The sloppily put together list of IOSS-Friendly Boutiques

[GlacierTuba]

NOTE (09/04/2025): No idea what will happen if you order stuff from the USA now thanks to the orange fella throwing a tariff strop. Shop from the USA at your own risk (to your wallet).



Seeing as the question crops up from time to time, here's a sloppily put together list of who is and who isn't IOSS-friendly (damn you Boris!).

Feel free to post replies to add/remove/amend the list and generally row amongst yourselves.

IOSS-Friendly (includes direct from the label and general retailers):

88 Films
Amazon - All flavours (except .se, .in and .be which don't appear to ship outside their host country)
Arrow (doesn't cover some countries)
Discogs (depends who you are buying from)
eBay (depends who you are buying from)
Eureka
Indicator
Limelight Collection
Radiance (includes Raro UK)
Rarewaves
Second Sight
WOW HD - 150 lids limit
Deepdiscount - 150 lids limit


Non-IOSS-Friendly (includes stores that just 'remove VAT' as you're open to getting stung when goods land in their destination country):

All The Anime
BFI
Diabolik
Shameless Screen Entertainment


Miscellaneous Non-IOSS-Friendly Retailers (these don't even ship outside the UK - if applicable - or home country with some exceptions, see description, unless you use a forwarder):

CEX - Geolocked. Usually cancel your order(s) if you try to ship to a forwarder.

Zavvi (they don't even acknowledge your existence, a bit like The Hut Group customer service in general really) - Geolocked

HMV - UK mainland only. They do NOT remove tax at checkout for Channel Islands addresses or comply with VAT receipt requests even though they should do legally (afaik?). Reportedly launching .ie and .be online stores March 2025.

Yukipalo - not IOSS friendly, but they declare a lower value on their shipments (I believe you can even ask them to declare a specific value, but they'll also declare a lower value by default). Ships outside UK.

Chameleon - not IOSS friendly, they declare the actual value. Ships outside UK.

Vinegar Syndrome - technically not IOSS friendly, BUT they send everything DDP, so all additional fees are automatically charged to them

Severin - technically not IOSS friendly, BUT they send everything DDP, so all additional fees are automatically charged to them

[T4ffer]

Good idea.

Arrow is only partially friendly as they haven't allowed shipping to several EU countries for more than a year.

You can add Rarewaves, Limelight Collection.

[GlacierTuba]

Originally Posted by T4ffer

Good idea.

Arrow is only partially friendly as they haven't allowed shipping to several EU countries for more than a year.

You can add Rarewaves, Limelight Collection.

I really should have added Rarewaves to begin with seeing as I ordered from them the other day!

Hence the thread title...

EDIT: I guess eBay qualifies as some purchases they do the tax for you. I'll add it as partial.

[Mothravka]

Second Sight can be added.

[GlacierTuba]

Originally Posted by Mothravka

Second Sight can be added.

Nice one. I thought they were another 'remove the tax' cop out. I know on Amazon their stuff never seems to show up for EU destinations to purchase.

I added Zavvi and HMV as well, even though they only ship to UK addresses, just to save folks from wondering.

[The Hornets]

Originally Posted by GlacierTuba

Nice one. I thought they were another 'remove the tax' cop out. I know on Amazon their stuff never seems to show up for EU destinations to purchase.

I added Zavvi and HMV as well, even though they only ship to UK addresses, just to save folks from wondering.

As I posted in the HMV thread, they are starting to ship to Europe later this month. Also, opening more stores in Ireland and Belgium.

https://www.theguardian.com/business...dget-tax-rises

[The Hornets]

eBay like Amazon Marketplace are IOSS complaint and the equivalent for those of us importing into the U.K.

The problem is if you buy off a private U.K. seller, rather than a retailer on there. If you are in the U.K. and a private seller then your sales are VAT free so no VAT to deduct. Is then an issue with the customs declarations although I believe it’s okay if it’s despatched using the eBay postal solution.

[GlacierTuba]

Originally Posted by The Hornets

As I posted in the HMV thread, they are starting to ship to Europe later this month. Also, opening more stores in Ireland and Belgium.

https://www.theguardian.com/business...dget-tax-rises

"It will also open its online store to shoppers in Ireland and mainland Europe later this month"

About bloody time too! No doubt the 20% code won't work then though, or the selection will be limited compared to the UK store. But still its something I guess!

