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Shipping from China to Amazon Canada

- Nov.30, 2024 | Yiwu, China.

Shipping from China to Amazon FCs Canada

There are lots of products being shipped from China to Amazon FCs (fulfillment centers) in Canada everyday. This article covers:

How the shipping works? From China to Amazon Canada?
How to choose? AGL or other? By sea or by air? DDP or DDU?
What are the shipping routs, days, and rates to different FCs?
How to get a better shipping way/forwarder?

How this shipping works?

Shipping products from factory in China to Amazon FCs (fulfillment centers) in Canada is a long way. Here are the steps:

Step 1: Get shipment ready

This means the products are finished production, fully packed, passed inspection(especially for major value purchase), ready to be shipped out of supplier's premise.

In trading and shipping terms, this usually refers to EXW.

Step 2: Loading at factory

This means loading products into a container at factory when it's a FCL (full container load) shipment; or loading onto a truck / van when it is LCL (less than container load) shipment.

Factory or supplier usually takes care for loading products onto a truck, either by forklift or by hand.

Step 3: Consolidate

This means consolidate LCL shipments into to FCL shipments when shipping by sea. Air shipping doesn't need to consolidate into full containers, then may need to be consolidated by pallets.

FCL shipments doesn't need consolidation either. They will be shipped direct into a container yard near port.

LCL shipments are usually shipped from factory, then consolidated at a consolidation point which is a usually a logistics warehouse. This consolidation can happen more than once, up to the forwarder you work with.

Finally, when all LCL shipments are consolidated up to the size if a FCL, they will be loaded into a container, usually it's 40HQ or extra long 40HQ.

* LCL shipments need to goes through a couple of loadings, sorting, and checks (esp. for barcodes, labels, and packaging conditions) before final loading into a full container.

Step 4: pass China customs

After shipments are loaded, the correspondent docs (packing list, invoice, certificates if required, etc.) will need to be submitted to China customs.

This is usually done by a customs broker, or via a forwarder who works with customs broker in China. Container will be shipped to port at the same time.

In case container is checked by China customs, they will either go through inspection without delay, or stuck in customs for some time, or even rejected by customs, which usually can cause delay to all shipments inside that container.

Step 5: boarding

After shipments passed China customs, when container ship is ready, they will be boarded onto a container vessel.

In trading and shipping terms, this is usually referred as FOB (free on board).

Step 6: sail

When all is set, container ships will be departure China port then, sail to ports in Canada.

The most used port in Canada for shipping Amazon FBA products is Vancouver on the west coast of Canada. Total transit time is only 2 weeks from Shanghai port.

Step 7: arrive, discharge, transfer, clear customs

After 2-3 weeks on sea, container ship will arrive at port of Vancouver, where the containers will be unloaded from boat.

Some will be transferred to a warehouse in Vancouver to empty there if the destination Amazon FCs are in Vancouver; While other containers will be transferred to Calgary, Toronto etc. by train if the destination Amazon warehouses are in the middle of east part of Canada.

Of course, if containers are checked by Canadian customs, it can also cause delay and extra fees. In rare cases, shipments can be rejected.

Step 8: empty container, sort, pelletize

Once containers are transferred to warehouse close to Amazon FCs, it will be emptied there. Sorted, and palletized.

Waiting to be sent to Amazon FCs, either by couriers like UPS, FedEx... Or by other carriers, we call them trucking companies.

Step 9: appointment

All shipments go to Amazon FCs need to be appointment in advance except for couriers like UPS and FedEx. These couriers can just pick up from de-grouping warehouse and drop at Amazon warehouse.

Amazon's own logistics (AGL) doesn't need appointment either.

Appointment time can be long or short, up to different Amazon warehouse and different situations. It is not always easy to get appointments from Amazon, esp. during peak seasons.

Step 10: check in

Finally, all these shipments will be labeled and sent into Amazon warehouse, either by couriers or by trucking companies.

After Amazon scans your shipments, the status of your shipments under sellercentral will become CHECK IN. Great. Your products are finally into Amazon.

In fact, all SKU barcode labels are usually labeled by factory. FBA shipping labels can be labeled by factory before shipment leaving, or by forwarder during consolidation. Pallets labels are only labeled after ship-in-appointment approved by Amazon.

