Amazon Portugal: How to Use Amazon in Portugal

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Whether you like it or not, Amazon is a massive and growing part of everyone’s lives. With the recent surge of ordering online, many people have been wondering if Amazon exists in Portugal, and how you can order from Amazon to Portugal. With this guide to using Amazon in Portugal we’ll explain everything you might need to know! First things, first. Does Amazon Portugal exist?

Is there an Amazon Portugal?

As of 2021, there is not an Amazon Portugal, but there is now a Portuguese Amazon website run through Amazon Spain (amazon.es). Despite long held rumours of an Amazon Portugal and a warehouse system opening in Portugal, Amazon does not currently exist within Portugal in anyway. However, in May 2021, Amazon opened a specific part of its Spanish store for Portuguese customers, offering Portuguese products, as well as being available in Portuguese. At the same time, it updated its Prime program for Portuguese customers too. At just €3.99 a month you can now benefit from lots of Prime benefits without needing to sign up for Prime in other countries. More on Amazon Prime and if its worth it for people in Portugal further down the post!

Amazon Portugal
Amazon Portugal’s Store Front

How to use Amazon in Portugal?

Although there are obvious benefits to Amazon Spain, there are still the alternatives in other countries. Despite AmazonFr” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>Amazon France, and Amazon US site. But you’re going to pay some very high shipping costs to get those items delivered in Portugal. You will also need to factor in customs, import charges and the much longer delivery time to receive those items. It’s this reason we don’t recommend using the Amazon US store at all, unless you really need an item that is not available in any of the other stores.

Which Amazon should I use in Portugal?

The choice will come down to item availability, language, and delivery cost. It’s rare but sometimes you won’t be able to find the same item on each of the different Amazon stores. Similarly, the delivery costs and delivery date will change, as will the cost of the item itself. During the pandemic, I was ordering printer ink because I had to work from home. The same printer ink with the same product code and the same seller all cost differently on each of the different Amazon stores.

Which is the best Amazon to use in Portugal?

In general, for small common items, Amazon Spain will be your best bet. For larger items or electronics, we’ve found Amazon Germany and Amazon France to be better. If you’re looking for English products specifically, like books, or games, than Amazon UK is the best. It really comes down to the above combination of item, price and delivery, which varies a lot. From the past, we’ve had good experiences using Amazon UK, Amazon FR and Amazon ES. But your experience may definitely vary. So does the delivery expectations, which depend on the item and where its coming from.

Which Amazon stores are available in English?

If you need your Amazon experience to be in English then you have several options. The first is obviously to stick to the UK store. Secondly, you can use the Google Translate, Bing Translate, etc. These will automatically translate the web pages into English or any language you choose. Which is helpful for browsing Amazon Spain and France. You just need to remember these plugins aren’t perfect and sometimes produce unexpected results!

Amazon Germany English
The option to change the language of amazon.de is right next to the search bar.

Which Amazon Store has the fastest delivery to Portugal?

Need an item fast? The below table shows the estimated delivery times when ordering from each Amazon website.

Amazon StoreStandard Delivery TimeExpedited Delivery
Spain (.es)4-5 Days2-4 Days
UK (.co.uk)4-6 Days2-4 Days
Germany (.de)4-6 Days2-4 Days
France (.fr)4-6 Days2-4 Days

In general, the fastest for standard shipping is Amazon Spain, if you’re looking for even faster shipping and choose expedited delivery then some items you can have within two days. The new Portuguese store front of Amazon Spain, specifically advertises select items for the Portuguese market with two day delivery. This usually always depends on the items and their availability though. This also only applies to items stocked, and shipped by Amazon themselves. Other sellers and delivery times are often very different.

What are the delivery costs to ship Amazon items to Portugal?

Amazon is surprisingly good when it comes to uniform shipping costs and nearly all the different stores follow a similar set of delivery patterns. First up, Amazon Spain as it’s the cheapest and can be free! Items direct or fulfilled by Amazon Spain will cost between €0.99 and €3.99 per shipment, with the added bonus of being free if you order is over €19 in books, or €29 of other items. Which does offer considerable savings against the other Amazon stores. After Amazon ES, it’s actually cheaper to have items delivered from Amazon UK than it is either France or Germany, and the delivery is usually quicker too. However, if you’re shopping for home appliances or electronics, you’ll usually want an EU charger and we usually recommend Amazon FR or DE as there’s usually a wider selection than amazon ES.

