How Amazon.com Shipped Directly To My door in Jamaica, Finally!

I don’t know about anyone else but I’ve never gone to Amazon.com, had it detect my Kingston, Jamaica location, ask me if I want to have my stuff delivered to an address there, accept my Jamaican address, then asked me for my Passport or TRN so it can handle customs clearance fees, then when I have my things in my Cart go over the Jamaican Government allowed US$50, it calculates the Jamaican customs rate, when it’s below, there is no customs fee, then add its global delivery charge, accepts my Jamaican bank Visa Debit Card as Payment. Then for delivery, tells me me it will take 2 1/2 weeks then delivers my packages within a week to my door.

So that’s what happened in a nutshell. Below I share it step by step with screenshots for those who want more details.

Location Detected. Asked for ID for Customs Clearance

On December 27th I went looking for 2 crossbody bags, it detected my Kingston, Jamaica location and asked me if I wanted to ship there. ( never happened before) I was like, wait, what?! Let me see something. So I added my Kingston address. Then it asked me for an AD for customs. I was like hold on one minute?!

Is this new Or am I just late to the party?!

Custom Duties

So I selected my two bags. The total was US$29.00 which is under the US$50 that Jamaica Customs allows to be free of duty charges. For experiment’s sake, I added a 3rd item which pushed the total over US$50 to see what would happen. Amazon’s system named the Jamaica Custom Fees as Import Fees Deposit. Anyway, I added the photo page of my passport as a JPEG and it was accepted and saved by Amazon.com. What?!!

See below what my 3 items cost, what my Amazon Global Delivery costs were, and what their Import Fees Deposit were. Hello?!

My Final and Actual Order

Delivery time and Fees

As you can see in the screenshots above Amazon gave an estimated delivery range. I bought the items on December 27, and the notification said they would be delivered to my door between Jan 2nd and January 14th, I was like ok when I use the Jamaican freight forwarders, it’s about the same 1- 2 weeks for the package to get to their Miami location and for them to receive it, process it, custom clear it and have it at their location for pick up or delivery. It depends on the time of year, how many flights they have linked to their service etc.

I was like, this is an experiment so let’s see when they deliver and who delivers to my door as the names of DHL, UPS, and FedEx were not mentioned in my checkout. It was just called Amazon Global Delivery which has never been an option served up to me at Amazon.com while shopping from Jamaica.

A couple of days passed them I got both an Email and an SMS from…DHL.

DHL handled customs and last-mile delivery to my Apt door.

Then I got a notice by email and SMS that DHL would deliver my package on Jan 4th and 5th. So why did Amazon use DHL vs FedEx and UPS who all do business in Jamaica? I do not know. But it’s a pretty similar process when I am in New York having packages delivered you don’t know until the order has been dispatched for delivery and you get the delivery notification.

NB, I bought two bags, one was delivered on Thursday, January 4th, and the other on Friday, January 5th. So it works out to be US$16 per package. Is that expensive or reasonable, well, that’s for you to decide. People buy to take advantage of a sale, to get things that can’t get in Jamaica some want that delivered fast and others can wait. Some people like to go pick up their package and some like to have it delivered to their door.

You have to do your own time-cost-benefit analysis.

This was the first delivery. DHL came just as I was driving out.

What I Like

I used my Kingston address, added my passport info as a jpeg, and bought my things, it totaled under US$50 Paid $32 for shipping and handling, and got it delivered to my door in a week with regular status communication by email and sms. For me, it was money well spent because I value not having to keep checking on the status of the package, I don’t have to stop what I am doing to go pick it up or book to have it delivered to me and I don’t have to be home to recieve it ( my delivery didn’t require a signature). But everyone values different things.

I am looking forward to testing it again with more items that go over the Jamaican government customs duty-free allowance of US$50, as it doubles to US$100 when it takes effect in April this year.

Is this a sweet coincidence or am I reading too much into that. LOL. LOL 🙂

More Choice. You Decide.

At the end of the day, if you are an Amazon shopper you now have even more choice on how you want to have your Amazon goods delivered, by whom, how quickly you want your goods to get to you, how much you want to pay for Jamaica custom clearance fees, shipping and handling and how do you want to be communicated to along the process.  You can choose to support local businesses or use the service that best matches your needs – local or international. You decide.

What I noticed.

Not all products allow for shipment to Jamaica. Most do. Plus regarding returns, the Brand will let you know whether you can return it for free or for a fee, and if they do allow returns, the DHL driver said you would have to print your return mailing sticker and bring it to their office to have it returned.

For Jamaican-grown freight forwarder businesses like Mailpac, Rocketship, etc

While our many local freight forwarder businesses will have to step up their game around communications, clarity around package weight, Custom Fees, and Delivery costs- that’s ok, that’s business and competition.

They can choose to double down on your ability to bring in products from other e-commerce sites outside of Amazon. For example, I can’t ship my Nike shoes directly to my house if I bought them on Nike.com, they don’t ship here, so I still have to Rocketship when I am in Jamaica.

Some will argue that this is Amazon once again bulldozing competition in the markets it enters and that’s a point too for sure, so I believe Jamaicans will use Amazon AND support our local businesses.

Now about that Amazon Prime Delivery truck that I saw…I’ve never seen it again and some of my Twitter followers and a few who saw me on the road in person told me that they heard from the dude himself that he bought it and brought it in and will soon paint it over as it’s been causing a stir. I am like, hmm ok Sir.

But of course, I went online to see if you can buy decommissioned Amazon Delivery trucks with the branding still on them. This is what my Google search found ” While Amazon itself does not sell used delivery vans, you can find used vans that were previously used for Amazon deliveries on various platforms. Some of these vans are based on the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 2500 model. You can search for used vans on websites like TrueCar, CarGurus, Autotrader, and IronPlanet. ” Costs tend to range from US$20,000- $40,000 .

Anyway, let me leave you with some Data.

Some eCommerce Data

1. 1. The top e-commerce sites in Jamaica are amazon.com, ebay.com, and walmart.com.
2. 2. The Caribbean B2C e-commerce market is valued at US$5 billion annually and is growing at approximately 25% a year. Electronics, Fashion, Hobby & Leisure, Furniture and Homeware, DIY, Care Products, and Groceries are what most of the money is spent on. Source: Statista

3. The Jamaican Grocery e-commerce market is predicted to reach US$70.6 million by 2023 and accounts for 5.3% of the total e-commerce market in Jamaica. a projected market volume of US$116.3 million by 2027. Source: ecommercedb.com

That’s it, folks. And thanks to the people who came up to me in the supermarket, at cafes, and the gym and who messaged me to ask for the details. I do hope this was useful. And I deliberately left out some glaring questions that I could ask. But talk amongst yourselves. 🙂

Have a great week!

Pls note that I am not a paid Amazon Influencer. This is something that I discovered that changed for me as a semi-regular Amazon shopper and I decided to share it here on my blog and my socials.