Currently it costs approximately 37/$59 to get a 16oz bottle of moisturiser for UK customers, nearly 3x the original cost of the product.

This cost can be broke down as follows:

Moisturiser: 15.25/$24.19

Shipping: 10.27/$16.29

Customs Tax: 11/$17.50 (3 tax, 8 handling fee)

My initial thought was bulk ordering - save on combined postage, and only have to pay the customs handling fee once. There is a small amount to be saved by doing this but not much - it would cost approximately 95/$150 for 3 bottles (31.50/$50 per bottle). Any real savings by bulk ordering are undermined by the excessive postage costs - for 3 bottles the cheapest shipping option is $50.

I have 2 suggestions for Dan in regards to lowering the cost of Acne.org products in the UK:

1. Items that cost under 15 are exempt from customs tax in the UK. It would make sense to knock a small amount off products which are just over this limit. In the above example if the price was $0.50 lower, the overall price including shipping/customs for the bottle of moisturiser would come to approximately 26/$40 (instead of 37/$59).

2. Cut down profit margins on international shipping fees.

I would be interested in other's thoughts on this.