Amazon StoreBooksMusic, DVD SoftwareAny Other ItemsExpedited Cost
Spain (.es)€0.99 / shipment€3.49 / shipment€3.99 / shipment €5.99 / shipment
UK (.co.uk)£5.50 / shipment + £0.90 per kg£3.60 / shipment + £0.90 per kg£5.50 / shipment + £0.90 per kg £6.49 /shipment+ £2.49 per kg
Germany (.de)€7.50 / shipment + EUR 1.30 per kg€5.00 / shipment + €1.30 per kg€7.50 / shipment + €1.30 per kg€8.00 / shipment + €2.00 per kg
France (.fr)€7.50 / shipment + €1.30 per kg€5.00 / shipment + €1.30 per kg€7.50 / shipment + €1.30 per kg€8.00 / shipment + €2.00 per kg

The above only refers to items bought directly from Amazon, or fulfilled by Amazon. If you’re purchasing items from other sellers, then costs vary dramatically and there’s far too many variables to list.

What about import charges and taxes?

New for 2021 is the arrival of import charges and taxes for items arriving from the UK. If they cost more than £20, a deposit is taken at the point of sale by Amazon and automatically applied to your shopping basket. It usually amounts to around 20% of the value of the items and will be used by “the carrier or another agent to pay the Import Fees on your behalf (or the recipient’s behalf) to the appropriate authorities of the destination.” The full details can be found on Amazon’s help guides under the About Import Fees Deposit page.

It’s for this reason we don’t recommend using Amazon’s Global US Store, the taxes can be high and there’s still a risk of your items being held up at Customs in Portugal. We can’t say for sure, if the same will happen for goods ordered at the UK store, but you need to be aware of the additional costs!

Amazon Stores with free delivery to Portugal?

Amazon Spain gets a special mention here. Amazon.es is the only Amazon to offer free shipping to Portugal. If you purchase €19 of books or €29 of other items you’ll get free standard delivery to Portugal. This can get you some quite considerable savings if you’re ordering lots of items.

Who does Amazon use for delivery in Portugal?

Unfortunately, there does not appear to be a defined carrier. Our two most recent packages from Amazon UK were delivered by CTT and UPS. Previously they have also been delivered by DPD and not delivered by the notorious GLS. So, it seems to vary a lot. You only need to look at GLS’s Google reviews to see GLS have an infamous reputation for non-delivery, or not being able to find addresses. One of my packages is still lost somewhere in the hills of the Algarve. To Amazon’s credit though, as and when things do go missing, they are very quick to refund or send another item. 

What should I do if the item can’t be delivered in Portugal?

If you haven’t already experienced it, you probably will soon. The dreaded red text that states this item does not ship to Portugal.  So, what can you do to get your item? You really have three options if you really want that particular item. The first, you can attempt to find a seller on Amazon that does sell the same item and offers shipping to Portugal. The second, you can use a package forwarding company. The third, you can find an alternative website or a local shop or website.

Amazon not shipping to Portugal
‘This item does not ship to Portugal’

How to find another seller on Amazon?

With most popular items on Amazon, you can usually find multiple sellers. Although Amazon, makes it simpler to purchase from themselves directly, you can quickly look at alternative sellers with a couple of button clicks. Unfortunately though, often they don’t tell you their international shipping costs before you attempt to checkout. So, beware of extortionate delivery costs or very long delivery estimates!

Other Sellers Amazon
Underneath the options to add to your basket or to buy now, you’ll find the other sellers

Top Tips for Searching Amazon and its Sellers

Sometimes using translators can produce whacky results and can mean its difficult to find exactly what you’re looking for. If you’ve found the item on one store and you want to find it on another here’s what to do. First find the Part Number, Item Model Number or the ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number). These can usually be found in the products description, they are also usually unique to a specific item, so whatever the item title and translation it should be the same on each Amazon website. Simply copy and paste the ASIN into another Amazon store or even google to find the listing on other Amazon stores. If you copy and paste the item number or part number, these are not unique to Amazon, but they will help you find it. If you copy and paste them into Google, you’ll usually find other websites selling the same product!

How to use a package forwarder?

For the time being we don’t recommend using a local packaging forwarder. Unfortunately, due to the impact of Brexit all of the below local services have suspended their activities. Citing increased costs, delays, and a lot of paperwork. The larger international companies are applying taxes and import fees, that usually make the items a lot more expensive. You can still use them, you just need to remember there will be import fees, taxes, and potential delays.

