China has been the world factory from being a memeber of the WTO(World Trade Orginization). In US, almost everything in the supermarket is from China. Once there are some people want to live without China products, but finally they failed. Cause almost everything they use is made in China.
If you want to start your own business now and interested in hot selling products on Amazon, it’s necessary to import from China at a low price and sell high. There are three components in the importing price, the goods price, shipping cost, and taxes. Within these 3 components, the shipping cost is usually fluctuated and will have big influences on the overall cost. There are some situations that the shipping cost is higher than the number of goods, consequently, you will get a loss in this business.
But how to save the shipping cost when importing from China? In this post, we will share with you how to choose the best shipping solutions.
1. Make a plan for the product shipping
A plan means everything will be dealt with step by step. Having a plan means we can control the process. For instance, if you need the products very urgently, you have to ship the items via air, that’s very expensive. Usually, this happens for the seasonal or promotional items, everything is ready except the products…
2. Choose the right shipping provider
You need to check with the shipping provider, do they have the experience in shipping your products. Does the shipping need a special certificate together with the docs? Because if some docs are missing in the declaration process, customs will charge the consignees penalty, which is very heavy sometimes. So it’s best to cooperate with the experienced company.
3.Optimize the package
Make sure that your products are packed in the carton tidy and clean. Because this will help to save about 10%-20% volume per carton. That will be a huge volume if the total cartons are 20 or 50 cartons. So choosing the right dimension carton is very important, it can hold the products tight and save volume.
4. Choose the right Shipping way
If the products are prepared for the holiday promotion, and there isn’t too much time left. Then we can choose the air transportation way. You will receive the products for 2 weeks. But if you have enough time before the ETD, the sea shipping will be the best choice. You need to book the space 14 days before the cut-off date, which is also the declaration day. It’s necessary to check with the suppliers about the carton’s dimensions.
5. Choose the right container or the pallet
There are LCL (less than container) FCL(full container) if your products total volume is under 28 cubic meters. So your items will have to share one container with others. Of course, there are 4 types of FCL, which is FCL 20 feet, FCL 40 feet, FCL 40 feet HQ, FCL 45 feet HQ.
The total volume they can hold is 28m3,54m3,68m3, 86m3. If the volume of your product is between 28m3-54m3, it’s better to choose the FCL40feet, because this is the economic choice, even though there will be some empty space in the FCL 40 feet container.
6. Buy the insurance for your products
Since the transportation distance is very far, so there are many inspections on the way. You’d better buy the insurance for your products, this will ensure when there are some incidents.
7. Calculate the shipping cost per unit.
You need to divide the total shipping cost to each unit product. Here is the formula: Total shipping cost/total volume*carton volume/carton quantity.
First, you need to work out how much shipping per cubic meter.
Second, you need to calculate what is the total volume per carton.
Third, how much is the shipping cost per carton.
Finally, how much shipping each unit is.
Let’s say, if you spend a total 2000USD$ on the shipping, the total volume is 25 cubic meter, so the shipping cost is 2000USD$/25=80USD$/cubic meter. The carton dimension is 50cm*60cm*40cm, the carton quantity is 40pcs. So the carton volume is 0.12 cubic meter, each carton shipping cost is 80USD$*0.12=9.6USD$, each product shipping is 9.6USD$/40=0.24USD$.
8.Ship the products in off-peak seasons
If you are the Christmas sellers, you can not ship the products in October, because Oct is the peak season, the shipping prices will be high. On the other hand, there you do not have too much preparation time for the promotion. So you need to make the inventory plan 1-2 months in advance.
Below are some hot selling items for your reference.
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