Our Shipping Services

British Gift Box sends parcels from the UK to over 200 countries Worldwide. We offer international post office and courier shipping services to suit different budgets and different customer needs. The postal services are through Royal Mail and the courier services are offered through our multi-carrier logistics partner to give customers the best possible rates from some of the leading carriers Worldwide, including DHL, UPS and DPD. Not all services are available for all orders as restrictions apply – postal services are restricted to parcels weighing up to 2kg but are the most cost effective option for smaller Gift Boxes. The table below shows the shipping options and the specifics of each service.

To find out the shipping options available for your specific order and the cost of each service, use the Shipping Calculator at checkout.

All courier services are tracked from dispatch to the recipient’s door and all deliveries need to be signed for. Please note, our couriers cannot deliver to PO Box addresses for this reason. Once you receive our Dispatch Confirmation, the recipient will also receive an email from our logistics partner with the tracking information to monitor the progress of the parcel through its journey to delivery.

Postal services rely on the national postal services of the countries that the parcel goes through, starting with Royal Mail in the UK who will generally hand off to the national postal service of the destination country once the parcel gets to customs in that country. Postal services are the cheapest way to send a parcel abroad but the quality of national postal services around the World is variable which can increase delivery risk where a country’s postal service is underdeveloped or poor.

So whilst we do all the hard work for you irrespective of how you want your Gift Box to be shipped, we suggest you do look to understand some of the basic processes involved in international shipping to be aware of the common issues that your parcel may encounter on its way to being delivered to your recipient abroad. The sections below will give you further information about the basics and key issues which you should consider before ordering with us. There are also answers to commonly asked questions in the Shipping section of the FAQs and our blog on Postal vs Courier Shipping Services gives a more in-depth understanding of the different solutions.

How to avoid problems when sending parcels abroad

Your Gift Box order is important to us and we want it to reach its destination promptly, without being delayed at customs in the destination country and in the same condition we sent it. At British Gift Box, we take great care to ensure your parcel is carefully and securely packed to withstand the rigours of transit and we complete all the necessary customs documentation and declarations to enable customs clearance as smoothly as possible. But once we hand over your parcel to the carrier for shipment, it is then out of our direct control and goes through many stages of handling by various parties, all of which have some potential for problems. There are things you can do even when you are placing your order on our website which can help avoid these problems and to maximise delivery success:

Check the delivery address – and check it again! The number one tip for avoiding problems when sending internationally is to ensure that the address is absolutely correct. Foreign addresses are often not written in the same format as British ones and spelling of local place names can be confusing. We rely on what you enter as the shipping address at checkout when we book the shipping for your parcel so please do make sure you specify the correct address, and even double-check with your recipient if you’re in any doubt.

Provide an appropriate contact number for the recipient. It is a requirement of customs authorities in the destination countries that parcels are accompanied by a phone number – preferably a mobile number – for the recipient in case they need to contact them about the shipment for customs clearance purposes (normally via the carrier). If customs needs to contact your recipient but there is no contact number or an incorrect number, this will delay customs clearance or risk the parcel being returned altogether, especially for postal services. The contact number is also helpful for the local delivery courier to contact your recipient to reschedule delivery if no-one is home to sign for it at the first attempt. Our checkout process asks for the recipient’s phone number as a mandatory field. It is understandable that many customers want their parcel to be a surprise for the recipient and some will enter their own phone number instead of the recipient’s. The reality is that making a surprise delivery is difficult where international shipping is concerned for these reasons and they risk delivery failure by doing so, which is definitely worse than a ruined surprise!

Provide an email address for the recipient. Similar to the phone number, a valid email address will help the recipient to know that a parcel is on its way and to plan for the delivery, as well as being another channel for communication with customs and the courier if required. We also ask you for this at checkout.

Choose the right shipping service for your needs. Postal services are generally the lowest cost shipping options and are a good choice if you’re on a budget, don’t mind your parcel taking a bit longer to be delivered and can accept a small degree of delivery risk that comes with using national postal services in some countries. If you need faster delivery, visibility and greater certainty that your parcel will be delivered safely, a courier service is a must but expect to pay a bit more for it. Don’t opt for a postal service if you need the benefits of a courier service as it could lead to problems you don’t want during the lengthy shipping process.

Customs Duty & Tax Charges

When sending parcels abroad, they are subject to the customs rules and regulations of the country that the parcel is being sent to. All goods entering a country is considered to be an import by the customs authorities, even when it’s a gift, and unfortunately the recipient is always deemed to be the importer even if they may not know anything about the shipment. It’s just easier for customs to target the recipient as they reside in the destination country!

As Shippers of the parcel, we have to declare the value of the goods in the customs documentation that we submit on dispatch. When the parcel arrives at customs in the destination country, the customs authority will assess the import documentation (and occasionally even open and inspect the package) to determine if they will allow the goods into their country and whether it attracts any import duty or taxes based on their customs regulations. Should they determine and calculate that duty and/or taxes are due, this will be charged to the recipient as the deemed importer and collected through the carrier (DHL/UPS) before final delivery can be made. These are foreign government agency decisions that we are not party to, not informed of and have no control over.

Fortunately, many countries have duty-free allowances for relatively low value goods that our Gift Boxes would generally fall into, so it is rare that any of our Boxes going to popular expat destinations ever get taxed by customs. However, as customs legislation does vary from country to country and change from time to time, it is highly recommended that you check the local customs regulations before placing your order, just to ensure that none of the products in our boxes are prohibited in the country of delivery and that you are aware of any potential extra charges which may be incurred by your recipient. Where we do know that a country has regulations which could result in the recipient being charged some duty or tax on the parcel, we have highlighted it in the ‘Latest known issues by country’ section below to help you to make an informed decision before you order from us.

Latest Known Issues By Country

We are keen to help you ship your Gift Boxes to your loved ones anywhere in the World but for some countries that are known as destinations to avoid (in war zones, under international sanctions, have no secure delivery infrastructure, etc) we do not offer shipping to those countries as the chances of successful delivery are low – these countries will not appear on the dropdown menu in the Shipping Calculator. Even for the countries that we will ship to, some come with more potential issues than others.

Whilst it’s impossible to collate all the relevant shipping issues your parcel may come across for every country that we ship to, we have attempted to provide a limited summary of known issues for some of the more popular destinations to aid your awareness when you place an order: