What is reshipping? Package forwarding via a Dutch address explained

Reshipping is package forwarding: a company in the shop's country receives your order at its address and sends it on to where you live. That way you order as if you lived in the Netherlands, even when the web shop doesn't deliver to your country. You will also see it called parcel forwarding or a forwarding service.

Reshipper, forwarding service, Dutch shipping address: what it means

A reshipper is a company that receives parcels on your behalf and forwards them. Other names for the same thing are package forwarding, parcel forwarding and forwarding service. You get a Dutch shipping address with a personal customer code; that code makes sure every parcel ends up in the right account.

It is meant for people who live outside the Netherlands and still want to order from Dutch web shops: Dutch people abroad, but also anyone looking for a Dutch product they can't get at home. Many web shops only deliver in the Netherlands or a few neighbouring countries; bol.com, for example, only delivers in the Netherlands and Belgium as standard.

How reshipping works in five steps

Steps 1 and 2: in My DZH you request your DZH address and receive our delivery address in the Netherlands, with your personal customer code. From then on you use that address at any Dutch web shop, with the customer code in the address line. Put your own name on the order too: name and code together are how we recognise every parcel.

Steps 3 and 4: you order and pay at the web shop yourself, and register the parcel in My DZH with the shop's name and the tracking code. We receive it, check it for visible damage, weigh and measure it, and let you know in My DZH that it has arrived.

Step 5: you decide when it moves on, parcel by parcel or combined with others. You get an invoice listing every line; after your approval and payment we ship with tracking, and outside the EU with the customs paperwork. The calculator works out beforehand what shipping to your country costs.

When does it pay off, and how is it different from a personal shopper or family?

Reshipping pays off when a web shop doesn't deliver to your country, when you want several orders to travel together, or when something is only sold in the Netherlands. It pays off less for a single small, cheap item outside the EU: shipping and import charges can then cost more than the item itself. If the web shop delivers to your country at a reasonable price, compare first.

Is reshipping legal? And beware of fake jobs

Yes: having a parcel received and forwarded is an ordinary logistics service. It goes wrong when the customs value is wrong, when the contents aren't allowed into your country, or when a shop's or platform's terms rule it out. That is why we always declare the real value on the customs forms. Read the terms as well: some shops refuse forwarding addresses, and some platforms only protect you until delivery to us.

The word also turns up in scams. On job sites, social media, by email or by phone, people are offered 'work from home': receiving parcels, repacking them and sending them on to an address they're given, often abroad. According to the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the US Postal Inspection Service, the goods are often bought with stolen payment details, and the FTC puts it plainly: reshipping goods is never a real job.

Taking part puts you at risk too. In the Netherlands, for example, anyone who holds or passes on stolen goods when they should reasonably have suspected they were stolen commits an offence (culpable handling, article 417bis of the Dutch Criminal Code). So don't reply, don't send a copy of your ID, and report it to the police or, in the US, to the FTC. DZH Transport never asks private individuals to receive and forward parcels at home.

Frequently asked questions