A package forwarding company is a company that offers you an address that you can get items delivered to. They then forward them to another address, in this case to Portugal. They can be supremely useful for getting hard to find or hard to deliver items delivered to you in Portugal. There are multiple companies available, both local and larger companies which both have their benefits and downsides. Parcl, Forward2me, myUKmailbox are all companies that offer you a mailbox for your deliveries. You can then organise with them to ship them to your address in Portugal. They do have benefits, your own specific address, the ability to merge and repackage shipments, and even the ability to chose the courier delivery in Portugal. However, they do add an extra cost to your deliveries to use these services.

Local carriers for package forwarding  

Instead of the larger companies that simply package and send your items by another postal carrier. You can also use several local carriers that operate in Portugal and the UK. We’ve had first-hand experience with both Direct Transport and Algarve Express and they were great.

Direct Transport – Based in Andover in the UK, and Porches in the Algarve. You can get your online shopping delivered to their Andover depot and they’ll deliver it to their Porches depot on one of their weekly lorries. You can pick smaller items up, or get larger items delivered directly to you.

Algarve Express –  Based in Basildon in the UK, and their depot is in Almancil in the Algarve. You can pick smaller items up, or get larger items delivered directly to you. The full price list for the service can be found here. We’ve used them multiple times and they’ve always provided a great service.

Algarve Removals – Based in Maldon in the UK and Alcantarilha in the Algarve. Once again, you can get your online orders delivered direct to their warehouse and they’ll bring it on one of their regular shipments to Portugal.

What are the local alternatives to Amazon in Portugal?

Lastly, and if you don’t fancy the extra cost or wait time of a package forwarder you can use another website or a local alternative. Many of the items available on Amazon can be purchased from other shops or local distributors. We’ll list a few of the biggest categories and local alternatives below. As always though, you will want to check and compare prices, payment methods, and delivery estimates before purchasing.

Electronics – Worten, Fnac, Radio Popular

Sports and Outdoors – Sport Zone, Decathlon, Sports Direct

Toys, Children and Babies – Toysrus

DIY and Garden – Leroy Merlin, Aki, Mat Diver

Home and Kitchen – Casa, Conforama

SuperstoresContinente, Jumbo – These are often smaller supermarkets, although they do have several that could be classed as superstores. Smaller supermarkets of each brand are in most towns, but superstores will be found in the major towns. These superstores often stock a massive variety of all of the above categories and are probably the closest to a ‘one-stop shop’. They can be browsed online, delivered to your address, or collected in your local store.  

Does Amazon deliver to Madeira and The Azores?

In many cases, sellers on Amazon will ship items to Portugal, however they won’t ship items to the islands of Madeira or the Azores. The above section ‘What should I do if the item can’t be delivered in Portugal?’ applies here. You have the other options to choose from. Finding another seller on Amazon, using a package forwarder, or finding a local alternative. Luckily, the local alternatives based in Portugal will often ship for additional costs outside of continental Portugal. If you’re looking at electronics, Radio Popular will ship items to continental Portugal for €2.99, and to the Azores and Madeira for €8.99. Sport Zone and its electronics based sister site Worten also offer shipping to the Azores and Madeira. In most cases, Portuguese based companies will ship outside continental Portugal. The only downside is they often don’t have websites in English and you may need to use a translator!

Are there Amazon lockers in Portugal?

Unfortunately, there is not. As of June 2021, there are no Amazon Lockers in Portugal. If you’ve been in Portugal for a while you might be wondering what an Amazon Locker is. Well, it’s a set of electronic lockers you can have items delivered to. Once delivered, you’ll be emailed or texted a code, you can then pick up your order at whatever time of day you chose. In the UK they’re often conveniently located in locations with 24/7 access. Which means you don’t have to sit around waiting for your parcel. As the delivery process is handled by amazon and automated, you also don’t need a signature for delivery. I’ve used the service a few times when I’ve been visiting London for a few days.

What should I do if I don’t have an address in Portugal?

Maybe you’re visiting, traveling around, or moving between flats and you need something delivered from Amazon. What can you do if you don’t have a permanent address in Portugal? If you’re visiting, you can quite often have the items delivered to your accommodation. Often, or at least everyone who I’ve asked, has allowed me to receive a parcel. It just needs the proper address, and contact details. It’s also polite to ask the reception desk of your hotel or accommodation first. Oh and you might want to check they have a reception desk to receive packages before ordering anything!

Where can I buy Amazon devices like a Kindle in Portugal?

Without a local Amazon in Portugal, to receive any of the popular amazon devices like a Kindle you will need to use one of the other European stores except the UK one. Strangely enough, and for reasons I couldn’t find the answer to. Amazon are pretty choosy about which devices they ship from the UK store to Portugal. So, if you’re looking for a Fire TV Stick, Kindle, Echo or any of their home security products you’ll need to purchase them from Amazon Spain, France or Germany. The stores I checked when this article was written, and as of June 2021 can be purchased for delivery in Portugal.

