Shipping Time: Time elapsed between depart of parcel from US export facility and first delivery attempt to shipping destination in Paris, France. 

International Shipping Costs: International Shipping Costs only, not including Taxes and Duties.

Whether you’re a tech junkie, fashion addict or beauty lover, the 4th of July is your chance
to snag top products at great prices. Take advantage of the massive amount of sales happening in the US and use your Borderlinx Address to ship your items home.

Also, be sure to keep an eye on your inbox, Borderlinx may have a surprise for you!

Tech Deals

- Save up to 50% on your favorite tech products with Best Buy’s Sparkling 4 Day Sale

- HP’s 4th of July Event is not to be missed. Get select HP products at half-price, ends Saturday.

- Leap Frog: Spoil the little ones  and save 15% on orders over $40 with the code FREEDOM

Fashion Events

- Check out the One World Avenue Sale and save 60% (plus free international shipping!) on the world’s top brands.

- Take 25% off with Gap’s Star Spangled Savings Event, use the code GAPHAPPY at checkout.

- Save 30% (even on sale items!) site-wide from Levi’s, ends July 8th.

Beauty Bargains

- The BH Cosmetics Red, White & Beautiful Sale on for only 48 hours.

- Don’t miss Sephora’s Weekly Specials and be sure to check out their Big Beauty Sale happening this week only.

As always, make sure to check which items can’t be shipped by Borderlinx before placing your order. 

After your Borderlinx shipment arrives at your suite address, we are happy to hold your parcels for up to 30 days at absolutely no cost to you*. This gives you plenty of time to release your items, or consolidate your shipments to save even more on your shipping fees.

Skeptical? 

Does 30 days of free storage sound too good to be true? Have a look at these Borderlinx Customer Invoices to see what is included in your Borderlinx Fees.

This invoice shows an order placed just a few days ago:

As you can see, the customer was only charged for shipping, applicable duties and taxes, a customs clearance fee, a small fuel surcharge and opt-in SafetyLinx shipment value protection.

Here’s another one:

You can see that this customer was also only charged for applicable duties, a small fuel surcharge, customs fees and shipping charges.

The only time you will be charged a storage fee by Borderlinx is if you exceed the 30-day limit. Learn more about Borderlinx Pricing.

*after the 30-day period, you will be charged a storage fee of $5USD per day.