How to Ship to Amazon FBA from China (Without Overpaying)

Most new Amazon sellers figure out the product sourcing part reasonably well. Then they get a freight quote and either pay too much or make a mistake that gets their shipment rejected at the Amazon warehouse door. Here's what you need to know before your first China-to-FBA shipment.

FBA vs FBM — what's the freight difference?

Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) means your goods go into Amazon's warehouse and Amazon picks, packs, and ships to the customer. Fulfilled by Merchant (FBM) means you handle fulfillment yourself.

For freight purposes, FBA creates a hard requirement: your shipment must meet Amazon's prep, packaging, and labeling specs, or it gets refused. Refused shipments don't disappear — they sit in limbo at the fulfillment center, and Amazon charges daily storage fees while you sort it out. FBM gives you more control over packaging, but you're responsible for the last mile.

Most China-sourced products going into Amazon's US, EU, or UK marketplace use FBA. The volume is large enough that the economics work, and Amazon's network handles the last-mile complexity.

Who is the importer of record?

This is the single most misunderstood piece of China-to-FBA logistics, and getting it wrong is expensive.

When goods arrive in the US (or EU, or UK), someone has to act as the importer of record (IOR) — the legal entity responsible for paying duties, ensuring compliance, and handling customs clearance. Amazon will not act as your IOR. Their fulfillment center addresses are not valid consignee addresses for customs entries.

Your options:

• Act as your own IOR. You (your business) are the importer. You need a US Entity and EIN (or EU EORI, or UK EORI). Your freight forwarder files the customs entry on your behalf. This is standard practice for most established sellers.
• Use a third-party IOR service. Some fulfillment companies will act as IOR for a fee. This makes sense for sellers who aren't incorporated in the destination country and don't want to be. Expect to pay $150–500 per shipment plus any compliance overhead.

Never list Amazon's fulfillment center as the ultimate consignee for customs. This is a common mistake that can get your shipment held at the port.

FBA prep and labeling requirements

Amazon has detailed prep requirements by product category, and they change. The current requirements are in Seller Central — always check there before your shipment, not a blog post. The broad categories:

• FNSKU labels: Every unit needs an Amazon barcode (FNSKU) if your product isn't enrolled in commingling. Your supplier can apply these if you send them the label file. Alternatively, Amazon can label units for $0.30/unit, which adds up fast.
• Poly bagging: Many soft goods, shoes, and anything with loose parts needs to be individually poly-bagged with a suffocation warning.
• Bubble wrap / fragile prep: Amazon specifies drop-test standards. If your product arrives and fails their prep check, they'll prep it and charge you.
• Master carton labeling: Each carton needs a box content label with the shipment ID. Your forwarder or prep service can generate these.

The cleanest approach for most sellers: send goods to a China-based prep center before shipping, or build prep into your supplier contract. Doing prep at a US 3PL before Amazon delivery works too, but adds cost and transit time.

Why do most sellers overpay on freight?

A few patterns come up constantly:

Using express couriers for FBA freight. DHL/FedEx/UPS are fine for samples. For commercial FBA shipments over 50kg, you're almost always better on a sea or air freight service. Express costs 3–5x more per kg for commercial volumes.

Not understanding chargeable weight vs actual weight. Air freight is priced on whichever is greater: actual weight or dimensional (volumetric) weight. Volumetric weight = (L × W × H in cm) / 5000. Light, bulky products like inflatable goods or foam packaging are punishing to ship by air.

Booking air freight for low-margin goods. If your product sells for $20 with a 30% margin, your freight cost to break even is about $6/unit. If air freight costs $8/kg and your product weighs 400g, you're spending $3.20/unit just on air freight — before customs, prep, or Amazon fees. Do the math before choosing your mode.

Ignoring seasonal rate spikes. Ocean and air rates spike predictably: pre-Chinese New Year (December–January), Golden Week (late September), and Q4 peak (October–November). If you can book 6–8 weeks before these windows, you'll save.

Door-to-door vs port-to-port: which to book?

Most FBA sellers use a door-to-door service, which means the forwarder handles pickup at the factory, ocean/air freight, customs clearance, and delivery to the Amazon FC. This is convenient and usually well-priced for standard goods.

Port-to-port (or airport-to-airport) is cheaper, but you'll need to separately arrange pickup, customs brokerage, and final delivery. For sellers who do high volume and want more control, this makes sense. For beginners, door-to-door reduces the number of things that can go wrong.

See China freight lanes for the main routes serving US/EU/UK FBA markets, and use the freight estimator to get an indicative cost before you commit to a supplier quote.

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Also useful: Incoterms explained for China imports — understanding EXW vs FOB vs DDP matters a lot when your supplier quotes you a shipping price.