Can I use Amazon devices like a Kindle, Fire TV Stick, or Echo in Portugal?

Yes, you can! In general, devices that you buy can be registered to a particular regional store. In my case, I purchased an Kindle from Amazon Germany. When it arrived in Portugal, I simply registered it to my UK amazon account.  Think of it as buying an Amazon device from another retailer, you can still register and use it. The same goes for their Fire TV Stick, and their Echo devices.

The majority of English speakers will want to connect their devices to the UK or US store. So, they can easily purchase English language books and media. However, if you want to purchase Portuguese media then you may want to register your device at Amazon Brazil (amazon.com.br). Presumably if you’re looking for Portuguese language books and media, you already have a basic grasp of Portuguese. However, if you don’t, the Brazilian store is not available in English and you may have to use a translator to complete your purchases.

Is Amazon Prime available in Portugal?

Amazon Prime is a wildly popular program with multiple benefits for its subscribers. Up until May 2021 Amazon Prime was only available by subscribing through another Amazon store. By doing this, people in Portugal lost many of its biggest benefits. However, Amazon Prime is now available for people with Portuguese addresses through Amazon Spain. Amazon Prime costs €3.99 a month, or is available for €36 per year.

For €3.99 a month customers in Portugal can get free next day or 2 day delivery on many items across Amazon Spain’s store. You’ll also get access to Prime Video (Amazon’s streaming platform rivaling Netflix), unlimited photo storage (Amazon Photo), Prime Gaming (Amazon’s gaming platform), and access to offers for its Prime customers only.

Amazon ES Prime is available with a 30 day free trial so you can sign up and see if it’s benefits suit you for free!

Is Amazon Prime worth it in Portugal?

If you’re already a Prime member from another country, and you spend a lot of time in Portugal then it is absolutely worth cancelling your previous Prime subscription and restarting the Portuguese one. At €3.99 a month, in some cases it can also substantially cheaper too (In the UK it is £7.99 a month).

An important note here, Prime delivery only applies to the country of your Amazon Prime subscription. So if you’re an Amazon UK Prime member, that Prime delivery benefit is only for UK addresses. So if you’re thinking of keeping a different countries subscription, remember you won’t be able to utilise Prime delivery. You will still get limited access to Prime Video, Music, Photos and Drive, and Prime Gaming though.

At €3.99 a month, it completely depends on the user if it’s worth it. Order once or twice a month and you’ll quickly rack up delivery costs more than that. Similarly, we use Amazon Photo’s as a cloud backup for all our personal photos – services that offer unlimited backup are usually more expensive than €3.99 a month alone. Amazon Video is a nice bonus, and allows you to catch up with the latest Amazon Original’s if you’re interested in it’s productions. It’s selection of other TV shows and movies is more limited than the likes of Netflix however. At €3.99 a month, these services are worth it to us, you’ll need to decide if the service is useful for you!

International returns? How can I return an item internationally?

Finally, and a very important consideration to make is what happens when something goes wrong. What happens when you need to return an item?

Well, in some cases, things do go wrong. Maybe the item is faulty, maybe the item was damaged, or in one case for us, they simply shipped the wrong item. What happens? Amazon has a reputation for great customer service, and on all the occasions we’ve contacted them they’ve been quick to offer solutions and attempt to make things right. That said, there’s a few things to be aware of.

The first is when returning the item. If you’re in the country of the store you’re ordering from, usually amazon will provide you with a return shipping label. Or sometimes arrange for a courier to collect the item. This does not happen for international orders. It is up to you to arrange the delivery of the item back to the UK. Which in many cases is expensive, especially if the item you ordered is expensive. Amazon will return these costs, but only after they’ve received the item. In our case, we had a drone to return to Amazon, that was shipped to us without batteries. They wouldn’t ship missing batteries, or send a replacement drone until they’d received the drone they delivered. It was up to us to return the drone, which required an expensive and insured courier service (€65 cost). They only returned the return cost three weeks later.

With this in mind, you also need to be aware of guarantees and product support. If you are ordering expensive items, or perhaps items with warranties like electronics. You’ll need to decide if having a local shop to return it to, for warranties or support, is better than having to deal with the Amazon store you ordered from. At this point we can’t make any recommendations concerning the local electronic shops, especially if you’re returning items, or trying to have them fixed. You just need to remember it will be the Amazon customer service in the country the goods came from you’ll be dealing with!

