Shipping from China – it’s one of the topics that I receive the most questions about, which is really not surprising – after all how do you know what shipping terms to use (EXW, FOB, CNF etc.) or what shipping method (courier, air freight, sea freight) or even which company to go with!

It’s not an exaggeration to say that shipping from China can be very daunting and it’s enough by itself to put off a would-be importer.

However as always I am here to help and I’ve answered most of these shipping questions already in dedicated posts on this blog, which you can find here: How to Import Products From China & CNF, CIF and FOB Explained.

So what is today’s post all about? Well I decided to put together a real life example order and then approach a few different companies for shipping quotes – that way we can put my advice to the test and see what the results are for real!

Without any further ado, let’s get to it!

“The Order”

For this test I created an actual order of 50 pieces of a particular product, packaged into cartons of 5 pieces, with each carton weighing 18 kgs and having a total volume of 0.1 m3.

That meant for our order of 50 pcs that we have a total weight of 180 kilos and a total volume of 1 m3 – which is a fairly standard mid-sized order. I didn’t want to make it so small that courier is the only option but I also didn’t want to make it a full container load as then that would give an unfair advantage to the freight forwarders. Overall I think this order size is a good balance between the two.

And now for the results:

Courier – Organised by Supplier – 3-4 Day Shipping Time

This is usually the easiest method of shipping from China and the one that I recommend using if your order is 50kg or less with fairly normal dimensions.

So how did they fare with this slightly larger order? Well the quote for door to door shipping via UPS came to $1350, which is £930 using the current exchange rate.

That gives a cost per kg of £5.04 – just a tiny bit over the £4 – £5 that I suggested in my How to Import Products From China guide.

However, this order is for a much larger quantity and the cost per piece at £930 is extremely high, cutting away nearly all of the potential profit.

Let’s see if air freight can offer us any savings:

Air Freight – 4-5 Day Shipping Time

For the air freight quote I decided to use good old Woodland Global for this. They’re the company that I’ve recommended for a number of years to anyone who is looking for a freight forwarding company to handle their imports from China, due to their competitive pricing and (more importantly) high level of service.

Let’s hope they don’t let me down now!

So on to the quote received, which was broken down in to:

• Overseas Customs Entry – £45
• Air Freight – £253.76
• War Risk Insurance – £32.74
• Airline Handling – £39.50
• Customs Clearance Fee – £42.50
• UK Cartage – £35

TOTAL – £450

That gives a final price which is less than half of the courier fee! And at £2.44 per kg, it is right within my estimated £2 – £3 / kg when using air freight.

So a big result for the air freight company, which just leaves our final “contender” in this import showdown – sea freight.

TOTAL – £450

That gives a final price which is less than half of the courier fee! And at £2.44 per kg, it is right within my estimated £2 – £3 / kg when using air freight.

So a big result for the air freight company, which just leaves our final “contender” in this import showdown – sea freight.

Sea Freight – 30 Day Total Shipping Time

Once again I asked Woodland Global for a quote for the same order size of 50 pieces/10 cartons, and the final price given to me was…

£180!

No, that’s not a typo! £180 delivered from the Shenzhen port to a doorstep within the UK, including the freight, import handling and all other shipping fees.

That is over 5 times cheaper than the courier quote I received from the supplier.

And as if that wasn’t impressive enough, the price remains the same all the way up to 25 cartons. So even if my order is twice as big, the cost of shipping is still 5 times less!

Final Results & Conclusions

Just to illustrate the difference in another way – using a courier the shipping cost per item was £18.60 – using a freight forwarder via sea freight that was brought down to £3.60!

That in itself is the difference between an unprofitable product and a profitable one.

I hope now you can really see why I always talk about using a freight forwarder and ordering in as large a quantity as you can – it brings your total cost down significantly, which at the end of the day means more money in your pocket!

Of course it wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t point out that the courier offers 3-4 day shipping, air freight 4-5 day, and sea freight roughly 30-40 days so if you do need your order urgently, then you’ll have no choice but to pay more.

And that pretty much brings us to the end of today’s post. I hope you’ve found this simple test useful and that it’s really illustrated and backed up some of the advice that I’ve given out in previous blog posts.

As always if you have any questions or comments then I’d love to hear them, so please post below and I’ll personally get back to you within 24 hours.

All the best,
Andrew

PS – Though it hopefully goes without saying, I do want to point out that I contacted all of the companies without them knowing who I was or that the quotes they were providing were for this test. As far as the companies here were concerned, they were simply dealing with another sole trader looking to put together their first order from China.