Ordering Furniture and Lighting from Overseas Shops, and What Actually Goes Wrong
Learn what can go wrong when ordering furniture and lighting from overseas shops, including shipping, quality, sizing, customs, returns, and hidden costs.
You find the chair. It is on a Danish site, or an Italian one, and it costs noticeably less than anything comparable at home. The photographs are beautiful, the shop looks professional, and the whole thing feels like a solved problem.
Sometimes it is. More often the price you are looking at is not the price you will pay, and a few of the differences are the kind you cannot fix once the crate arrives.
The price is not the price
European shops quote consumer prices with value added tax included, because their law requires it. A buyer outside that tax area usually sees the price with the tax removed, which looks like a discount of a fifth or more. It is not a discount. It is the point at which your own country's import charges take over.
Then comes freight, and furniture is where this bites hardest. Shipping is charged on volumetric weight rather than actual weight, so a light but bulky item costs the same to move as something far heavier. A dining chair can carry more freight cost than the chair itself. Add customs duty on the category, the courier's handling fee for clearing the shipment, and the two or three percent your card issuer takes on the currency conversion.
The differences that no refund will fix
These are the ones worth checking before anything else, because they are about whether the item will work in your house at all.
Voltage, since a lamp or a powered piece made for a 220 to 240 volt supply will not run safely on 110 to 120 volts, and a travel adapter changes the plug shape rather than the voltage
Bulb fittings, where the European E27 and the North American E26 look interchangeable and are not quite, and bayonet fittings are another system again
Electrical certification, since imported lighting and powered furniture may not carry the mark your local electrician or insurer expects
Dimensions in centimetres against inches, which is where most returns start, along with the doorway and the stairwell the item has to pass through
Rug and textile sizes, which are cut to different standard dimensions in different markets and rarely match a room laid out for the local sizes
Wood movement, because a solid timber piece built for a humid climate can split in a dry one and the other way round
When the shop will not show you its real catalogue
Brands hold stock in regional warehouses, and the range you see is the range allocated to your region. Look for a country selector, usually at the foot of the page, since switching it frequently reveals collections and finishes that never appear on the international version.
Where a site refuses to switch, it is reading your connection and deciding for you. That is why buyers who order across borders regularly load the page through a static residential proxy in the country concerned, meaning a fixed address registered to an ordinary household internet provider there. Retail sites block hosting company ranges as a matter of course, since that is where price scrapers come from, so a household address is the only one that gets shown the shop a local customer sees. The stable part matters here too, because a basket that changes address mid session tends to empty itself.
Seeing the catalogue and buying from it are different problems, though. Card networks check the billing address against the card, and a mismatch is one of the most common fraud signals there is. A freight forwarder gives you a delivery address in the country and does nothing about that check.
A short routine before you order
Measure the doorway, the stairwell and the lift, then measure the item, and do it in the same units
Ask what the return costs, since the outbound duty is rarely refunded and the freight back is yours
Order a fabric or finish sample first, which most serious makers will send for a small fee
Check the warranty is honoured in your country rather than only where it was sold
Email the maker directly, because small workshops often quote better than either storefront and will answer questions about timber, finish and lead time
Treat a price gap under about fifteen percent as not worth the paperwork
FAQ
Why does the price drop when I select my country?
European prices include value added tax. A shop shipping outside that area removes it, and your own import charges then apply when the item arrives.
Is imported furniture actually cheaper?
Sometimes on large or expensive pieces. Once freight, duty, handling and currency conversion are added, savings on smaller items usually disappear.
Can I use an overseas lamp with an adapter?
An adapter changes the plug, not the voltage. Check the rating on the fixture, and have anything you are unsure about looked at before you wire it in.
Why do some collections never appear on my country's site?
Regional buyers choose different assortments, and stock is held in regional warehouses. What you see is what was allocated to your market.
Stay up to date with our latest ideas!
