Hi there

The Duty Calculator is live now for a bit over two months. As per today, we have 5325 registered users, who performed in total 7459 calculations. Since launch, we have expanded the products that the Duty Calculator covers, for example mobile phones and cars. We have improved the category structure so it is easier for our users to find the products. Also we added several countries that you can import to. The Duty Calculator now covers all Euro countries, the UK and Sweden. We are working hard to add the remaining EU countries.

The last time I wrote about the query statistics I promised to write a bit more about what our users are importing from China. Unsurprisingly, the top import categories are consumer electronics, clothing and accessories, sporting equipment and shoes.

Aside from the popular queries on finding the import duty & VAT on products like the Samsung i900, Quad band HTC T3232 Smart phone, the Scotty Cameron putters and Callaway FT-I drivers, the Dell 1330, Sony Vaio laptops and Dreambox satellite receivers, we had some interesting items:

- Sciphone (the best iPhone clone in the market, apparently)
- Zorb ball (don’t try this at home)
- Photovoltaic cell arrays (here is more info on that)
- Karaoke Santa Claus (yes, yes, you need one for Christmas)
- Swim spa and a single sit in kayak
- A real London taxi!

I was surprised to find out that the London taxis are actually made in China. There were some other queries that caused the same reaction, for example Christian Louboutin pumps. Not sure what the story is there.

Finally, again, the Uggs popped up, alongside Ausiebum. This time imported from China though, instead of Australia. I still don’t get it.

Take care, and happy bundling

Andre

We even have phones now!

Happy bundling (in 30 Celsius, no air con just yet)

Andre

Hi there -

We are almost ready to launch the beta version of our Android App for the Duty Calculator. Pieter is adding the final touches, it all looks great and works really well.

Now the question is, how should we price our Android App. Let us know your thoughts. We are running a poll on Linkedin where you can vote. Below you can see the results so far.

Many thanks for your help

Happy Bundling

Andre

How should we price our Android App for the Duty Calculator?

Hi there

Drum rolls on….. the Product Known As Top Secret has a new name: Bundle Box.

This week I was with our friends at Itransition in Belarus to review the alpha version. The alpha 1 version exceeded expectations and we are confident that we will hit (or even beat) our target launch date of September 1st.

So what is Bundle Box about? it is the better way to buy from the USA. Over the next days I’ll tell you more about how it exactly works and why we think Bundle Box is really really great. In the meantime, you can have a sneak preview at www.bundlebox.com and receive an early bird discount of £5.

Happy bundling, greetings from Minsk

Andre

Hi all -

Last Friday we launched the alpha version of our Android app for the Duty Calculator. Pretty, pretty cool…works even better than on the screen.

Many thanks to Pieter of Pi-Q who developed the app, Pesh of Effect Digital who did the design and our friends at Itransition who built the API. Great work guys!

You can find the app on your Android phone by searching the market place for ‘Duty Calculator’, or browsing to Applications -> Shopping -> By date

Let us know what you think! Over the next weeks we will be adding functionality and launch the beta version. Drop us a line if you have any comments or smart ideas.

Happy bundling

Andre