Hello there to my visitors from the other side of the world! Here on this website, I combine my musical instruments business experience with my customer journey expertise and I have been trying to put out informative, fact-based and honest pieces of content in the context of the musical instruments business.
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I have received over 100000 organic visitors since I started this website. My visitors from Australia and New Zealand have ranked 5th position among the other countries along with the USA, Canada, United Kingdom and Turkey.
For this reason, just like in my other top-performing articles for musicians in the USA, Canada, UK and Turkey, I would also like to introduce the best MI company in the universe, Thomann to my visitors in Australia and New Zealand as well as would like to provide you with the most detailed and accurate guide for buying from Thomann in Australia New Zealand!
On contrary to some of the webpages that you may have come across on the web, Thomann does ship to Australia and New Zealand!
So if you ever think that you have to have some forwarders or specialized shipping companies in order to order from Thomann, please don’t ever pay them any money! You can just order from Thomann anytime, anywhere!
About Thomann
As many of you probably already know, Thomann is a German musical instruments store located in Germany.
According to recent industry data, Thomann is the 2nd largest company and the fastest-growing one in the musical instruments industry.
Thomann was founded in 1954 in Germany as a family business in a physical shop format and has become one of the biggest musical instrument stores on the planet today!
Currently, they feature around 2300 brands and have over 100,000 products in stock!
They employ 1500 employees and serve almost 15.5 million customers worldwide from 120 different countries!
To fully understand how big Thomann is and how the company has become the fastest-growing one, just have a look at this data here (Source: MusicTrades.com).
This data from 2018 shows the annual revenues of giant musical instrument companies in the world. According to this data, Thomann had $956,414,280 in revenue in 2017 which places the company in the 2nd position just after Guitar Center (founded in 1959) which had $2,140,000,000.
So What Makes Thomann Special?
If you already have a look at the data, you will notice that Guitar Center made this revenue with 11,000 employees located in 430 stores all across the United States. What a waste of resources! But what about Thomann?
Thomann made almost half of Guitar Center‘s revenue with only 1208 employees and from only a single location! This clearly shows how progressive and efficient Thomann has become in recent years. Their passionate approach to customers has yielded magnificent results.
Does Thomann Ship to Australia and New Zealand?
Yes, Thomann ships to Australia and New Zealand as well as to countless countries across the planet! I’m sure you have come across some websites on Google claiming that you can not buy from Thomann directly.
They are simply trying to sell you a logistics service in order to make some money! Beware!!!
Destination | Shipping Cost | Estimated Delivery Time | Max Weight | Warranty | Returns | Carrier |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Australia | To be calculated on the checkout page | 9 - 12 Working Days | 30kg | 3 Years | 30 Days Money Back | UPS |
New Zealand | To be calculated on the checkout page | 6 - 9 Working Days | 30kg | 3 Years | 30 Days Money Back | UPS |
As you can see from the table, Thomann is shipping to Australia and New Zealand. Unfortunately, they can only give you estimated delivery times, but usually, UPS is able to handle these operations very smoothly!
It should usually arrive between 6 to 12 days in the destination country. In the best scenario, you may even have received your parcel earlier within this time range.
Shipping Cost and GST (Goods and Services Tax) for Orders from Thomann to Australia?
It used to be a fixed shipping charge for orders placed in Australia from Thomann. However, Thomann recently implemented a better and more accurate way of calculating shipping costs for Australian buyers.
It’s always a good idea to analyse it with examples.
All you need to do is to add an item to your cart after you have registered with Thomann and set up your location and currency for Australia and AUD.
In this example, I have added a Harley Benton Fusion-T HH HT Roasted FNT electric guitar which would cost around 616AUD if you were based in the EU with 19% VAT included.
German VAT is currently 19%, so if remove that VAT we would end up with around 499AUD. So why have we ended up with 555AUD?
