Why Shipping Fee?

We often receive the following questions - Why do you charge shipping, or why is shipping expensive?

 Here's our honest answer: for the best of you! Since the launch of global shipping, we have been striving to find the best way to deliver Seoulboxes to your door. As an international subscription box, shipping has been one of our major priorities to ensure seamless experiences for you.

 Believe us - we've gone through a plethora of tries to find the best option for you. From Korea Post to K-Packet, EMS to FedEx to DHL, we've found the best option - DHL. Through tons of tests and tries, we settled down to the paid DHL international express shipping instead of free e-post. Here's why:

  • Your boxes arrive much faster!

With our free plan, shipments usually arrive within two weeks, and during holidays, it used to take up to 8 weeks. We can deliver with international express shipping with our new plan! It means that you can receive your box from Korea within 2 to 5 days - approximately a similar time take for some domestic delivery service!

  • You can receive Seoulbox from anywhere in the world

There are quite a few restrictions in Korea Post, our previous free delivery service. Especially with the pandemic and travel restrictions, we couldn't have shipped our boxes to more than 20 countries. This article explains how the pandemic posed restrictions on international shipping through our previous e-post courier. Now with private DHL courier, Seoulbox is accessible to Seoulmates from nearly anywhere in the globe.

  • Better for the environment

DHL is probably one of the most eco-friendly air freight companies in the world. Its green logistics use clean and recycled energy. The courier's conscious effort to make their service eco-friendly represented our company value.

  • Fairer cost for you

We understand that you are coming from everywhere around the world. One of the challenges we initially faced was that delivery costs vary by a different country. For example, with our previous free-delivery courier, the delivery cost to the US can be up to $10 more expensive than to Germany under our current shipping weight band (~1.5kg/3.31Ibs). If you live in the US or UK, you have to pay a significantly higher extra charge. With currently paid couriers, shipping costs are similar in different countries thanks to its global network, meaning the fairer prices for you.

  • Less chances for box thieves

The extra shipping charge covers On-Demand Delivery (ODD) service. ODD means that our courier will track the shipment closely and give three attempts to ensure that you receive your box safely. 

  • More snacks!

The paid option opened us a door to include drinks and heavier snacks. Previously with a free plan, we could ship up to 1,200g (2.65 Ibs). Now, we can ship up to 1,500g (~3.3Ibs). The 300g (~0.67Ibs) difference means that we can finally include Korean sodas and more snacks without decreasing other box values. We know that many of our Seoulmates have asked for pop. The paid delivery option opened the door to cool Korean drinks like BTS Cold Brew or Grape Watermelon Jelly. Seoulmates' reactions told us that we made the right choice for you.

  • Higher chance of delivery success (>99%)

Since we are on a private courier service, we secured direct contact with local customs of your area. When the customs officer requires further information about your parcel, the customer support team in both your country and Korea take care of the issue, resulting in notably high rated of successful international delivery.

  • More ensured delivery during holiday seasons

Using a private courier service also means that airplanes dedicated to DHL deliver your boxes. We want to make super sure that your parcel arrives before special days!

  • Faster dispatch for you

To explain to you this point, let us share more insights on what's happening behind the scenes! Order fulfilment and dispatch require many hidden manual processes. DHL has perhaps the best-in-the-industry fulfillment systems (Trust us, we probably tried most of international couriers and their systems!). It means that we could save a significant amount of time when it comes to the order fulfilment, allowing us to achieve next-day dispatch.

 

Nine competitive reasons for international delivery! Previously we offered free shipping for $39 per box. Now we offer $35 per box with a $12.50 per shipment. Imagine you can enjoy all the above benefits for only $7.50 extra cost. If you pay $5 extra for domestic expediated shipping, why not pay only $7.50 for international expediated shipping plus tons of other benefits for you? The reactions of our Seoulmates prove we made the right decision! Our journey continues to serve you incredible unboxing experiences of discovering Korea.

 

If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to share them at help@myseoulbox.com.