How To Order ASOS in South Africa

If you’ve been watching my InstaStories of late, you will know that I’m obsessed with ASOS and have been for about 5 years! I absolutely love their clothes because they fit my style perfectly and make me feel happy! The items I buy the most of are dresses and tops. So I’m here to share my knowledge with the online clothing store.

What the Hell is ASOS?

ASOS is an e-comm store that aggregates the best of high street fashion while offering their own ranges in “normal”, tall, petite, maternity, plus size and more. They offer big brands like BooHoo and Adidas as well as their in-house brand, ASOS.

3 Reasons Why ASOS is Better Than Local Shopping

Inclusive. I feel like South Africa has a serious issue with ageism when it comes to shopping. You shop at Mr Price as a kid, YDE until you’re 25, Woolworths until you’re 40 then Queen’s Park until you die. WHY?! Brands need to cater for more sizes and be more inclusive.
Sizing. When you’re over a size 12 your clothes immediately become boring, frumpy and DULL in South Africa. I’ve NEVER been able to shop at stores like The Lot and it’s been a decade since I could fit into anything at YDE.
Unique. If you shop at Mr Price, Edgars or H&M you are GUARANTEED to be at a party with someone else wearing the same outfit. ARG! All hail to ASOS, the shop that allows us to all be unique.

Our audience (AKA you) is wonderfully unique. And we do everything we can to help you find your fit, offering our ASOS Brands in more than 30 sizes – and we’re committed to providing all sizes at the same price – so you can be confident we’ve got the perfect thing for you. – ASOS

How To Find Bargains on ASOS

Shopping in the great British pound ain’t cheap. Except it is on ASOS! They have MASSIVE savings ALL the time, with items up to 70% off! Here’s how I get huge savings on the fashion site:

Go to Outlet (this is their sale section).
Sort by price first so you get the lowest prices.
Sort by size or colour to shape the results – they have TONS of stuff!
Preview the clothes to see them in “motion”.
Add to Bag if you like or keep shopping for more!

Happy shopping! Watch below how I navigate the site:

How To Ship ASOS Clothes to South Africa

There are 3 main ways to get ASOS to South Africa. Snail mail (traditional post), ASOS courier (Dawn Wing) and an external courier (Postbox Courier). I’ve written the good, the bad and the ugly truth about each service HERE.

Does Using a Courier Save You Any Money?

Using a courier can save you money. For example. you need to spend $60 to get free international shipping on Kylie Cosmetics, but you only need to spend $40 to get free local shipping. So in that instance, I will only spend $40, get it sent to my American post box and that’ll indirectly save me $20, which I then rather use to cover the cost of the shipping.

Payment Issues on ASOS

Sometimes, when you put your credit card details into ASOS, it doesn’t like the fact that your credit card address (probably your home address) differs from the Postbox Courier address. To get around this, just buy yourself a gift voucher on the ASOS site. This is sent to you, usually, within 15 minutes. When you check out, you simply put the voucher number in and pay that way. That way, they have already charged your credit card and because vouchers are digital (e-mailed to you), the address doesn’t matter.

Paying With PayPal

I prefer to pay with PayPal if I have money in the account. For example, I’ve done blog posts in the past and been paid via PayPal. I just leave the money in the account and then use it for international shopping. It saves you on the exchange rate.

What Fees Should You Expect

There are 3 main types of fees to expect:

Shipping Fees – Usually this is free if you spend over a certain amount of money.
Custom Fees – This is the cost that you have to pay for shopping for apparel from outside the country.
Courier Fees – This is the actual cost of having the courier work for you.

Most of the time I haven’t been charged custom fees, for some reason. Sometimes I have to pay, sometimes I don’t. I think it comes down to who is working that day and how big the parcel is. The last “shipment” I got was nearly 2kgs so I had to pay for the customs there.

Custom Fees

Whether you use snail mail or courier, you will need to pay custom fees. This sucks. So when I’m shopping on ASOS I basically double the price. If the dress costs R100, then I’ll expect to pay R200 in total. This gives me a more realistic idea of what it will cost to actually get to my front door.

It’s important to put the value (what you spent) on the courier note. If you don’t do this, the courier can get fined for trying to bring items into the country for less than their true value (even though this has nothing to do with them and they trusted what you put down). So put the real value down otherwise they will receive a R500 fine, you items will be delayed a month and they will have to pay the fine.

Courier Fees

Currently, 1 kg of clothes from the UK (USA is about double this) costs £19 (R360), 2 kgs cost £27 (R500), 3 kgs cost £35 (R660). This sounds expensive but 1kg is quite a lot if you’re only buying tops or light dresses!

It’s Expensive, Why Bother?

Yes, sometimes it can be pricey. But, quite frankly, I’m stick to death of shopping in South Africa and feeling ugly and excluded. I’d rather pay a bit more and have epic clothes that no one else has, than constantly wear old, frumpy items just because the South African retail market can’t cater to all body types!

I also love the quality. The quality of these “cheap” clothing items is ten times better than Mr Price or Pick n Pay. And while I do get the odd items there, anytime I get something from ASOS it fits, I feel great and I don’t have to apologise for being tall and curvy!

I only shop on sale. My new navy dress was about £20 off! It’s an AMAZING dress and if I’d bought it for full price, it would have cost me the same either way! It’s a lot cheaper to shop and ship it here than buying a plane ticket to England and get it there!

My ASOS Orders and Huge Savings

I’ve been ordering ASOS to South Africa for a few years, here are some of the biggest savings I’ve landed to date:

Closing Thoughts…

I absolutely love shopping on ASOS. If you’re stuck about what size you are, I’m a 16 top and 18 bottom. That’s a large top and extra large bottom (I’m 5’10”, 173 centimeters and usually wear a 36-38 top). If you’ve bought ANY clothing from the UK, check the label and be honest about whether you need a larger or small size.

I’m disciplined about not buying a design I LOVE if I KNOW a 16 isn’t there (my size). Don’t waste money shipping things out if you know that it probably won’t fit. There are so many amazing items on the site; happy shopping!

If you have any further queries, feel free to leave them in a comment section below 🙂