It’s December. If you’re buying gifts, we’ve put together this hopefully helpful shopping guide. The first part covers online shopping – stuff that either ships to Sri Lanka or online shops based here at home.
Yes you lazy bunion, there are ways to do your holiday shopping without leaving the house. Note that for international items you need to order pretty close to now if you want things to arrive before Christmas. For our local suppliers you can technically order a few days before, but don’t push it.
Local
1. Happiness.lk (777244211)
We’re not really ranking these, but if we did, Happiness would have to be number one. Firstly, they specialize in kids stuff (Legos, Hot Wheels, etc), which is who you should be buying gifts for anyways. Second, they have amazing delivery. We’ve ordered two things from them (Play-Doh and a RISK game) and both were delivered the same day. That’s a level of speed Amazon is only planning for in America.
They only guarantee delivery within 2-3 working days, but we can say that it’s often much faster. The stuff is mostly branded and high quality and the website is easy to navigate. Their phone support is also good, basically a solid e-commerce experience.
A set of 5 Hot Wheels cars is Rs. 1,230, a Princess Ballerina Barbie is Rs. 1,590 and a Party Pack of Play Doh is Rs. 594.
2. Colomboard
Colomboard is like a local Pinterest where you can buy stuff. Nice bags, cards, cakes, jewelry, etc. Run by the legit web company Vesses, it has a lot of hidden gems, mainly jewelry and notebooks, but also cakes and stuff.
3. Takas
Takas does a good range of headphones and electronics (phones, TVs, etc) and they deliver within a few days. The have Skullcandy headphones for Rs. 5,400, Belkin iPhone cases for Rs. 3,420, and kids toys (mostly VTech) starting from Rs. 650.
4. Books.lk
There are a lot of places to buy books online in Sri Lanka, try Anything.lk or Sarasavi.
Books.lk is a good option. Some possible titles are the recent Mike Tyson biography or The Hunger Games (Rs. 1,350 each).
This one’s a bit geeky, but if you want something unique and geeky, 3D Concept Studio will print out almost anything from the libraries at Thingiverse and even customize it for you. We got a dog tag for Rs. 2,000 (including customization).
International
For a long time buying goods from online shops was either limited to books (Amazon ships those here) or asking relatives to hand carry stuff. Now there are a few more options, but you need to order at least two weeks in advance, AKA now.
Kapruka Global will ship basically anything available on Amazon, eBay, BestBuy, etc to Sri Lanka. They calculate and handle the shipping, customs, etc. The only catch is that you need to order at least two weeks in advance. They have some items listed on their site, but for most you’ll need to get a quote (check online), which they say they deliver within 24 hours.
2. ASOS
ASOS sells international quality clothing and they ship to Sri Lanka for free. Of course, that takes 9-28 working days. Which can be months. If you want it in a more reasonable amount of time, it costs 20 pounds for delivery within 3-10 working days.
3. Amazon
Amazon has long delivered books to Sri Lanka, though they don’t deliver most other things. With books you’re generally safe unless you order a lot at once, in that case customs has been known to open and delay the package. As long as you’re getting three or less it should be fine, and they have absolutely the best selection. Kindle gifts are also not a bad idea.
And Then
And that’s the end of our online shopping guide, you can check out our offline guide later this week, or see the whole thing in the next edition of YAMU Print, out Friday.
