What is the best way to buy Indian products online in the USA?

There are four routes, and the right one depends on what you are buying. Amazon.com for anything mainstream, a specialist boutique for a single high-value piece such as a wedding saree, a package forwarder if you want a specific Indian listing and will handle the import yourself, and an export storefront if you want Indian-market goods with one price and no customs to deal with.

Start with what is already sold locally. Plenty of Indian brands now list on amazon.com, and Indian grocery and clothing shops exist in most American metros. If the thing you want is stocked twenty minutes away, no import route beats that on price or speed. Import is for the long tail, which is where most of the demand actually sits: regional crafts, temple and kundan jewellery, ayurvedic preparations, ethnic clothing beyond the few styles that get exported in volume, and Indian musical instruments.

Whichever route you take, four questions settle most of the risk. Who pays the import duty, and is it settled before delivery or billed to you afterwards? Is the seller a company you can identify, with a real address? What does the returns policy actually cover, given that return freight across an ocean often exceeds an item's value? And is payment handled by a processor that leaves you a chargeback? A seller promising free easy returns from India is usually not being straight with you, and that is a worse sign than one who states the limit plainly.

Aalacart is the fourth route. We buy from Indian brands and makers and sell to you as one transaction, with shipping and duty calculated at checkout so nothing is collected on delivery, delivery in ten to fifteen business days by tracked courier, and returns for damage and defects. We are the wrong answer if you need something this week, if you want fresh food, or if the item is cheap and bulky enough that freight dwarfs it. In those cases one of the other three routes will serve you better, and it is worth saying so.

Related questions

Is it cheaper to use a package forwarder?

Sometimes on the sticker price, rarely by the time the parcel arrives. Domestic Indian shipping, international freight, US duty and the courier's disbursement fee are four separate charges, and the last two land after you have already paid.

How long does anything from India take?

Ten to fifteen business days is realistic for tracked air freight once the item is dispatched, and dispatch itself takes two to four business days. Anything promising under a week is either express freight at several times the cost or is not being honest.

What if I only want one small item?

Check amazon.com first. Freight is priced by size and weight rather than value, so a single low-value item is the one case where importing rarely makes sense.