Most FBA sellers treat China logistics as one problem. It's five.
When a shipment arrives late or a container gets stuck, the cause is rarely the ocean crossing. More often it's a carton label nobody printed, an HS code the supplier picked without telling you, or an Amazon appointment that never got booked because the forwarder assumed a prep center was handling it.
China-to-FBA delivery is really five separate jobs: factory pickup, export clearance, international transit, import clearance, and final delivery into a fulfillment center. Each one can fail on its own, and each one is usually owned by a different company. The most useful thing you can do early is write down who owns which job before the first purchase order goes out.
Step 1: Assign the five jobs
| Job | Who usually does it | Where it breaks |
|---|---|---|
| Supplier pickup and consolidation | Supplier, or a China-based buying agent | Supplier ships short, or adds surprise packing fees |
| Export clearance and booking | Freight forwarder | Booking made before goods are packed, then rolled to the next vessel |
| International transit | Forwarder or carrier | Port congestion, blank sailings, rail delays |
| Import clearance | Customs broker plus importer of record | Wrong HS code, missing bond, compliance hold |
| Final delivery to FBA | 3PL, drayage carrier, or Amazon Partnered Carrier | Missed appointment, detention fees, rejected cartons |
Sellers who try to control all five alone end up with ten email threads and no single person accountable. Sellers who hand everything to one forwarder save time but lose visibility into quality, because forwarders move boxes. They don't open them.
Step 2: Choose the shipping mode with your numbers, not by habit
| Mode | Typical door-to-door time | Relative cost | Sensible for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Express courier | 5-10 days | Highest | Samples, first 50 units, urgent restock |
| Air freight | 10-16 days | High | Light, high-margin goods; 100-500 kg |
| Rail (China to Europe) | 25-35 days | Medium | EU sellers with mid-size shipments |
| LCL sea freight | 30-45 days | Low to medium | 2-15 CBM, products you are still testing |
| FCL sea freight | 30-45 days | Lowest per unit | 15+ CBM, proven sellers |
Two rules that save money. Don't fly low-value goods. And don't put your entire launch inventory in one container. Splitting a first order into an air portion and a sea portion costs more per unit, but it lets you start selling while the bulk is still on the water.
Step 3: Get Incoterms right before you negotiate price
- EXW. Your supplier's only job is to have goods ready at their door. You arrange everything. Cheap on paper, painful in practice.
- FOB. The supplier delivers to the port and clears export. You control the freight and the broker. This is the standard choice for most FBA sellers.
- CIF. The supplier pays freight and insurance to your port, but you still handle import clearance. Watch for inflated freight costs buried in the unit price.
- DDP. The forwarder delivers duty-paid to your door or to Amazon. Convenient, but you usually don't control the HS code or the customs entry, and a third party may act as importer of record. If something is misdeclared, you have little recourse.
A note on DDP. It is popular because it looks simple, and it can work well. Just ask who the importer of record is and whether you would receive documentation if customs asked questions six months later. If the answer is vague, that is your answer.
Step 4: Meet Amazon's inbound requirements before you book anything
Amazon's receiving rules are where first-time sellers lose the most money. The ones that matter most:
- Shipment splits. Amazon decides how to spread your inventory across fulfillment centers. Send everything to one FC and you pay the inbound placement service fee, or split it across locations and pay less.
- Box limits. Standard boxes generally max out at 50 lb (23 kg) and 25 inches on the longest side, unless the box holds a single oversized item.
- Labels. Every carton needs a shipment ID label and a box number. Every sellable unit needs an FNSKU unless you use the manufacturer barcode, which only works if your product does not share a barcode with other sellers.
- Poly bags. Suffocation warning if the opening is 5 inches or larger. The barcode must be scannable through the bag or labeled on the outside.
- Appointments. FTL and LTL carriers need a delivery slot. Missing it triggers a fee. Staying past the unloading window triggers detention.
Print the current version of Amazon's inbound requirements and send it to whoever packs your cartons. Rules change, and a prep center working from a 2022 checklist will get your shipment rejected at the gate.
Step 5: Decide where prep happens
Prep in China is cheaper per unit. Prep in the destination country is easier to supervise. The real trade-off is who catches defects.
If you prep in China, you need an inspection step in between. Someone has to open cartons, count against the packing list, look for the defects your supplier insisted did not exist, and confirm that the FNSKU on the physical unit matches the listing. Without that step, you are paying to ship problems across an ocean.
If you prep in the destination country, add one to two weeks and a per-unit fee, but you keep the option to reject a batch before it ever reaches Amazon.
Step 6: Sort out customs and compliance early
Three things to settle before your first shipment leaves:
- Importer of record. You, your US or UK or EU entity, or a service. The US requires a customs bond.
- HS code. Confirm it yourself or with a broker who will put it in writing. Your supplier's guess can multiply your duty rate.
- Product compliance. FDA for anything ingested or skin-contact, CPC for children's products, FCC for electronics with radio, CE or UKCA for Europe, plus labeling rules such as California Prop 65.
De minimis treatment and tariff rates have shifted repeatedly over the past two years. Check the current position for your product and destination instead of relying on any blog post, including this one.
Step 7: Book the last mile properly
Once goods clear customs, they still need to reach a fulfillment center. Your options are drayage plus transload at a 3PL, LTL to the FC, FTL for large volumes, or Amazon Partnered Carrier for small parcels. Whoever books the appointment needs your shipment ID, box count, and pallet count to match exactly what Amazon's system shows. A mismatch gets your truck turned away at the gate, and you still pay for it.
A realistic timeline for a first order
| Stage | Typical time |
|---|---|
| Supplier production | 20-45 days |
| Inspection and prep | 3-7 days |
| Booking and export clearance | 3-5 days |
| Sea transit, China to US West Coast | 18-30 days |
| Import clearance | 2-5 days |
| Final delivery to FBA | 3-10 days |
| Total | 50-100 days |
Add two weeks for a new supplier, a new product category, or peak season (August to October, and Chinese New Year in January or February).
How to check a China logistics partner
If you don't speak Mandarin, don't have a factory contact, and can't walk into a warehouse in Shenzhen on a Tuesday afternoon, the practical move is to work with someone who can. Questions worth asking:
- Can you inspect before the shipment leaves China, and send photos plus a written report?
- Who is the importer of record on my shipments?
- What happened the last time one of your shipments got a customs hold?
- Do you book Amazon delivery appointments, or hand that back to me?
- Which timezone are you reachable in?
A good partner answers these in specifics, not adjectives.
Globesino is a China-based team that handles supplier sourcing, factory and pre-shipment inspection, consolidation, and door-to-door delivery into Amazon FBA, giving you one point of contact for the parts of the process you cannot see. If you are planning a first or next shipment, tell us the product and destination and we will map the route.