What you'll actually pay, and when you'll be asked for it
Nobody enjoys finding out the shipping cost after they have already paid for the thing itself. So let's walk through it in the order it happens to you. First the seller's price, which you pay straight away. Then a tiny domestic leg you will barely notice. Then — and this is the one that surprises people — the international freight, which cannot be quoted until your parcel has been weighed. Add Pikobuy's own service fee, and then whatever your customs office decides, which nobody here can predict for you.
← Back to the startThe version you can read on a phone
Four charges from four different places, and only two of them are knowable before you start. We would rather explain that honestly than print a rate card that would be wrong by the time you read it.
- What you know up frontthe seller's asking price, and roughly the domestic hop inside China
- What you find out laterfreight, because it waits on a weighed parcel, and duty, which waits on your border
- What Pikobuy chargesa service fee for buying on your behalf, checking what arrives and packing it properly
- What nobody can predictyour country's duty, which depends on thresholds that change independently of anything here
Pikobuy tweaks its fees and terms from time to time. When this page and Pikobuy disagree, Pikobuy is the one that counts.
Those photographs are your one free chance to change your mind
Before anything gets packed, the warehouse photographs what turned up. On a phone screen this matters more than it sounds, because small faults vanish at thumbnail size — so pinch and zoom rather than glancing. You are checking four things: is the colour the one in the listing, is there visible damage, does the size tag match what you ordered, and is this actually the variant you clicked on.
- · Whether the colour matches the listing rather than a flattering studio render
- · Visible damage — scuffs, pulls, marks, hardware that does not sit right
- · The printed size tag, which you can hold against a tape measure at home
- · Stitch and seam work along the places that usually fail first
- · That the colourway and finish are the ones you picked
- · How many pieces actually turned up, if you ordered more than one
- · How the fabric feels, or how it hangs once worn
- · How it smells — and this is the complaint people least expect
- · Whether zips, elastic and clasps survive a few months of use
- · How the colour actually looks in daylight.
- · Whether it fits, because a tag records a convention rather than your body
On the left, the questions a photograph closes for good. On the right, the ones that stay open until the parcel is in your hands.
- Zoom in before you approve anything.Small defects are invisible at thumbnail size, and they are the ones people miss.
- Message support if a photograph is ambiguous.That is precisely what they are there for, and it costs you nothing to ask.
- Ask about the packaging before it ships.On small goods the retail box is often bulkier than the product, and you pay to move it.
- Keep the images you approved.If what arrives differs from what you signed off, those screenshots are your reference.
Choosing how it travels
You pick a line once inspection has passed, and for compact goods the choice is mostly about volume rather than weight. Pikobuy's lines vary on price and speed, and every one of them has its own list of things it will not carry — so check the list before you fall in love with a row.
On small items, the box and filler can outweigh the product. Ask for them to be stripped.
Five separate parcels cost far more than one small box holding all five.
Carriers bill whichever is greater, so a light bulky parcel is charged as if dense.
Batteries and liquids are turned away by some routes regardless of how small they are.
Find out your country's threshold before you start worrying about duty at all.
Submitting and tracking are two separate events, usually a day apart.
So what am I actually paying for?
Four components, plus duty if your country asks for it, plus whatever extras you tick at submission:
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
There are no rates printed here on purpose — your item, your line and your country decide them. Get a live figure from Pikobuy's estimator before you commit.
Fees, line by line
Try it with your own figures
Pop in the seller's price, the domestic hop, the packed weight, the international rate, Pikobuy's service fee and the exchange rate, and watch each row update as you go. Then take a kilo off the packing and watch what happens — that sensitivity is the whole point.
This is for planning, not for quoting. Chargeable weight, where it is going, and how customs treats it all shift the real number, and Pikobuy's own estimator may show you something different at checkout.
Returns, refunds, and the things Pikobuy cannot send
Pikobuy publishes its after-sales terms and a prohibited list. Skim the clause that covers your category before you pay, because something that cannot fly is stuck the moment it reaches the warehouse.
If you would rather read it first-hand
We summarise; Pikobuy decides. Here are its own help pages for everything above: