Ahoy there, brave adventurers of the e-commerce realm! So, you’ve decided to take on the epic quest of shipping products from the land of dragons, dumplings, and incredible bargains – China!
Fear not, I’d be happy to help you with that! Shipping products from China involves several steps to ensure a smooth and successful process. Here’s a general guide on how to ship products from China:
How to Choose a Shipping Method?
There are several shipping methods available, including air freight, sea freight (ocean shipping), and express courier services. Your choice will depend on factors like size, weight, urgency, and budget for shipping your products.
There are three common practical situations;
1, Buying parcels samples
It’s easy to make a decision. Samples are shipped by express. Besides, if you are online sellers who are in a hurry to restock, like Amazon sellers, express is highly suitable for you.
Express companies are FedEx, UPS, and DHL.
FedEx and UPS are the most reliable and cost-effective ones for shipping from China. Because generally, DHL’s customs clearance process is slower than that of FedEx and UPS, and sometimes DHL’s shipping cost is also relatively higher.
2, Buying small quantities of goods – LCL
You have 2 choices at least, by air or by sea with LCL (Less than container Load).
The competitive way is by sea. Taking China to the USA as a sample, About 20 days from the port of origin to the port of destination in practice, and arriving destination place is about 30-40 days.
However, if your goods exceed 2 CBM and less than 15 CBM (Cubic Meters), sea freight is the best way for you to save costs when you have enough time. The freight forwarder will help you ship your goods by LCL. It implies you have to share a container with other importers because your cargo load is less than a container size.
If it’s too slow for you, you can choose by air. That’s based on if it’s urgent for you and if you can bear the HIGH shipping fee.
Moreover, pls note sometimes you should ask the supplier to take goods on pallets to protect them well during shipment. This is important for light and fragile products.
3, Full containers – FCL
When you have enough goods for one full container, Full container load (FCL) are much more favorable than bulk shipments. For example, 20ft (26-29m³)， 40ft(56-59m³), 40hq(66-69m³), 45hq(76-79m³).
Furthermore, the container model is mainly divided into three types:
Who can help you ship the samples or products?
The answer is Freight forwarders.
1, What is a Freight forwarder?
Freight forwarders are also known as forwarding agents. They are the middlemen of buyers and sellers, responsible for delivering your goods from the seller to you.
2, How to find a freight forwarder?
Usually, you have 2 normal ways to solve this problem, by your reliable supplier or yourself.
Using your supplier forwarder
Your suppliers always have their long-cooperative forwarders. You can ask your suppliers if you need one. It will be much easier than sifting through millions of forwarders on your own.
Don’t worry too much about the supplier making money from it. After all, they also want to do business with you in the long run, thus they are not willing to lose your order.
Using your own forwarder
You can also find forwarders from common search engines and social media like Linkedin and Facebook. Or from the online freight marketplace.
Many forwarders are now marketing themselves on Google or social media.
For example, if you want to find a dedicated freight forwarder to Germany, you can enter the text, “shipping from China to Germany” or “freight forwarder Germany” in the search bar.
However some professional forwarders may not be good at marketing, so be careful.
Platforms such as Alibaba and Freightos, they can provide you with many freight forwarder options. By filling in the cargo information such as origin, destination, weight, dimensions, value, etc., these platforms can help you calculate the shipping costs of many forwarder companies. You can compare the prices easily and choose the best one. Also, you can place orders on these platforms, which greatly improves the experience and efficiency.
3, What does a freight forwarder do?
This image shows how they work clearly;
Step 1; Make the booking and pick up cargo from your supplier
Before making the booking, the forwarder shall know in advance the weight, volume, and shipping plan. They will negotiate with the supplier about the pick-up time, and arrange trucks to the appointed place to load the cargo into the container.
Before loading, They will check final data such as cartons, CBM, and weight before shipping. Then, the containers will be sent to the dock and wait for loading on the ship.
Step 2; Go through the export customs declaration and load on the vessel
The forwarder should prepare detailed information and all supporting documents about the cargo, such as invoice, and packing list, then fill in the declaration form and go through the export customs declaration.
PS; For ISF filing — a must for all ocean cargo entering the USA, your import freight forwarder can do it in a correct and timely way, if you need help.
After having done these, he will receive a release pass by customs, containers will be loaded onto the ship and placed in the designated space. After the ship sails, your forwarder should help you track the cargo transportation and inform you of the logistics information in time.
A few days later, the forwarder will issue the bill of lading to your supplier. The supplier will release B/L or send you original documents (Invoice, packing list, B/L, CO, and so on) to you after receiving your order payment for subsequent pickup.
In addition, he can also help you deal with cargo insurance if you need it.
Step 3; Deal with import customs clearance and deliver to the destination
After the ship arrives at the designated port, usually the forwarder will find their cooperative customs companies or local forwarders to help ship products. Because the locals will be more familiar with customs procedures and requirements. This approach can greatly improve efficiency.
4, Freight forwarders types
Actually, There are many types of forwarders. There are 2 common types of freight forwarders in national trade
All-inclusive forwarder
They can deal with all procedures for you from the seller to your destination with a variety of transportation methods by land, sea, and air. Also, they can provide you with the best transportation plan according to the quantity and properties of your goods. It can help you avoid a lot of trouble.
Dedicated forwarders
They have their advantages when shipping to certain countries (like Russia, Brazil, Turkey, India, etc., are not easy to clear customs. So when you ship to these countries, it is better to choose a dedicated forwarder).
They work with forwarders or brokers who have strong customs clearance capabilities in the destination country. This makes the whole shipping process smoother and shortens the shipping time.
4, RFQ-can I bypass the forwarder and book directly with shipping companies and airlines?
It is impractical. Take sea freight as an example, if you want to book directly with shipping companies, firstly, your cargo volume should be especially huge, such as dozens or even hundreds of containers of cargo per month. If your cargo volume is small, the shipping company will not accept your order at all.
Secondly, the shipping company only provides vessels. You still need a forwarder to help you deal with other complicated things.
Therefore, whether your cargo is large or small, you can save time and effort by entrusting a freight forwarder. Moreover, there is a partnership between freight forwarders and shipping companies, so they can get discounts from these companies. And the price will be lower than if you contact them yourself.
Can we know the shipping cost before placing an order?
Yes, if you have the data (total cartons, weight, and CBM) and final address. I’ll write another post detailing.
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