Using a third party courier like Kango Express is one of the best ways to ship U.S./U.K. shopping items to the Philippines. They can help you save both time and money and prevent yourself from dealing with the Philippine Customs (if your package gets held by them for some reason).
What is Kango Express?
Kango Express is an online shopping lifesaver. Their service is pretty straightforward: you order something online (US or UK merchants) and have it shipped to your virtual shipping address, and they send your package to the Philippines. You can then pick up your package in their office, or have it shipped it to your doorsteps.
Similar services are Johnny Air Cargo, LBC Shipping Cart, POBOX.Ph, MyShoppingBox, FRS, Borderlinx, etc.
Okay! The first thing we need to do is to sign-up for an account with Kango Express. I just did mine online, here’s their website:
kangoexpress.com.
For inquiries, you can get in touch with them via this
link.
Alright, after creating a Kango Express account, you’re ready to shop! In this scenario, we will be shopping at Amazon.com. Here's a step by step run-through, using my most recent order as an example:
1. First, place your order online. You need to have a credit card, gift card, or PayPal account to do so. Take note, there are some merchants that do not accept international credit cards or do not accept orders from a foreign IP address. If this is the case, Kango Express offers a service where they can buy the item for you, but this will entail additional service fees, however.
When you check out from Amazon or the website, you are ordering from, you need to use your virtual address (you will get this upon registering an account with Kango Express):
Unlike other package forwarding service providers, you don't need to do something extra to process your order and have your item shipped to the Philippines via Kango Express. No need to send the email confirmation, no need to contact support, less hassle, and it's easy as waving a magician's magic wand.
2. After your Amazon shopping is complete, you just need to wait for a few days, as Kango Express will notify once your package has arrived at their warehouse.
You will see an email notification like this, telling you to schedule the delivery of your package to your address or to their office (just in case you prefer to pick it up at their office).
In the “My Packages” section, you will see the tracking number, actual weight, fees you need to pay, and the status of your shipment. To schedule your package for dispatch, you just need to specify your preferred date of delivery.
You will get another notification upon arrival, and you have to pay the fees so that it will be delivered to your doorsteps.
3. Finally, wait for your package to arrive at your doorsteps! Turnaround time (the date when they receive the package in their US/UK address and the date it arrives in the Philippines, for pick-up or shipped to your address) is normally 5 to 7 business days.
For this particular order, the package was received in the warehouse on November 24th. I was able to retrieve the package in this condition, on November 29th:
I paid only the minimum amount of $19 for this order, around P800.00. The item I ordered reached me safe and sound:
That’s how it simply works! It’s always exciting to see what’s inside that box from the States. I recently purchased a New Era cap from Amazon.com. It only took 11 days to arrive from the U.S. to the Philippines. Everything from shipping only cost me around 800Php. Not bad for international shipping, right?
Yeah, you can have your item shipped to the Philippines without availing their service, but you have to shoulder the shipping cost and taxes. Moreover, you have to wait for days for it to arrive. You have to be worry about the customs duties, fees, and if your items will ever reach you at all (does anyone trust our local postage system?).
Maybe you're wondering why I bought New Era from the states whereas I can buy them here locally. Well, it's just that Kango gave me an Amazon gift card, and 50$ shipping credit when I attended their press event a month ago. And since, I have no money yet to purchase skate shoes and the gift card is about to expire, I opted to buy the cap :).
Hopefully, you’ll receive your package in no time! Also, Kango Express offers 20% discount to new customers on their first shipment! Visit www.kangoexpress.com now! If you have any questions, please leave your comments below. And what are you waiting for? Go to Amazon.com right now and start shopping!
(Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Kango Express in any way. I am only sharing my experience with this service because it has worked well for me so far, and I haven't had any bad experience with this service at all.)