This is because as of October 2018, Thomann has been registered with the Australian Government and charged 10% of GST with delivery to Australia. As soon as you choose Australia as the delivery country, the GST is added to the prices. There will be no reduction of 19% at checkout!
Also, please note that contrary to what some people claim on the internet, it’s not taxed over VAT. Otherwise, we would have 678AUD as the last price.
*Note that the calculations are estimated, 10% may not be translated into exact numbers as Thomann’s website also converts different currencies against each other.
That’s why you see 555AUD in the screenshot above. Also, note that shipping will be calculated depending on the address you have entered.
In this example, I have just picked up a random location in Melbourne, Australia and ended up with a 177AUD UPS Express shipping fee.
It also gives you a way more precise estimated delivery. So as of today, 21st of March 2021, if I ordered this guitar which is in stock, I would have to pay 732AUD and receive it on the 6th of April.
According to the Australian Taxation Office, items valued under 1000AUD are considered low-value goods and no additional GST will be applied.
Just as an extra control, I have also added a single item that costs over 1000AUD and noticed that Thomann is still adding around 10% GST to that item as well.
According to the Australian Taxation Office, it should not be a problem if this GST is mentioned on the invoice. In addition to that, they mention getting a refund in case you can prove that GST has been paid at the point of sale.
Shipping Cost and GST (Goods and Services Tax) for Orders from Thomann to New Zealand?
What about New Zealand? According to the Thomann website, the same principle applies to New Zealand too!
For this example, I have added a Markbass Micromark 801 Bass Guitar Amp. Also picked up a random address in Auckland, New Zealand and ended up with a 110NZD UPS Express shipping fee.
Just like the above example if I choose my location as Germany, it would show me 565NZD with 19% VAT included.
If we remove this amount, we would end up with 458AUD, plus 15% GST added: We would have 526AUD as the last amount.
However, just like the Australia example, we have some discrepancies with the price and to be honest, I don’t know the exact answer to this. It must be due to exchange rate ratios.
Thomann also warns us on the checkout page that these prices in NZD are guideline prices only.
However, no need to worry about big surprises! Fortunately, Thomann can estimate shipping fees and GST at the point of sale for New Zealand as well!
Also, to be more accurate, I would also like to share New Zealand Customs Service, What’s My Duty Estimator. On this website, you can basically have a real simulation of how much you would have to pay if you buy items over 1000NZD. Ads - Check out these ads to support this web page
As you can see from that page, GST is 15%, and there won’t be any additional charges for items under 1000NZD.
I have also added an extreme example in which you were to order an item worth 2000NZD with the same amount of shipping fee.
In this example, you will also have to pay an extra entry fee as you can see in the screenshot. For the items below 1000NZD, it shows you zero for the Entry Fee.
This bass amp which is in stock would be delivered in 6 working days! Way faster than Australia, probably due to UPS’s operation models.
Is It Worth Buying From Thomann in Australia and New Zealand?
It depends! It all comes down to whether you are able to buy the same item in your country or not.
Especially for musical instruments, pro audio gear and equipment or accessories that are made in the EU, you may have a huge value/money purchase and also Thomann may be the only choice for you.
For instance, if you are looking for a professional-level accordion that has been made by a European family business, it’s highly likely that Thomann is the only option. So if you can spot these kinds of opportunities, I would definitely put effort to purchase my musical instruments from Thomann.
On the other hand, Thomann is not only a reseller. They also feature an army of exclusive brands that they create, manufacture and market (just like Harley Benton’s example) while promising high value/money every time regardless of your location in the world!
I hope you have enjoyed this article and found it insightful. I really enjoy creating awareness of this wonderful company for any musicians regardless of their location.
I also hope that you will find valuable purchases that you can confidently order from Thomann and would really appreciate it if you share your Thomann experiences in Australia and New Zealand. I will gladly share them along with my article here!
Thanks for visiting my blog and supporting me so far! I will hopefully see you in the next review here!
Osman Cenan Çiğil – cigilovic.com
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