English online shopping website?

chiakijohnson · Post by **chiakijohnson** » Sun Jun 23, 2013 8:57 pm

Hi-

I recently moved to Finland. I am enjoying living here very much and gorgeous weather right now, but I am having a lot of trouble reading Finnish (I have 0 experience in Finnish language, unfortunately.) Is there a good online shopping websites that I can view in English? I loved using amazon.com when I lived in the U.S.

**Sponsor:**

Adrian42 · Post by **Adrian42** » Sun Jun 23, 2013 9:48 pm

chiakijohnson wrote:Hi-

I recently moved to Finland. I am enjoying living here very much and gorgeous weather right now, but I am having a lot of trouble reading Finnish (I have 0 experience in Finnish language, unfortunately.) Is there a good online shopping websites that I can view in English? I loved using amazon.com when I lived in the U.S.

amazon.co.uk

You should be more specific what exactly you want to buy, but as soon as the price of you are buying is big enough that the shipping costs are no longer a big factor ordering from the UK is perfectly OK.

riku2 · Post by **riku2** » Tue Jun 25, 2013 7:20 am

chiakijohnson wrote:Hi-

Is there a good online shopping websites that I can view in English? I loved using amazon.com when I lived in the U.S.

amazon.co.uk will do free shipping for orders over about 25 pounds although marketplace traders have slightly different rules (and be careful if you mix items on your order from both amazon and marketplace since then the free shipping option can be lost. split the order in this case).
amazon.de is good for clothes and shoes (different range to the UK since the Germans are not afraid to spend a little on good clothes and shoes), but at .de you always pay for delivery. It's all in german but layout is the same as the uk site so you can guess what the forms are asking.

Neither will attract extra tax on arrival in Finland but price you pay will be recalculated to charge you finnish VAT (reflected in your final order price,not the price shown for each item on the item's description). For books from the UK this is quite substantial (since books there have zero VAT and there is no VAT exemption for books in Finland).

You will routinely find things at half the price of finnish shops and much better choice too.

I am not sure the idea of online shopping being much cheaper than retail is true in Finland, in Finland online shopping is more about extra choice than lower prices since many people live in remote areas where the shops are even more hopeless than in Helsinki.

The finnish market is really too small to support cheap online only retailers at the moment. Once you sell online you have competition from the whole world and finnish prices don't stand up to that kind of competition. So you are not missing out by being unable to read finnish.

As for finnish retailers putting in the effort to make their online pages in english as well as finnish - they would never bother. Those who can read english are likely to browse english language online shops and so the return on this kind of investment is tiny. With finnish language pages they can at least try to hoover up those customers who are online but cannot read english (and too timid to type in their credit card numbers to amazon).

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Tue Jun 25, 2013 8:49 am

If you buy any electric goods, UK has funny plugs. I buy direct from Germany even off German ebay ( got a mini oven delivered to my cottage) - many of the "Finnish" online shops are actually German wit just a skin on, but the prices are double as Finns get screwed always.

Just a note on Customs and ordering, anything putside EU is liable for VAT, the "gift" limit is 40 euros including the postage - so instruct all your relatives not to send anything or you'll go bankrupt at christmas - they are not allowed to "think" - something innocent like over the counter tylenol will get you into the books as a drug smuggler... You can scare the grannies off tell them "gift" means poison (in swedish but anyways) so all parcels get nicked by customs. *if* you get anything the receipts need to be there... "proof"! "all the papers"!

And yes, I used to order stuff from the US all the time, but I knew what was involved

Amarulka · Post by **Amarulka** » Tue Jun 25, 2013 9:38 am

why don't you use google chrome browser?

riku2 · Post by **riku2** » Tue Jun 25, 2013 10:52 am

Amarulka wrote:why don't you use google chrome browser?

I think you mean use a browser that has built in support for google translate - such as chrome or internet explorer with google plug-in.
The problem with google translate is that it relies on translations contributed by the great unwashed and you rely on them doing an accurate translation.

