Amazon one of the largest ecommerce in the world next to eBay, is now offering free shipping for orders above $49 (PHP 2,878) to the Philippines. However, not all product are eligible to this offer but as we tested, most electronic products like gaming peripherals and consoles meets the condition.
To know if the item you want to order qualifies for FREE shipping, there should be a label in the search result that says so. Like for searching graphics card like the RTX 3080, you’ll find most of the listing has a label that offers “FREE shipping to the Philippines”.
Note that, orders above 10,000 PHP are still subject for customs fee (import duty) or importation fee. So, getting your favorite graphics card may cost even more when purchased on Amazon. In this example, an ZOTACT Gaming GeForce RTX 3080 Trinity graphics card that originally cost for $703, the final price is $1,004 because of the additional Import duty of $300.
Is it cheaper to buy on Amazon?
Bottom line, it’s still more expensive to buy items that are already available in the Philippines and have local distributors, such as graphics cards and other electronic product, because of importation fees and higher exchange rate of US Dollar to Philippine peso. In addition, it can be difficult to claim warranty in case you have problem with the product, unless the item supports international warranty service, such as that offered by Apple.
But if you are looking for items that are not available in the Philippines and are usually expensive to buy here, then it is best to order them online from Amazon. As well as items that are below the import duty thresholds like gaming mouse, buying in Amazon is also way cheaper. However, if your order didn’t carry an Import Fees Deposit, customs may still asked the carrier to pay the import duties for you when it arrived in the Philippines.