Hi Beeple!
A few family members moved to Finland (Helsinki region). I’m in the United States, but wanted to send birthday presents to them. Ideally without the expense, delay, and potential for shipping damage that comes with getting something near me and shipping it across the world.
Does anyone have any experience or suggestions for ordering gifts from within Finland or the surrounding region from the US? Is ordering from, say, Sweden akin to ordering between states (ie, no special considerations or hassles), or would it be best to only look within Finland itself?
I would prefer something akin to Etsy where I could find something handmade and/or novel. That seems more likely to encounter a language/payment barrier, though, and I’m not even sure where to start looking for something like that.
Thanks in advance for any help!
There’s plenty of Finnish sellers at etsy and as etsy deals with the payment it shouldn’t be any issue. Language barrier is pretty nonexistent as well since almost everyone here understands english anyways. Shipping inside EU doesn’t cause any toll/tax issues, so that’s an option as well.
So, I don’t see any problems with anything as long as you can get the payment trough either with credit card or via paypal/etc. Shipping from outside EU is another matter, that may come with added taxes/toll payments before the shipment is released. And then there’s some limitations on what you can actually send via post office, but those mainly include things like medicines and plants/food, so I don’t think that’ll cause any problems.
Ah, I feel a bit silly! I tried looking for things on Etsy using Finland in the search, which turned up a bunch of Finland-themed stuff from US sellers. Based on that I assumed Etsy wasn’t a thing in Finland. I didn’t realize there’s a filter option for the seller location. Thanks!
It’s best to look within Finland. Many shops outside of Finland don’t ship there.