Original

Lisätietoja saat Gigantin asiakaspalvelusta, puhelin 020 321 321. Tiedustelut voi myös osoittaa kirjallisesti Gigantti Oy Ab, Sähkötie 3, 01510 Vantaa

Google translate

For more information, Gigantti customer service, phone 020 321 321 Enquiries can also be made in writing House of Fraser Ltd, Sähkötie 3, FI-01510 Vantaa, Finland

House of Fraser?? It's not clear if this is an honest mistake or some mischief - but why pick House of Fraser??

Upphew · Post by **Upphew** » Tue Jun 25, 2013 11:24 am

riku2 wrote:Neither will attract extra tax on arrival in Finland but price you pay will be recalculated to charge you finnish VAT (reflected in your final order price,not the price shown for each item on the item's description).

Again with marketplace sellers, be aware that they might not be within EU customs area. I got lucky as my order got smuggled from US to Sweden and didn't get snatched by customs there. With Swedish post markings the parcel sailed right through in Finland, but it did have all the papers in the box, from USA.

chiakijohnson · Post by **chiakijohnson** » Wed Jul 03, 2013 10:31 pm

Thank you so much for helpful information! Living in the U.S. and having kids at home just made it easier for me to shop online. I can shop anytime in a day or night and the products come at your door step plus free shipping over $25 purchase.

I see why Finnish products have higher price - the quality is a lot better

I love that fact. I will try to look around and see what I can find. I was mostly shopping for my kids' clothes, toys, specialty food for my diet (gluten free, soy free, egg free, and dairy free - coconut oil, coconut sugar and such).

elijahpaul · Post by **elijahpaul** » Sat Jul 06, 2013 2:49 pm

chiakijohnson wrote: I see why Finnish products have higher price - the quality is a lot better I love that fact. I will try to look around and see what I can find. I was mostly shopping for my kids' clothes, toys, specialty food for my diet (gluten free, soy free, egg free, and dairy free - coconut oil, coconut sugar and such).

I diasgree with this. The only reason why their products have higher prices is because they have a small market, high taxes, and high labor costs. Well this is my opinion anyway.

riku2 · Post by **riku2** » Sat Jul 06, 2013 4:45 pm

elijahpaul wrote: I diasgree with this. The only reason why their products have higher prices is because they have a small market, high taxes, and high labor costs. Well this is my opinion anyway.

Many times I see the same products in a finnish supermarket as a UK one and the price in Finland is 2x or even 3x the price. If you compare the salaries paid to uk supermarket workers and those in finland this will explain much of the difference. I'm not talking about jars of english marmalade either but fresh pasta, exactly the same brand amongst other things.
Lack of competition is another factor, especially in the supermarket area (finnish market dominated by two chains), there is no reason for those two chains to cut prices, where else are people going to shop? Don't say Lidl because Lidl finnish prices are also much higher than the Lidl branches in the UK for exactly the same products.

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Sat Jul 06, 2013 6:34 pm

riku2 wrote: House of Fraser?? It's not clear if this is an honest mistake or some mischief

Well, "translate" to English Eppu Normaali or Katri Helena...

Oombongo · Post by **Oombongo** » Sat Jul 06, 2013 6:43 pm

riku2 wrote:
Original
Lisätietoja saat Gigantin asiakaspalvelusta, puhelin 020 321 321. Tiedustelut voi myös osoittaa kirjallisesti Gigantti Oy Ab, Sähkötie 3, 01510 Vantaa
Google translate
For more information, Gigantti customer service, phone 020 321 321 Enquiries can also be made in writing House of Fraser Ltd, Sähkötie 3, FI-01510 Vantaa, Finland
House of Fraser?? It's not clear if this is an honest mistake or some mischief - but why pick House of Fraser??

It could have been House of Lannister

Finland Forum

Find information about moving to, living in and life in Finland