What are the options?

AGL or Other Carrier?

You can usually chose to ship by AGL(Amazon Global Logistics), or other carrier under Seller Central.

AGL can be a good option if you have FCL shipments, and your sales numbers are already established and stable to have accurate forecast, plus you have plenty of time. Their rates are usually competitive in this case.

Other carrier are more flexible and they are usually much faster than AGL. But their rates can be a higher than AGL.

For AGL rates, you can check under SellersCentral. I don't think their rates are DDP(deliver duty paid) which means you still need to pay tax etc. later on;

Other courier usually offer both DDP rates and DDU rates which are good for LCL shipments.

By Sea or by air?

Obviously, when you have enough time, you don't need to pay air shipping fees which are usually 5+ times more than sea shipping.

Air shipping rates fluctuates too much, while sea shipping rates are usually stable.

You can even chose to ship by air express in extreme urgent cases.

DDP or DDU?

Usually, when you have bigger LCL shipments, or FCL shipments of few items (HS codes), you may choose to ship by DDU which is cheaper. You pay customs inspections only when it applies.

Otherwise, DDP may be an easier option.

Routes, rates, days?

As air rates fluctuates too much, plus air express are not DDP (deliver duty paid), I will only list two options by sea below as benchmarks. You can contact us for more accurate quotes before shipping.

SCD (Sea And Courier Deliver) Shipping:

SCD(Sea And Courier Deliver) shipping from China To Amazon Canada, Rates and Days. -Nov.30, 2024.

Above table shows the rates and days from China (after vessel departure port) to different Amazon FCs in Canada in November, 2024.

The prices here are in CNY (Chinese Yuna), or we say RMB(Renminbi).

Products will be sea shipped to Canada, then delivered by couriers into Amazon FCs.

STD (Sea And Truck Deliver) Shipping:

STD(Sea And Truck Deliver) shipping from China To Amazon Canada, Rates and Days. -Nov.30, 2024.

This table shows also the rates and days from China (after vessel departure port) to different Amazon FCs in Canada in November, 2024.

The only difference is the final delivery. Under STD, products will be sea shipped to Canada, then delivered by TRUCK into Amazon FCs. You can see the rates are a lot cheaper than SCD. In reality, STD is also safer than SCD.

The disadvantages of STD are: it doesn't have an all-the-way tracking code. Plus, STD doesn't cover as many warehouses as SCD.

How to do this shipping better?

There are many ways but to get down to the basic, it's fairly simple: do diligence and get the right people.

compare

I can encourage you to compare different options, especially the services from supplier and from the services from forwarder.

The advantage of using your supplier to ship for you is, it's easier and you may already established trust with your supplier. You don't need to provide the product information and shipment size information, as your supplier already have them. But to work with a forwarder, you will need to provide this again before getting an accurate quote.

The disadvantage is they may have limited options and the services they provide may not be as good as a forwarder, esp. for value added services like inspection, storage, shipment plan etc.

As most of your product suppliers are also working with their forwarders, the rates they have may not be as competitive as the rates from forwarder direct.

*You do need to have inspection done by a 3rd party, esp. to have the shipment size and weight verified, because your freight will be charged base on that.

keep balance

You do need to do your diligence to compare now and then. But it's also important to be loyal to your partners. Because trust is the most valuable things in business. It's hard to build, but is easy to loose.

You do need to have more than one good partners to work with, to keep your business stable and balanced.

The end:

All right. Thank you for reading this article. It's a bit of lengthy and I hope it helped you.

Shipping circumstances are changing from time to time. Feel free ask us if you need up to date information, or need any help. We should get back to you in a while.

Contact Us:

*You can either email us at: YiwuMarketGuide@gmail.com;

Or leave us a message via below contact form;

Or WhatsApp us by the code at bottom of this page, or via mobile phone number +86 159 2428 6660, from 9am to 9pm(China time);

Or visit us at: F2, 2-7, Huan Qu Yi Da (Yiwu Global Reach) Supply Chain Park, Yiwu City, Zhejiang Province, China.

Call us when Urgent:

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