Buying
The shop that will not ship
· Updated
Some small Italian workshops deliver only inside Italy. How a parcel forwarder such as BuyEU gets the box to you, and what makes up the second bill.
A checkout that stops
A large shop in this index will usually send a jacket abroad. A small one often will not. The site is in Italian, the delivery list ends at Italy, or the whole page is a telephone number and a street in Naples or Florence. The garment is for sale. Your address is simply not one they will use.
Those small workshops are what this piece is about. A shirt from Camiceria Piccirillo or Anna Matuozzo, or a pair from Stefano Bemer, Mario Bemer, Enzo Bonafè, or Paolo Scafora, is often sold from a page that delivers only inside Italy, or by email instead of a checkout. Some of those houses do ship further. The ones that do not are the reason forwarders exist.
Do not read the limit as a snub. It is how a workshop keeps freight, returns, and paperwork inside a system it already knows. Duties, damaged parcels, and size exchanges all get harder at a border. Many makers would rather sell to someone who can walk in, or through a courier that already stops at their door every week.
Sometimes you will find an English page with a contact form and no cart. That is still a shop. You order by email, bank transfer, or a visit. A forwarder does not replace that conversation; it only gives the maker an Italian address that looks ordinary to their courier.
An address in Italy
A parcel forwarder runs a warehouse and lends you its address. BuyEU is one. You register, you receive an address in Italy or another European country, and you give that address to the shop. The shop delivers inside the country it already serves; the warehouse takes in the box and sends it on to you.
If the workshop sells only by email, some forwarders will place the order on your behalf. That is a separate service from the address, so ask the price before you agree. You still pay the shop. The forwarder is the second carrier, nothing more.
Copy the warehouse address exactly as the forwarder prints it, unit or locker number included. A missing floor or code can strand a box with a neighbour or at a depot. Keep the shop’s order number and the first courier’s tracking number, so the warehouse can match the parcel when it lands.
Most warehouses photograph each box on arrival and hold it for a set number of days. Use that window. If a second shirt or a second pair is on its way from another house, ask whether both can share one outbound carton. Consolidation is where the method saves money.
The second bill
The Italian price is what the shop charges, local tax included, because the address it sees is local. The forwarder then charges by weight, size, and destination, usually plus a handling fee. Two orders can wait and leave in one box, and one box is often cheaper than two shipments abroad. That is the whole point of the warehouse.
If the parcel leaves the European Union, your country may charge duty and tax on arrival. That bill is yours; a forwarder does not make it disappear. Check the forwarder’s current tariff before you pay the shop, because a light shirt and a pair of shoes do not cost the same to send.
Insurance is optional and priced by value. Shoes and shirts travel well when packed once; a repack at the warehouse can add cost and delay, so ask whether the original box can leave as it arrived.
Before you call it a bargain, add up the workshop price, the forwarder’s quote, and a realistic estimate of duty. A cheap shirt that arrives with a heavy bill is no cheaper than one already listed for international delivery. The forwarder is for houses with no other door.
What to tell the workshop
Tell the shop that the delivery address is a forwarding address: a warehouse, not a private flat. Some houses will not send to a locker or a company name; others will, once they know the parcel will be collected. A short email before the payment clears is cheaper than a returned box.
If the order is made to measure, ask how long the work takes and whether the finished piece can wait at the shop until the warehouse is ready. A made shirt or a pair on a special last cannot be reordered from stock, so timing matters more than it does for a ready pair.
Send the measurements the workshop asks for, in the units it uses, and keep a copy. If they want a fitting shirt or an old pair of shoes for reference, say whether you can post them to the same warehouse or whether they must travel separately. And do not invent a size chart for a house that cuts by hand.
Returns and delay
A ready-made pair may come back through the same warehouse if the maker agrees. A cut shirt almost never will. Get the return rule in writing before you pay. A forwarded return is a third journey—from you to the warehouse, then on to the workshop—with fees on both legs.
Delay is normal. The maker works through a queue. The first courier waits for a collection day. The warehouse waits for your instruction to consolidate. Build a week or two into any plan that is not a stock item already sitting on a shelf.
Before you pay
Ask the shop, before you pay, whether it will deliver to a forwarding address. Some will not. For a shirt, send measurements only when the workshop asks for them, and expect a return to be difficult once the cloth is cut. For shoes, order a size you have already worn on that last. A guessed size is a poor parcel to send twice.
Start with one order, keep every receipt, and photograph the box as it leaves the warehouse. The workshops are listed under Italian cloth and Italian shoes. Use a forwarder when those pages stop at the Italian border, not when a large stockist already ships to your door.