How to buy from a Seoul department store or hotel boutique after you've left Korea

A Korean department store is a building full of separate brand counters. Each counter is run for the brand, follows the brand's rules, and sells to the person standing in front of it. If the store sells online at all, its website delivers within Korea and expects a Korean account.

Why the counter will not post it to you

Sending an expensive item abroad means a customs declaration, insurance, and responsibility if it goes missing. A counter will not take that on for one sale. Some will hold an item for a short time if you ask, but they expect someone to come in and pay.

Brand rules

Some luxury brands in Korea limit how many of certain items one person can buy, ask for ID, or have terms against buying for resale. These rules are set by each brand and change over time. Buying one item for a customer who wants it is an ordinary purchase, but a counter can still refuse a sale it thinks is for resale.

Tax refunds

Foreign visitors can get the VAT back on goods they take out of Korea, either at the counter or at the airport. The refund belongs to the visitor who buys in person and shows a passport. If someone in Korea buys the item for you after you have left, there is no tourist refund, and the price includes VAT.

If you are still in Korea, buy it yourself. You get the tax refund, you see the item, and you carry it home.

1. Bring your passport. You need it for the tax refund, and some brands ask for ID.
2. Ask the counter about the tax refund. Many stores can deduct it at the time of purchase. If not, keep the paperwork and claim it at the airport.
3. Keep the receipt and the warranty card, and ask whether the warranty is valid in your country.
4. Check your country's duty-free allowance for goods you bring back, and declare anything above it.

If you have already gone home:

• Contact the store's customer centre and ask to be connected to the counter. Ask whether the item is in stock and whether they can hold it.
• Ask whether the brand's Korean online store ships abroad. A few do, most do not.
• Compare the price in your own country. After shipping and import duty, buying from Korea may not save you money.

Before asking anyone to buy for you, get the exact model number, colour, and size, ideally with a photo from the counter. An expensive item bought on the wrong code is hard to undo.

Tell us the store, the brand, and the item, with a photo or model number if you have one. We contact the counter in Korean, confirm that it is in stock and the price, and send one quote with the item, our fee, shipping, and card fees.

When you say yes and pay, we go to the store, send you photos of the item at the counter, and pay only once you confirm. We keep the receipt and warranty card with the item, pack it, and send it to you abroad with tracking, or deliver it to your hotel if you are still in Korea.

The customs form shows the real price. Your country decides the import duty, and who pays it depends on the courier, which we tell you before you pay. We reply within 30 minutes during service hours, and the store visit, our fee, shipping, and card fees are all in that one quote.

A customer who had already gone home wanted a luxury fountain pen from a boutique in a department store attached to a Seoul hotel. The boutique sold it in person only.

It was an expensive purchase to hand to someone in another country, and the customer was worried about it. So nothing happened quietly. We told them when we were at the boutique, when the pen was bought, when it was packed, and when it was handed to the courier, and we kept updating them until it was about to be delivered in Canada.

Nothing unusual went wrong. What the customer needed most was not a faster purchase but to know, at every step, where their money and their pen were. For an item like this, also settle the exact model number with the counter before anyone pays.