Most first orders from China do not fail at the sourcing stage. They fail at the delivery stage — a quote that looked complete turns into an invoice with terminal handling, chassis fees and a customs bond nobody mentioned. The way to avoid that is to plan the shipping route before you sign the purchase order, because the freight mode decides your packaging, your landed cost, and sometimes which supplier you can even work with.
Step 1: Pick the freight mode before you order
Four options cover almost every shipment from China to the USA.
| Mode | Door-to-door time | Good for | Where the money goes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Express (DHL, FedEx, UPS) | 3–7 days | Samples, under 150 kg, small high-value items | Volumetric weight; duties often billed after delivery |
| Air freight | 7–14 days | 100 kg to 2 tons, urgent restocks, light bulky goods | Airline surcharges; many quotes are airport-to-airport |
| Sea LCL | 28–40 days | 2–15 CBM, mixed SKUs | Destination CFS charges; per-CBM minimums |
| Sea FCL (20ft / 40ft) | 25–35 days | Over ~15 CBM, full production runs | Demurrage and detention if paperwork slips |
Two things most new buyers get wrong here. First, express and air prices are quoted per kilogram but charged on volumetric weight (length × width × height ÷ 5000 or 6000), so a light, bulky product can cost three times the estimate. Second, published transit times are port-to-port. Add one to two weeks for booking, customs clearance and inland delivery, and add more during the August–October peak and the month before Chinese New Year, when space gets tight and rates climb.
Step 2: Agree on the Incoterm in writing
The Incoterm decides who books the freight, who pays which charges, and where risk changes hands. It is the single most common source of arguments.
| Incoterm | Books freight | Pays US duty | What to watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| EXW | You | You | You handle Chinese export paperwork from the factory door. Rarely worth it |
| FOB | You | You | Cleanest default for most importers — supplier delivers to port, you control the forwarder |
| CIF | Supplier | You | Looks all-in, but the supplier's forwarder bills destination charges you never agreed to |
| DAP | Supplier | You | Delivered to your door, customs and duty still yours |
| DDP | Supplier | Supplier | Convenient, but you lose sight of the HS code and duty paid — and plenty of "DDP" quotes are not actually DDP |
If a supplier quotes CIF or DDP, ask for a cost breakdown and the HS code in writing. An incomplete DDP quote is the most expensive kind of cheap.
Step 3: Lock the HS code and the paperwork
The HS code drives your duty rate, whether Section 301 tariffs apply, and whether your product needs an extra filing with the FDA, FCC, EPA or CPSC. Get it in writing from the supplier, then have your customs broker confirm it. A wrong code can mean a refused entry or a penalty months later.
You will need:
- Commercial invoice — product description specific enough to match the HS code, accurate declared value, Incoterm stated
- Packing list — carton count, dimensions, gross and net weight
- Bill of lading (sea) or airway bill (air)
- ISF 10+2 filing — for ocean freight, filed at least 24 hours before the container loads at the Chinese port; late filing carries a penalty
- Customs bond — single-entry for a one-off, continuous once you ship more than two or three times a year
- Certificates where relevant — FCC for electronics, FDA registration for food contact or supplements, CPSIA test reports for children's products
Declaring a lower value to save duty is not a saving. It is a penalty risk, and it caps your insurance payout at the declared number.
Step 4: Get a quote that includes the destination side
Ask every forwarder for an all-in number: origin charges, ocean or air freight, ISF, customs brokerage, terminal and CFS fees, chassis, chassis split, delivery, and a liftgate if you do not have a dock. Then ask these four questions:
- Is the destination portion fixed or estimated?
- Who files ISF, and is it included?
- Are you a licensed customs broker, or do you subcontract clearance?
- What happens, and who pays, if customs holds the container?
A freight quote that covers only the ocean leg typically hides 30–50% of the total cost. Destination charges in the US are the usual place where budgets break.
Step 5: Inspect before the container closes
A pre-shipment inspection costs roughly $100–300 per man-day in most Chinese industrial regions. It checks quantity, function, labelling, barcodes and packaging against your spec, using AQL sampling. Container loading supervision adds photos of how the goods were packed and sealed, which matters when you are shipping fragile or mixed cartons.
Book the inspection when production is complete and packed, not before. Inspecting earlier tells you nothing about the finished batch.
Step 6: Clear customs and pay what you owe
Expect three separate charges at entry: duty (which depends on HS code and country of origin), Merchandise Processing Fee (0.3464% of value, with a floor and ceiling), and Harbor Maintenance Fee (0.125%) on ocean shipments. Section 301 tariffs still apply to many China-origin product categories, so check the current list for your code rather than assuming.
If your plan depends on small parcel shipments, check the de minimis rules before you build a business model around them — the treatment of China-origin goods changed in 2025 and is worth confirming with a broker rather than a blog post.
A realistic timeline
| Week | What happens |
|---|---|
| 0 | PO and deposit; Incoterm and HS code confirmed in writing |
| 1–4 | Production; inspection booked for completion |
| 4 | Freight booked; ISF data collected from supplier |
| 5 | Inspection passed; container loaded and sealed |
| 5–7 | Ocean transit |
| 7–8 | Customs entry, duty paid, delivery appointment, unload |
Air freight compresses weeks 5–7 into a few days, but the production and paperwork stages do not move.
Mistakes that cost the most
- Accepting a "DDP" number with no breakdown, then discovering the duty was calculated on a guess
- Booking space two weeks before a Chinese holiday and paying double
- Letting the supplier choose the port — FOB Shenzhen is not the same as FOB Shanghai when your factory sits outside Ningbo
- Forgetting that Amazon FBA needs appointment scheduling, carton labels and pallet specs, not just a delivery address
- Shipping without a bond, then paying a broker to arrange an emergency single-entry bond at the port
None of these are exotic. They are the normal friction of moving goods across a border in a language you do not read.
If you would rather hand supplier follow-up, inspection booking and freight coordination to a team on the ground in China, Globesino handles sourcing, factory checks and door-to-door delivery for overseas buyers. You get one point of contact who speaks both the factory's dialect and yours, plus a cost breakdown you can actually read.