The main reason for using Gift Finda is to make finding, buying and sending great gifts quick and easy.

• International gift delivery is simple when you know what to buy and which retailer can be trusted to deliver it for a reasonable price. However, reaching this point can often be time consuming and problematic, resulting in gifts being late or nothing being sent.
• It only takes a few minutes to select a delivery country before browsing carefully selected gift categories and retailers on Gift Finda. It is just three simple steps from arriving on the site to buying a gift (see how it works).
• Save time, money and uncertainty by avoiding international shipping. Time aside, import restrictions and duty vary by country and can cause the cost of delivery to increase significantly (possibly a bill for the recipient) or for gifts to be refused admission to a country and returned.
• Create a profile to benefit from key date reminders and gift suggestions. In future, rather than searching for a gift it could be as simple as buying something Gift Finda has suggested to you.

If you don’t find a gift you would like to send, please let us know. We don’t have all the answers but there is no limit to the number of gift categories and retailers we can list. Your contribution along with that of other users will make the site better.

Gift Finda connects gift buyers with retailers. That’s about it. We’ve done the research, added local knowledge from our user community and indexed the information to benefit other users.

No. Membership is optional and free. You will pay no more by visiting a site through Gift Finda than you would by finding them on Google or typing their website address into your internet browser.

Quite simply, with ten relatives and even more friends living overseas I vowed to get more organised with gift buying. Too often I’d leave it late or, for a variety of reasons have bought a gift locally but not sent it. Gift buying became a hassle and the buying experience took the enjoyment out of giving.

During 2013, particularly as birthdays came and went, I kept a record of retailers I had used to send gifts to other countries. As the list grew it occurred to me that others would be in a similar position and a lot of people would benefit if we all shared what we knew.

We can certainly try…and we’ll be happy to do so. Ideas from users help us to broaden the range of retailers we list. Please send a request via the contact form and we’ll aim to respond within 24 hours.

 It is most likely that we haven’t encountered them, possibly as we haven’t shopped extensively in a particular region. User recommendations make our service better. Everyone is a local somewhere and by pooling this knowledge we can continue to improve the site.

Creating a profile helps users to save time, get more organised and to send better gifts. Simply login with Facebook. The rest is simple and you only have to do it once:

• Save a search or select Facebook friends and/or family members to create their profile.
• Enter details of their key events to you e.g. Birthday, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, Christmas, Anniversary etc.
• Update their profile to help us to recommend gifts. Where do they live? What do they like to do? Tick box categories make this quick and easy.
• Invite your friends and family members to take ownership of their profile. In doing so they can update their preferences, create wish-lists and invite others to connect. They also get visibility of your profile which will help them to send better gifts to you.
• Let Gift Finda work for you. Reminders will be sent to profile owners in advance of any key events to ensure their profile is up-to-date.
• Set your reminder preferences so we can alert you in advance of an event and make suggestions based on the occasion and your friends’ preferences.

There can be. It depends on what you are ordering and where it is being sent from. As import restrictions and duty vary by country it is difficult to explain both simply and comprehensively.

The simplest way to avoid import duty and restrictions is to select a retailer in the same country as the gift recipient. To help you to identify these retailers we have added the following logo to their Gift Finda listing.

Alternatives do exist, a summary of which follows:

• International retailers with local distribution depots. Many goods are delivered locally and there is often a commitment to cover any additional duty where goods are shipped from another country.
• Duty charged at checkout and restricted goods cannot be ordered. Typically offered by retailers with a large international customer base that operate out of one or a small number of countries.
• Happy to ship internationally but the buyer takes the risk and is responsible for import duty and restrictions. This can be considered inappropriate for gift delivery as there is a chance of a gift being held at customs until the necessary duty has been paid.

We strongly advise users to check delivery options on a retailer’s website before placing any orders. More information on duty and restrictions can be found here http://www.dutycalculator.com/country-guides/

The majority of on-line retailers provide email confirmation of an order that contains detail on how to track delivery progress. As Gift Finda has no visibility of what has been ordered we are unable to offer assistance in this area. In the event of a confirmation email not being received we advise users to contact the retailer directly.

See above (How can I track my order). We recommend advising friends in advance that a gift has been sent and to keep a look out for it. No need to ruin the surprise and let them know what it is though!

Please use our contact form and we’ll try to respond within 24 hours. Alternatively we will happily answer any questions via twitter or our Facebook page.