J.Crew in the U.K. {soon. how soon? very soon.}

In the "J.Crew Spreads Its Wings Abroad" post, we learned that J.Crew planned to expand internationally by launching a U.K. online site in late August.



A big "thanks!" to Alexandra, who shared the following news & fantastic tips:

Very big news...my personal shopper at J Crew just told me that they are going to be starting to ship direct to customers in the UK on August 18th! It will be a flat rate of £9.95, which is an incredible deal.

For everyone who lives in the UK and loves J Crew this is amazing news. There was quite a lot of fuss about J Crew starting selling via Net a Porter last year, but the range was and still is very limited, with hardly any shoes or traditional J Crew classics like cashmere.This will allow UK residents to shop direct from the full range for the first time. ...

pass on these tips which I have discovered (the hard way) from six years of getting J Crew parcels sent via a US mail forwarding service.

1. Remember that you won't pay any US sales tax but you will have to pay UK VAT on all adult items (which is 20%) upon delivery of your parcel.
2. If the value of the goods in your order is more than US$200, you will be hit by VAT by the UK authorities, PLUS customs import duty levied on the entire total of the goods, shipping and VAT. This can add up to 30 or 40% extra onto the cost of your order.
3. If you want to buy more than $200 of goods, it almost always makes sense to divide your purchases up into separate orders, each worth $200 or less. You will save far more (by not being liable for customs import duty) than the additional £9.95 shipping fee for each delivery.

On a related note, "thanks!" to so many of you, including everynewday (in this post) as well as Aaron (in this post), who let us know that J.Crew will be offering a flat shipping rate ($9.99 via UPS) for its Canadian customers starting August 18th too.



Well this is super exiting news! I love that J.Crew will be offering a flat shipping rate for their international customers. Perhaps they are considering a similar offer for purchases in the U.S.? Well Aaron was told the following about that prospect: "I specifically asked if there would be a flat fee for the U.S. as well and the answer was no." Ah well!



Also, I am really happy for the U.K. chapter of JCAs getting their own online shopping site. Even though Net-A-Porter offered J.Crew, it suffered from limited selection and higher price points.

Are you excited about J.Crew's online move to the U.K.? Do you like the idea of a flat shipping rate?