Let's be honest, they under declare to make it a more attractive proposition to import from Gearbest China, in hopes that you become a repeat customer.
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Yes, the consumer wins, but takes all the risk as well.
This incentives the market to self-import at varying rates of price and success, but also decentivises local acquisition, local buyers and shops have lowered leverage with foreign manufacturers to import in bulk at lower negotiated prices.
In the end an individual might gain (albeit at own risk), but the greater local market loses out, and those that do jump through all the hoops to resell - sell at ludicrous markups, either because average Joe won't go through the hassle of importing, doesn't trust importing, or weighs up the cons of having no manufacturer support after parallel importing.
It would be more preferable if Gearbest invested in a local depot so they could import the stuff to ZA in bulk themselves, like they supply Spain, UK, EU, USA, HK and China. Then shipping costs the consumer less, risk on consumer is less, after sale returns, fixes, support could be handled locally etc. and locals could get a job working the place, ploughing back into our own economy. ..But that would cut into their margins.
Not being salty, just stating the obvious. They're not doing it to help the poor South African consumer, they're making business decisions that benefit their company.