[Rutger Lundgren]

With Zavvi you might use one of their local websites, depending on where you live. For instance, Zavvi.ie for Ireland or Zavvi.de for Belgium, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. I don't know if there are others.

I started maintaining my own list not too long ago, so if stores outside of the UK are also welcome, here are my additional findings so far:

Yukipalo - not IOSS friendly, but they declare a lower value on their shipments (I believe you can even ask them to declare a specific value, but they'll also declare a lower value by default)
Chameleon - not IOSS friendly, they declare the actual value
Vinegar Syndrome - technically not IOSS friendly, BUT they send everything DDP, so all additional fees are automatically charged to them

[GlacierTuba]

Nice one. Added those to the misc sub list. Declaring lower values is sketchy practice though if something goes wrong. Do they compensate?

[Le Grande Blu]

All the Anime are not IOSS friendly.

[Rutger Lundgren]

Originally Posted by GlacierTuba

Nice one. Added those to the misc sub list. Declaring lower values is sketchy practice though if something goes wrong. Do they compensate?

I don't know, I've never had issues so far. Whenever I'm contacted by the customs, I send them the actual receipts, and they calculate the fees using those. I guess that they know that some retailers don't declare actual values, and it's not the buyers' fault.

Again, I'm pretty sure that Yukipalo allow you to declare your own value, so you can ask for the actual amount.

EDIT: By the way, the ones I listed DO ship outside the UK, so you might want to correct that.

[GlacierTuba]

Job done, I'll update those.

I've also added CEX. Its all geolocked shipping and they usually cancel your order if you try to ship to a forwarder.

[apollo828]

Hi. I suppose it's hit-and-miss, depending on how the goods are shipped, but I believe Discogs (technically music but this does include Blu-rays) is IOSS-friendly if you use their shipping labels. I haven't paid terribly close attention but that's my understanding anyway. Nobody in the UK who has received packages from me has complained, so I'm going to assume I'm doing something right when I ship internationally.

[Blu Lemmy]

Props Tuba

[Kauno]

Originally Posted by The Hornets

As I posted in the HMV thread, they are starting to ship to Europe later this month. Also, opening more stores in Ireland and Belgium.

https://www.theguardian.com/business...dget-tax-rises

Have we any news on this?

[The Hornets]

Originally Posted by Kauno

Have we any news on this?

Why not email / message and ask them, referring to their press interview.

[nicwood]

Severin US is also DDP-friendly like Vinegar Syndrome. Ordered with them once last Black Friday and it all went well.

WOW HD and all the DirecToU stores are IOSS-friendly up to roughly 150 euros or dollars. As long as you see VAT/GST charged in cart you’re fine. Parcels above the limit are sent VAT-free but will then go through local customs.

[FantasticMrFox]

Thanks for the thread, Tuba!

Do we add European shops that sell UK and US titles? Like:

Metaluna from Paris
https://metalunastore.fr

Universe of Entertainment from Barcelona
https://universeofentertainment.es

iMusic from Denmark
https://imusic.de

Originally Posted by The Hornets

As I posted in the HMV thread, they are starting to ship to Europe later this month. Also, opening more stores in Ireland and Belgium.

https://www.theguardian.com/business...dget-tax-rises

WOW! Missed the news. That's so very exciting and great news! A dream as an importer. Hopefully it becomes reality. When I was in UK it was so exciting to visit HMVs and Fopp and see all the stuff I have to import just sitting there on the shelves. Especially since I buy much more from Europe/UK since I stopped importing from the USA.

[The Hornets]

Originally Posted by FantasticMrFox

WOW! Missed the news. That's so very exciting and great news! A dream as an importer. Hopefully it becomes reality. When I was in UK it was so exciting to visit HMVs and Fopp and see all the stuff I have to import just sitting there on the shelves. Especially since I buy much more from Europe/UK since I stopped importing from the USA.

Don't get too excited. As posted a few posts up the thread we are now in April and no sign of the promised selling to Europe launch, as they stated was happening in March in the interview I linked to.