Good online shops shipping within Europe?

January 27, 2007 2:42 AM

Looking for personal recommendations for Europe-based online shopping sites that ship to different European countries; especially, at the moment, looking for a place that sells cosmetics from different distributors.

If you've had good experiences shopping online with deliveries to a European country point me to the places you like to shop!

Just now I happen to be looking for a place to order Max Factor Lipfinity lipstick (I paid 21 euros here in Greece, which is insane!), but I often find that I want something that either isn't available here, or is ridiculously expensive if it is. I currently order books from amazon.co.uk, which has been very dependable, and pricewise doesn't turn out to be much more (if any more) than buying English language books locally, even with the extra shipping cost.

posted by taz to Shopping (8 answers total)

For camera equipment, I like www.digitalwonderworld.de - shipped to Ireland very quickly, and had the best prices I've seen. Probably due to Germany's lower VAT.
posted by antifuse at 3:24 AM on January 27, 2007

Yeah, for many products the higher-rated ones are in Germany for some reason: probably the VAT and being part of the eurozone are factors in that.

I can't help you with cosmetics (my dominatrix buys all my lipstick) but my favourite online retailer ever is Thomann, mostly for musicians' supplies but also for some small electronics stuff.

(It's actually cheaper for me to order (say) guitar strings from them in Germany than to get them at the local shop. Go figure.)
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 6:12 AM on January 27, 2007

Response by poster: I'm happy to collect recommended links to shops selling all kinds of things... my husband will be interested in Thorman for some of his pursuits. I've been trying to buy a sonic toothbrush, for example, but haven't found one here, and amazon.co.uk will only ship electronics inside the UK.
posted by taz at 6:26 AM on January 27, 2007

For cosmetics, perfumes, etc., Strawberrynet can be good - although they don't seem to have the lippy you want. They're based in Hong Kong but ship worldwide.
posted by misteraitch at 6:43 AM on January 27, 2007

Drugstore.com ships internationally.
posted by LoriFLA at 7:35 AM on January 27, 2007

Response by poster: Thanks, LoriFla, I'd love to shop from Drugstore.com... but they use myus.com for international shipping, in which you get a "U.S. address" that myus then uses to forward you the packages... and perhaps this is a good solution for people who order a lot of items from the U.S., but it's $35 to set up the account, and then an annual membership of $132 - or- $15 monthly membership, and then there are still per-package fees attached - which is a bit of overkill for me, since my from-U.S. purchases are too few and far between to make this price-friendly.
posted by taz at 7:53 AM on January 27, 2007

Looking for personal recommendations

it's $35 to set up the account, and then an annual membership of $132 - or- $15 monthly membership, and then there are still per-package fees attached

D'oh! Sorry taz. Strike my answer. Strike me.
posted by LoriFLA at 8:14 AM on January 27, 2007

Response by poster: ! Never mind! It's only from lots of disappointment and wasted minutes on the internet that I've learned to look at "International Shipping" promises from U.S. companies with a jaundiced eye. :)

But, places like misteraitch's Hong Kong-based company are cool, if you've had good experiences with them. It's not important that they be Europe-based, only that they can/will ship in Europe for reasonable fees.
posted by taz at 8:24 AM on January 27, 2007