Using Amazon in Portugal: Summary

In summary, and to rephrase what we wrote earlier, for smaller and common items, Amazon Spain will be your best bet. For larger items, electronics, and Amazon devices, we’ve found Amazon Germany and

Written by

Ana Veiga is the co-founder of We Travel Portugal. Ana’s a travel writer currently studying Language and Literature at the University of Lisbon. When not writing or studying she’s steadily on her way to visiting, photographing, and writing about every town and village in Portugal.

You can contact Ana by email, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

12 thoughts on “Amazon Portugal: How to Use Amazon in Portugal”

  1. Thank you very much for all these information. The only missing thing is the return policy. Do you have any details how to return items send by amazon to Portugal? What are the fees? Is it free? Who offers this service?
    Best regards

    Reply
    • Hi Alain,

      You raise a really good point, and it will be added to the guide very soon. In general, and in our experience, you are responsible for sending the items back. Then amazon will refund the postage and item cost. The costs are on you to return the item, but they’ll refund them when they receive them. They do not have an established returns process with collections or drop offs like in the UK. We’re actually going through this now and it’s been a frustrating experience trying to return a faulty electronic item with batteries. None of the Portuguese couriers will take lithium batteries internationally, and I’m currently stuck with a faulty and expensive item that Amazon are waiting for before they refund it!

      Hope that helps for now!

      Reply
  2. Have a friend or relatives in another country collect your amazon shopping items. Often they benefit from free delicery. Once a month or so they send the purchased items in one packet to you in PT. Cheapest and most convenient option for me.

    Reply
    • Definitely the cheapest and most convenient if you have a friend kind enough to do that for you! If they’re in the UK or anywhere else outside the EU, you might need to take a closer look at any import duties and taxes in case your items get held up by Portuguese Customs!

      Ollie!

      Reply
      • Hi, thanks for the useful info. I wonder if you or any of your readers have experience with just that – since Brexit, do the potentially hefty import duties/taxes outweigh the relative cost savings of buying on Amazon.co.uk vs Amazon.es?

        Reply
        • Hi Max,

          Recently, I’d say no. There’s nothing I’ve needed from amazon.co.uk that hasn’t been available on amazon.es. Sometimes .es has been more expensive, but that quickly swings the other way when you consider the import fee deposit and extra delivery! I’d only use the UK store if it was absolutely not available elsewhere in Europe first!

          Reply
    • Hi Leila,

      Amazon does deliver books to Portugal. If you order from Amazon Spain (.es) you’ll also get free delivery on books if they cost over €19! The website is now offered in Portuguese, but is still the Spanish website. Hope that helps!

      Reply
  3. In other countries (Denmark and France) I have had trouble with buying digital content, like music for example. Does this apply to Portugal and Madeira? Amazon’s policy, they tell me, is that the bank account of the payment medium must exist in the same economic region as the account holder’s address – that is, you have to have a physical address and bank account in the same country as the Amazon store from which you are ordering.

    So, I wonder if the situation is similar to mine in Denmark (there is no Amazon DK as there is no Amazon Portugal). If so, prospective buyers should beware. This has effectively prevented me from husing Amazon Music. Strnagely, my Kindle still downloads from mu UK account. I can’t even get music from Germany, just over the border!

    My reason for asking, is that I want to send a Kindle book to someone in the Potugese region.

    Reply
    • Hi Andy,

      We definitely feel your pain. The only way we were able to do this is through this method. You need to log on to the amazon store of the recipient’s kindle. You said they were in Portugal, so I’m assuming they using another store anyway, probably Spain or perhaps the UK if they’re reading in English! Their location matters less than the store they’re registered and using. So if their kindle is registered to the UK store, you’ll need to log in to the UK store yourself, then purchase and gift the book to them from there. They should be able to redeem it. You’ll need to find out what store their kindle is registered to! Amazon log-ins work across all Amazon stores, and I’ve had no issues doing this for the various European store fronts, and even Amazon Brazil. Let us know if this works!

      Reply
  4. For example in the uk is not worth it but for example can amazon prime of spain be better? How can i know which products are sent to Madeira or not?

    Reply
    • Hi Élia,

      In my opinion that’s about right. Amazon.es and the Prime service now available for residents of Portugal through it, is much better. Unfortunately, I don’t know of a way to pre-select items that can definitely be delivered to Madeira. The only way is to add it to your shopping basket it and attempt to checkout. This has been the same way to find out if any items will ship to Portugal on other Amazon stores as well.

      Ollie

      Reply

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