Holiday Shopping in the U.S.A from Overseas

The end of the year in many countries is filled with great celebrations and festivities with Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hannukah, Boxing Day, Ōmisoka, Krampusnacht, Feast of the Immaculate Conception, St. Lucia Day, Las Posadas and plenty more. In addition to these celebrations is some great shopping opportunities, especially if you’re looking for gifts. The U.S is certainly no exception and many a bargain or unique gift opportunity can be had, but for those in other countries purchasing items in the U.S can be a challenge with many stores requiring a U.S address and credit card to be able to buy items. The US Unlocked card has become an important option for getting around such barriers.

What you Need to Consider When Shopping in the USA from Other Countries

One of the biggest issues when shopping in the USA from overseas is the actual ability to make a purchase. Many of them require a credit card with an address in the US to validate. If you put your local address, the likelihood of getting rejected is quite high. When it comes to make a purchase of a product that is either unavailable in your own country or significantly cheaper, this can be incredibly frustrating. The best way to get around this problem:

1. Check US Unlocked Shop List – Some stores may not allow shipping to freight forwarders so make sure your favorite store is on our Where to Shop list.
2. Check your US Unlocked country – Not all countries have available load methods. We keep these updated regularly so check our Countries page to make sure we currently support loads.
3. Consider Load time – loading a US Unlocked card sometimes takes up to 48 hours. Make sure to consider this for your purchase.
4. Sign up for a US Unlocked account – once you’ve checked all the boxes, go to the registration page and fill out the necessary details.
5. Consider Freight Forwarder – during the signup process, you’ll be asked about a Freight Forwarder. If you already have an account, make sure to link that otherwise go ahead and signup for one.
6. Create your card – you’ll most likely get a one time use card for your particular store so choose it from your list of options.
7. Go Shopping – you’re now ready to make that purchase!

When Should You Start Holiday Shopping?

In general, the sooner the better for a variety of reasons

1. More time for shipping – Allotting yourself more time for shipping means you will receive your gifts way ahead of schedule. No need to risk any shipping delays.
2. Better for your budget – Often times shoppers have a long list of people they need to buy gifts for. Spreading out the shopping over a longer period of time, you relieve yourself from financial hardship. For example, spending $800 over a 6 week period is less of a burden than spending $800 in a week.
3. Take advantage of sales – It is no secret that retailers may raise their prices a little to take advantage of all their holiday shoppers. Therefore, shopping early (or when the stores announce their sales) allows you to avoid any and all markups you may encounter.
4. More time to look around – Don’t buy a meaningless gift because you waited a week before you need to give the gift. Instead, give yourself weeks to look around for the perfect meaningful gift.
5. Items are not sold out – You will have more options when items are not sold out yet. Waiting last minute means you are gambling with items being out of stock. When you’re ahead of the shopping rush, you’re ahead of the game.

For many, getting gifts for Christmas is the objective and certainly taking advantage of the Black Friday / Cyber Monday sales is good timing for that. Many stores continue to have sales after that and are looking to empty the shelves and you could probably purchase up to 2 weeks prior to Christmas, taking into consideration International shipping requirements. But if you’re willing to wait for the gift giving, there are actually some incredible sales (some say the best deals) on the day after Christmas and through the New Year’s Eve as stores are really looking to turn over their inventory.

While Boxing Day isn’t a thing in the U.S, retailers here have started to take advantage of the potential especially after seeing other countries successfully roll out massive sales and generate shoppers interest.