You Import From China and the most important thing for you is the shipping cost. The more your business relies on the transportation of goods, the more your business will benefit from lowering your overall shipping costs. It is important to realize the need to reduce shipping costs.
If you manage your company’s logistics independently when Importing goods from China. you may pay more for shipping. It is nearly impossible to analyze all shipping costs and then analyze the best options for your company without spending a lot of time.
Shipping from China can be a complex process involving many aspects. Getting shipping done right can make a huge financial difference. To keep your shipping costs down, you need to follow some tips.
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10 Ways To Reduce Shipping Costs When Importing From China
1.Find the Right China Freight Forwarder
It’s important to find a reliable China Freight Forwarder that can perfectly serve all your shipping needs. They can also give you many shipping discounts. Shipping discounts allow you to reduce shipping costs. You can even get free shipping on your e-commerce orders when the discounts are a little steep.
Freight forwarders help you expand internationally without worrying about the high cost of international shipping. With a freight forwarding service, you don’t handle everything in one place. Freight forwarders provide warehousing, paperwork, consulting and customs clearance services.
Also, they can handle your shipments from China to any country like USA, UK, Canada, Mexico, Germany, etc. Take the time to review businesses in your area in order to identify suppliers.
2.Choose The Best Method Of Shipping
It makes sense to choose the type of transport based on the quantity and time sensitivity of the goods offered. Air and sea freight are the most popular international shipping methods, the choice mainly depends on business and customer needs. Logistics and shipping companies will ensure that both options are available to customers.
Each shipping method has its own pros and cons that you should be aware of.
air transport
sea freight
International Express (DHL, UPS, FedEx)
Choosing the right shipping method can help reduce costs and damage to your goods. When shipping by air, you will save a lot of time if you choose to fly direct.
3.Use Air And Courier Only When Needed
Goods that are not sensitive to time can be shipped by sea freight and land freight or other means of shipping. Besides, you can save a lot of money by hiring a shipping company that can accept large quantities of goods, without even needing additional costs.
Sometimes, you urgently need goods or raw materials, by express or air. You could get it in the shortest possible time. Courier delivery is faster, but it costs more.
So you use courier service only when needed and ship the rest through ordinary logistics. Of course, you need to put your time into shipping management, but if you can save money, it’s very worthwhile.
4.Buy more quantities to reduce shipping costs
Buying bulk items can also reduce shipping costs. If you don’t get the lowest price per item, you’d be surprised how low the per-item diluted cost and shipping costs are.
We also know that the weight of the goods determines the price of shipping. The more you ship, the lower the price you get. The minimum quantity for air and express shipping is 0.5kg, while for sea freight it is 1000kg or 1CBM. If your business model allows it, you should try to buy more for shipping. While these shipping rates may seem higher, the cost per shipping unit is lower.
It might be a good idea to buy small quantities from a local supplier, and you won’t have to travel long distances to get your items.
5.Weigh and measure your packaging
The weight and dimensions of the package determine the shipping cost. You ask the shipping company for the price and send the goods, you need this data. You can use measuring instruments to determine the length, width, height and weight of each item. If your goods are far from you, you can ask your supplier.
Carrier websites require accurate weights to calculate shipping charges. Most shipping companies will ask for this information before giving you a quote. It allows you to compare different versions.
When declaring the weight and dimensions of your shipment, please make sure to enter the correct information. The wrong weight and size can lead to greater costs, which is why you have to be very careful. Using weighing can be very accurate. However, the measurement of size can be controversial.
If you have basic shipping information, you can use actual shipping estimates.
6.Compare shipping rates
Obviously, a common way to find cheap prices is to compare different China freight forwarder.
There are many domestic and international shipping companies today. Different carriers have different advantages and may offer shipping costs.
You may wish to use the same shipping method or carrier to avoid issues that could result in additional charges.
Shipping costs vary widely, even for the same shipping company. Get shipping quotes from multiple carriers, compare them and you’ll get a competitive quote. Also, you should consider using an online calculator.
7.Use an online shipping calculator
The Internet has brought us great convenience, and we can find the information we need with just a touch of a finger. Shipping calculators are usually easy to find online. Depending on your needs and shipping requirements, these tools can easily be used to assess shipping costs.
Shipping costs can vary widely, so it’s important to find and compare them. You don’t have to spend any money asking for a quote, it’s easy.
8.Optimized packaging
Have you noticed that you have extra space on your package and you have to pay for it? If you’re not careful, your supply chain will bleed.
You should know that shipping costs depend on the weight or volume of the shipment. Shipping extra packaging will not only cause you to foam, but also lose cargo space. By optimizing packaging to reduce bulk, you are more likely to save money. In other words, further savings in shipping costs can be achieved by reducing the packaging to a minimum thickness and size.
Optimizing packaging can save on packaging, raw materials, warehousing, and even more shipping costs.
9.Goods Consolidation
Another way to reduce shipping costs is to combine smaller quantities of goods together to produce a larger quantity by consolidating shipping, which can lead to cheaper prices.
If you have a lot of small orders from different suppliers, why not merge them into one and then forward them to you? Using the Chinese address of your warehousing service, you can not only store your goods but also integrate them, and you can also avoid the cumbersome receiving process and simplify tracking.
10.Route planning and optimization
Logistics is the process of analyzing goods to determine the most efficient routes and modes of transportation. Famous shipping routes are formed due to the frequent flow of international trade around the world.
Unwise routing can cause you to overspend on shipping and not get the best shipping results. Optimizing transportation routing is beneficial and can improve time and cost issues in transportation.
Route planning and optimization goals can increase lead times and reduce transportation costs. The direct route is the most efficient and time-saving. Unless you need other options, your carrier can provide you with multiple shipping options when possible.