Shopping & Forwarding Services
For internationally-based shops that either do not offer shipping to a specific country, or for whom shipping to this country is limited/expensive, the majority of shoppers within the lolita fashion community make use of either shopping services, forwarding services, or reseller shops.
Each of these 3 different types of intermediary have different advantages and disadvantages depending on what you are purchasing, your familiarity with the written language of the country you are purchasing from, your timeframe, budget and risk tolerance.
Shopping Services
Shopping services make purchases on your behalf in the foreign country, either in-person or online. Purchases are typically stored and consolidated before being shipped out to you at your request.
Examples - FromJapan, SpreeNow, Tenshi Shop
Forwarding Services
Forwarding services simply act as an address to ship to in the foreign country; the customer makes and manages their own purchases. They may or may not offer package consolidation.
Examples - Tenso, Shippsy
Reseller Shops
These can be further divided into two main types: The first are authorized resellers, which are typically select shops acting as official distributors/stockists of a variety of related brands and have stock ready to ship.
The other type are general reseller shops, which are unaffiliated with the brands they list, but provide a catalog/shopfront of items they can purchase and resell to the customer at a markup. While some items may be directly stocked by the reseller, more commonly they prefer direct dropshipping or ordering on demand from the brands as items are purchased.
Examples - Flores Astorum, DevilInspired, KuroShiro Kawaii
