Amazon launched its International Shopping experience on April 17, 2018, letting customers outside the United States browse more than 45 million eligible U.S. items for delivery to their country. The company said the selection spanned more than 100 countries; “eligible” is the operative limit, not a promise that every U.S. product could cross every border. [S1]
The storefront worked in Amazon’s iOS and Android shopping apps and on mobile browsers. It offered five languages and 25 currencies, with customers able to choose a preferred language and currency and set a delivery location to see items eligible for that destination. [S1]
The experience displayed item pricing, shipping costs and import-duty estimates, while offering different shipping options and delivery speeds. Amazon said it coordinated customs clearance with courier services. Those features made cross-border costs and delivery choices visible earlier in the purchase flow; they did not remove destination-specific product eligibility. [S1]
That distinction addressed a practical discovery problem: before the launch, overseas shoppers using the U.S. site had to check each product to see whether it could ship to them, according to contemporaneous reporting. The new destination-based view reduced that manual screening, but Amazon’s own release still described only products eligible for the selected destination. [S1][S2]
Source documents
- Amazon Launches the International Shopping Experience in the Amazon Shopping Apphttps://press.aboutamazon.com/2018/4/amazon-launches-the-international-shopping-experience-in-the-amazon-shopping-app
- Amazon Adds International Shopping Featurehttps://www.investopedia.com/news/amazon-adds-international-shopping-feature/