As shopping dollars continue to shift online, a unique cost of online purchase has assumed greater importance. It often becomes important to note the shipping costs particularly for items like Salwar Kameez that are not so ubiquitously available as a pair of jeans for instance. However, the entire online shipping costs are not additional costs that you can avoid paying if you visit your shopping mall. Remember, when you shop online you save time, avoid transport charges, and also minimize your risk of unforeseen events on you way to or back from the Mall. In addition, one doesn't have to pay taxes for online shopping (as long as the website doesn't have brick-and-mortar stores in that State) at this time.
If you live in the US, sites like Amazon.com and Buy.com amongst many others, offer Free Shipping beyond a certain price point. There are many sites that offer Free Shipping on all sized purchases. However, one has to make sure there are no difficult conditions to satisfy, and the price of the item is not inflated to begin with. No point purchasing a pencil for $5 even with Free Shipping.
While shopping for Salwar Kameez, I have come across many websites with different kinds of offers. If the items are being shipped from India, it is hard to expect anyone to offer Free Shipping unless it's a major sale. But one may come across a site or two who offer Free Shipping worldwide for Salwar Kameez. I've discovered such sites typically have prices that are markedly higher than other sites for similar kind of fabric items. One such site I've viewed is Salwar.com. They offer Free Shipping worldwide, but their prices are not value pricing by any means. At their prices, they can well afford to offer Free Shipping. So beware of not paying too much for the item just to get Free Shipping.
As a rule of thumb, at this time it costs approximately $17 to $18 to send a single Salwar Kameez weighing 500 gm or 1.5 lbs couriers, like DHL, FedEx, from India to a destination in the US. The advantage of the Courier is faster delivery, within 5 to 7 days, and being able to get a bit more detailed tracking status report. Some Salwar Kameez sites may also offer the faster version of Postal services. Such services cost around $14 to $15, but take about 8 to 10 days to deliver and with limited tracking. This way I try to keep my shipping costs reasonable and fair.
I've tried to find sites with good product selection, where the shipping costs work out to roughly the above numbers. I keep an eye on my favorite sites for shipping promotions. Of course, I make sure that the items are good quality, and well-stitched and the site has good customer service. It takes a few purchases of single or two items at at time to finally find the best sites.
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