How To Get Hot Topic Orders Shipped To Australia

Selling from figurines to T-shirts, Hot Topic is a retail store that offers culture-related things. It is targeted towards teens and young adults interested in things like gaming, rock music or even anime; and they usually negotiate exclusive licensing with movie studios, artists and graphic designers. Founded in 1989, Hot Topic’s headquarters are in Industry, California, USA.

Does Hot Topic Ship To Australia?

No, Hot Topic does not ship to Australia, but I’ve designed a process for getting any Hot Topic order shipped to Australia with zero headaches.

It involves using a package forwarder: a warehouse in the United States that will accept your Hot Topic order and forward it on to you in Australia.

Here’s the exact process, explained step-by-step.

How To Get Hot Topic Orders Shipped To Australia

Step 1: Choose A Package Forwarder

Choosing the right package forwarder is a big deal, because that decision will determine how quickly you receive your order, and how much you have to pay for the service. I spent many hours doing some deep research on fourteen of the best virtual mailboxes, scoring each of them on a wide variety of relevant metrics. Here are five of the main metrics I looked at:

• Service Fees: How much do they charge to provide their core service of accepting and shipping packages, plus ancillary services such as long-term storage, re-packing, package consolidation, and more.
• Monthly/Annual Fees: How much do they charge in monthly or annual fees, if at all.
• Pricing Transparency: How much do I know about their pricing structure before sending my order to their warehouse.
• Speed: How quickly will they process my package.
• Customer Service: How satisfied are other users with their service, and how thoroughly/quickly do they respond to my questions.

After reviewing the data I collected on these and other metrics, it became clear to me that Planet Express was the best choice for this job. Their customer service team responded to my emails quickly and thoroughly, they have thousands of 5-star reviews online, and their fees were consistently lower than all of the other package forwarders I looked at.

Here are a few other things I like about Planet Express:

• Planet Express has a tax-free warehouse in Oregon, so you can avoid paying sales tax on your orders.
• Planet Express will consolidate multiple packages into a single box, significantly reducing shipping costs when you make multiple purchases.
• Planet Express sends you free photos of your package as soon as it arrives at their warehouse.
• Planet Express offers extremely cheap storage for your packages. Every package receives 10 days of free storage, but after that, Planet Express only charges one cent per pound per day. That means storing a 1-lb package in their warehouse for a month only costs $0.30!

Step 2: Ship Your Order To Planet Express 

As soon as you’ve signed up for Planet Express, you’ll receive a unique mailing address at their warehouse. Once you decide on the items you want to buy, just enter your Planet Express mailing address instead of your home mailing address and you’re all set. 

If you’re not able to enter your home address as your credit card billing address, you should also be able to use Planet Express’ warehouse address without any issues.

To learn more about Planet Express—including what it looks like inside the Planet Express dashboard—watch the video below.

Step 3: Forward Your Package

As soon as your order arrives at Planet Express’ warehouse, they’ll send you photos of the package to let you know it’s arrived. You’ll also be given a series of shipping options to choose from.

I find that there’s generally at least 4 shipping options corresponding to 4 different price-speed combinations. Sometimes there can be as many as 10 or more shipping options—it just depends on the weight, size and value of your package.

My Personal Experience

I’ve used Planet Express more than a dozen times to ship packages to different parts of the world, and the experience has always been very smooth. Here’s how things went the last time I did it.

First, I had my order sent to my unique address at the Planet Express warehouse. Less than 48 hours later, I received an email from Planet Express letting me know that my order had arrived, which is extremely quick.

Second, I filled in Planet Express’ super-easy customs declaration form with the four pieces of information required:

1. The item being shipped
2. The number of items being shipped
3. The value of the item
4. Whether the item contains batteries

Third, I chose the shipping option I wanted from a list of eight. Prices ranged from $6-$35 USD, plus insurance at an additional $2 USD, so I chose the cheapest one ($8 USD, including the insurance), and I was done. My package was shipped out later that same day, and when it arrived, everything was in perfect shape.

In Summary

Overall, getting Hot Topic items shipped to Australia is extremely easy and smooth. The costs are low, and in my experience you’ll actually end up saving money, since buying direct from Hot Topic is often cheaper than buying from other comparable retailers in Australia. If you’re buying from Hot Topic, or any other retailer that doesn’t ship to Australia, I’m confident this method will serve you well.