When I lived in Japan it was easy to kill my Amazon account because of a little site called Rakuten. Basically, Japanese Amazon.
Now I live in the EU, and Rakuten sellers do not ship outside of Japan. There’s suppose to be a global shipment service, but it’s limited, shipping costs are high, and I cannot get them to confirm my address either way. So I’m having to rely on Amazon again until I can find a like marketplace website that is based in Europe.
Europe does have alternative webshops, but they are generally not Europe-wide. So I can’t tell you what webshops to use without knowing where in Europe you live.
The Netherlands has Bol.com, for instance, and Germany has Otto from what I understand.
They’re normally EU wide as the free movement of goods applies to things you buy. Sure the postage might go up a little if it’s the other side of the continent, but there should be no restrictions.
In theory that is the case, but in practice it is up to the webshop whether they actually want to ship their packages across the continent. For example, to my knowledge, Bol.com only ships to the Netherlands and Belgium at this time.
Glad to inform you that these days many Rakuten Sellers just use it as a second front-end. Logistics are handled by Amazon, often the package is Amazon wrapped. Not all, but based on my sample around 2/3.
I mostly buy on Otto now and on the site of sellers directly. Check the bigger ones for your country that are actually european. They might not be as popular but I have gotten around pretty well tbh
Huh, I have a Rakuten Kobo reader. I knew the Rakuten part was Japanese, but I didn’t realise they sold other stuff. The Kobo reader is based in the Netherlands I think. Good product and it’s weaned me off Kindle.
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That’s a big-ass shop.
When I lived in Japan it was easy to kill my Amazon account because of a little site called Rakuten. Basically, Japanese Amazon.
Now I live in the EU, and Rakuten sellers do not ship outside of Japan. There’s suppose to be a global shipment service, but it’s limited, shipping costs are high, and I cannot get them to confirm my address either way. So I’m having to rely on Amazon again until I can find a like marketplace website that is based in Europe.
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Europe does have alternative webshops, but they are generally not Europe-wide. So I can’t tell you what webshops to use without knowing where in Europe you live.
The Netherlands has Bol.com, for instance, and Germany has Otto from what I understand.
They’re normally EU wide as the free movement of goods applies to things you buy. Sure the postage might go up a little if it’s the other side of the continent, but there should be no restrictions.
In theory that is the case, but in practice it is up to the webshop whether they actually want to ship their packages across the continent. For example, to my knowledge, Bol.com only ships to the Netherlands and Belgium at this time.
Glad to inform you that these days many Rakuten Sellers just use it as a second front-end. Logistics are handled by Amazon, often the package is Amazon wrapped. Not all, but based on my sample around 2/3.
In the last couple of years I started getting those. But not that frequently.
You can’t know for sure until you buy something. Some sellers say your order “may” be fulfilled by Amazon.
Nice, maybe I’m just buying the wrong things. I also saw this notice sometimes and then just picked a different seller, but some don’t write it there
I mostly buy on Otto now and on the site of sellers directly. Check the bigger ones for your country that are actually european. They might not be as popular but I have gotten around pretty well tbh
Have you tried Galaxus yet? It’s been my go-to since culling my Amazon account in early 2025.
Nahhh friend. I think people in this thread are proving that you don’t.
Huh, I have a Rakuten Kobo reader. I knew the Rakuten part was Japanese, but I didn’t realise they sold other stuff. The Kobo reader is based in the Netherlands I think. Good product and it’s weaned me off Kindle.