Shipping from China to Amazon FBA:The Definitive Guide in 2019
When manufacturer finished production, the next thing you need to consider is how to send your products from China to Amazon FBA warehouses. You may have a lot of questions like “how to ship from China?”, “what is the cheapest method?”, ”how to do custom clearance?”, or more.
That’s why I wrote this article, to help you understand the whole process for shipping from manufacturers in China to all the way to Amazon.I found there are alot of blog articles introducing how to apply Amazon shipping labels, butno one shared practical information like pros & cons of different shipping methods, shipping time, or how to find someone to help you arrange the shipping.
Even you don’t have any products need to ship yet, even you are new to Amazon selling. You can still benefit from this article, such like how to estimate the shipping cost for sea or air shipping, as shipping cost is a key point to decide if a product is profitable to sell in Amazon or not.
How to Ship from China to Amazon FBA
The main thing in adopting a good strategy is to take control over the Amazon FBA inventory and do a proper listing of stabilized sales volume. The non-defective products needs to be delivered to the FBA warehouse on time.
To know about how to ship from China to Amazon FBA, there are some three practical favorable solutions as follow:
The goods will be directly shipped from your suppliers in China to Amazon FBA.
The goods will first be sent to your home and then transported to the Amazon warehouse.
The goods are shipped from China to a third-party company that prepares for shipping to Amazon FBA. They check the goods for you and then transport them to the Amazon warehouse.
Methods for Shipping from China to Amazon FBA
There are three main methods of goods delivery from China to the United States. These are:
Express
Sea Freight
Air Freight
The transportation time, the cost and the transport complexity under each of the method is completely different.
Import Duty of Products from China to Sell on Amazon
Import duty and other taxes are calculated based on some reference values including:
Customs Value
HS Code (Goods category)
Customs value
Customs Value is calculated as follow:
Customs Value = Product cost + Transportation cost (to the Chinese port where goods are loaded) + Export clearance (China)
In practice, we cooperate with freight forwarder who suggests using 20-30% of the product’s price in the United States to declare the Customs Value.
It means if you calculate import duty on your products; consider the 20-30% of the product’s retail price on Amazon. Then, multiply it by the tariff rate to estimate the tariff you’ve to pay.
Calculating the Customs Duty of Imported Products
Some of my clients ask me how the tariff is calculated. Generally, our freight forwarders calculate a tariff for you. They will look up the customs duty rate and HS Code of US for you, so you don’t need to calculate tariff yourself. But, this tariff is only for your reference. The actual tariff will be based on the actual tax bill.
How to Pay the Import Duty for Sea Freight & Air Freight?
New importers usually ask one common question – Whom the Import Duties are paid to – their suppliers or a customs authority?
Here’s the answer:
If your Chinese supplier can help you arrange shipping from China all the way to Amazon FBA, which means the cargo will deliver to your door. You just pay custom duty to your Chinese supplier. Because the freight forwarder they found will offer the all-included shipping service.
But not many Chinese suppliers can help you find an all-included shipping service freight forwarder, because most Chinese suppliers have clients around the world. They don’t have lots of good resources for shipping to the U.S.
In this case, you need to find an American freight forwarder, and ask them to help you ship products from China all the way to your home. And of course, you pay custom to them.
I suggest finding your own freight forwarder for long-term relationship. Because not every Chinese supplier can help you find all-included sea freight or air freight shipping service to the USA.
Leave the complicated custom clearance to the professional, no matter it’s the freight forwarder found by your suppliers or yourselves. Better don’t do it by your own.
If you clear the customs yourself, you must know the following two conditions:
When the good arrive at the U.S. post, the customs will check your invoice and tell you how much customs duty you have to pay. Sometime, you may have to pay a tariff before the goods arrive at the port.
If you have customs credit, you can take the good away in advance and pay the customs duty later into the customs’ bank account directly.
How to Pay Import Duty for Shipping by Express?
If you opt for Express to ship or import goods from China to Amazon FBA, you should ask your Chinese supplier to help you contact FedEx or UPS branch office in China. Or ask your supplier help you find some express agency companies, who always get lower express fee from different international express companies.
Chinese suppliers will send you the price quote from different courier companies, and you can choose the best one.
In this way, you only pay the cost of delivery to your Chinese supplier. If your shipment is valued at $800 or less, no tariff is applicable. Shipments valued under $800 are exempted from the tariff. But if your shipment is valued higher than $800, you may need to pay a very small duty.
Don’t worry about the duty. Express company, like FedEx, will send the duty bill to the consigner or Chinese supplier and they will pay the bill. The Express company will handle the entire process on your behalf.
Custom Clearance
Once your goods arrive in the United States from China, they are much closer to the Amazon Warehouse. At this moment, you will encounter Customs clearance, the most important and complex stage in the whole process.
How to do Custom Clearance in the USA?
Customs clearance procedures are complicated, and a single mistake can delay your shipment. So, I recommend finding custom brokers, some American freight forwarder or a logistics company that can help you clear customs legally and professionally.
Outsourcing the trivial process of customs clearance saves you not only money but also your time and energy that you can invest in your core business activities.
Before you decide what products to import from China, choose the right company that can help you with customs clearance and ship your products from China to the Amazon FBA.
Documents Required for Customs Clearance in the USA
Even if you choose an Amazon FBA freight forwarder to handle the customs clearance for you, it’s important to know the documents required for the smooth processing. Some most important Import Documentation in the U.S. includes:
Commercial Invoice
Packing List
Certificate of Origin
Bill of Entry
Bill of Lading or Airway Bill
Other specific documentation required by the buyer
Financial institution
The importing country regulation
Don’t worry about the additional special documents. Your freight forwarder or customs broker will guide you on them.
Conclusion
You can say customs clearance is a complicated process due to too much documentation.
So, make sure the information you provide in various notes throughout the process is correct. Request and prepare the information from your Chinese supplier in advance. Otherwise, you won’t be able to discover the problem until your goods have arrived at the U.S. customs that will delay your customs clearance.
I wrote this article to show the process of shipping from China to Amazon FBA. It’s also a guide for people who want to do Amazon business by sourcing products from China.
