I’m so excited to be sharing today’s PRETTYLITTLETHING SHOPPING EXPERIENCE post with you all as it has been requested by many of you over the past months. We keep seeing all our Instagram faves (Jade Robertson, DJ Zinhle, Lauren Campbell etc.) wearing PLT & we want some too right?! I have shopped with PrettyLittleThing many times in the past years, however it was always when I visited London as I could have the goods shipped directly to my hotel. I had never shipped the goods directly to South Africa, even though I am no stranger to online shopping from international stores.
When I planned this post, I wanted to give you all the options at once. So, I opted to do 2 orders of the exact same amount. Order 1 was shipped directly to South Africa via the PLT International Shipping option which costs £6.99. Order 2 was shipped via the PLT Local Shipping option as it was sent to my Aramex Global Shopper in UK & costs £1.50. Both orders were placed within an hour of each other, so exchange rate & all other factors were exactly the same. The only thing that was different was the shipping method.
Here is what I ordered:
ORDER 1 (Shipped directly to South Africa)
Subtotal £42
International shipping £6.99
Total: £48.99 / R871.11
Arrived at Durban Post Office 18 June (Picked Up 21 June)
Customs: R491.30
(Duties R289.31 – VAT R151.89 – Clearance Fee R50.10 )
Total order R1362.41
ORDER 2 (Shipped via Aramex Global Shopper)
Subtotal £42
UK shipping £1.50
Total : £43.50 / R773.49
AGS shipping to SA R304
Customs R572.08 (Clearance is done via Aramex on your behalf as you upload your invoice to the AGS website)
(Duties R335.25 – Clearance R50 – Disbursement R13.73 – VAT R173.10)
Received 6 June
Total order R1649.57
When you compare the 2 orders, there is a R300+ difference in cost; & a 2 week delivery difference too. In my opinion that difference is not far off. Below I have compared the 2 orders in terms of duty percentage. There is a 10% difference in the duties, & yes I am aware that the shipping does add to this factor, but normally the duties for clothing is 45% in terms of SARS regulations.
Order 1 (direct to SA): Duties R289.31 (33% of R871.11 TOTAL) – VAT R151.89 – Clearance Fee R50.10
vs.
Order 2 (via AGS): Duties R335.25 (43% of R773.49 TOTAL) – Clearance R50 – Disbursement R13.73 – VAT R173.10
I think this was a great PrettylLittleThing shopping experience, even though I was not fond of the 2 tops in the order. I like that it was consistent. Not like the MISSGUIDED order where I was charged 67% DUTY on what I actually paid, as MISSGUIDED invoiced me at full price, not sale prices. Can you tell I’m still in my feelings over that order. Lol.
I am working on House Of CB next, but I would love to hear what you’d like to see after that? Maybe Fashionnova???
Thank you for this, I had commented on your the video asking for how much you paid in customs. This article was very detailed thank you.
Ah as long as you got the info.
Thanks so much for taking the time to watch.
I hope you found it helpful.
Can I ask if you placed your home address or nearest Post Office, as I ordered with PLT and wow it has been a roller coaster my parcel am not sure if it’s lost by JIMC AIR or what it has been in transit for 53 days
Hi brett, thank you for the blog post . This is my first time purchasing I would like if you could answer a few questions i have. I would really appreciate it
Superb, what a weblog it is! This webpage gives helpful data to us,
keep it up.
Thanks for sharing your review. I have always loved this brand and would love to shop from their site. This came in handy. cheers
if I order something worth R2000 how much should I budget for customs? And is it wise if I buy and it gets delivered to a friend’s house in the UK and then later they send it to me, will the customs be lower?