Shipping & Logistics | Ecommerce Crew

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Why and How China Post and USPS are Killing Your Private Labeling Business

If you’ve been following this blog, you know that the Chinese are coming to eat your dinner. Chinese Suppliers are increasingly selling on Amazon and other channels like eBay and their own websites. Amazon has been actively recruiting Chinese suppliers to use the FBA platform to ship and fulfill their orders from within the United States (a bare minimum requirement for most Prime customers).

But here’s a hard reality –

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I Worked at an Amazon FBA Warehouse for a Week – Here’s What I Learned

For years I’ve been trying to get a tour of an Amazon warehouse. These are actually possible at a few of Amazon warehouses, but the wait lists are huge and I’ve never been able to successfully get a tour.

So while eating ramen one night and reading a local newspaper, I saw an ad that Amazon was hiring for their Vancouver warehouse and knew this was the perfect opportunity to finally get my tour!

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Interview with Fleet – All of Your Freight Forwarding Questions Answered

Finding and choosing a Freight Forwarder is one of the most common questions we get asked here. Importers are often confused about what a freight forwarder exactly is and how and where to find one.

In this interview with Ron Berger, COO at Fleet, he’ll answer the above questions but also go into detail about some of the other nuances about the world of Freight Forwarder. Fleet is an online marketplace that connects shippers with freight forwarders and other logistics service providers.

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Interview with DutyCalculator.com

If there’s one tool that you’ll hear importers and private labelers recommend most often, it is DutyCalculator.com. DutyCalculator allows you to quickly and easily look up the duty rates by typing in a simple description of the product. Before importing any product you need to visit DutyCalculator.

DutyCalculator was recently acquired by Pitney Bowes. I recently had the opportunity to interview Luisella Basso, Vice President of International Trade and Customs Compliance for Pitney Bowes,

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How to Get Your Shipments from China to Amazon FBA

This is probably one of the most common questions I hear nowadays: how do I get my shipments from China to Amazon FBA?

While shipping products from China to Amazon warehouses isn’t incredibly difficult, it’s also slightly more complex than asking your Supplier to stick a UPS label on a product and send it to a single Amazon warehouse. In this post I’ll discuss the different ways you can get your products to Amazon FBA distribution centers.

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Five Tips On How to Deal with Chinese New Year as an Importer

Most seasoned importers have Chinese New Year firmly marked on their calendars. They know that the time leading up to Chinese New Year can do havoc on their shipments and business. The basic mantra is “Expect delays”.

In this article, I’m going to give five tips I’ve learned concerning Chinese New Years. While the basic mantra remains the same, “Expect delays”, I’ll try and give some more specific lessons I’ve learned over the years.

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Five Packing Questions To Ask Your Supplier Before Placing an Order

The actual packing and labeling of your items is critical when importing from China. In this article we’ll discuss five questions you need to ask yourself and your Supplier in regards to the packing and boxing of your products. Note, this isn’t a discussion of packaging (i.e. in the marketing context) which is a completely different topic.

Aside from there being certain requirements to make sure you meet customs regulations (i.e. clearly marked packing lists,

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Interview with Pacific Customs Broker Discussing Common Importing Mistakes

Pacific Customs Broker is the customs broker I have used ever since I began importing, and in fact, I also rely on their freight forwarding division, PCB Freight Management to help move almost every LCL and FCL shipment once it hits the port. They have offices in both Canada and the U.S., which is part of the reason I love them because they help me with shipments entering either Canada or the U.S. Breanna Leininger of Pacific Customs Broker has been generous enough to help answer some of the most common customs questions importers have.

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Air Courier VS Air Cargo (And How to Save Money and Lose Money With Each)

All air is not created equally, at least when it comes to shipping.

We’re all familiar with the difference between shipping something via air vs ground. In ecommerce, you never ship something air unless you’ve royally screwed up a customer’s order and need to get it to them quick! In other words, it’s EXPENSIVE! In international shipping there’s a further distinction to be made within air shipping: air courier vs air freight.

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How Non-American Importers Can Sell Their Products in the USA

This blog tends to attract a lot of international readers and one of the most common questions I get is from non-American readers asking how they can sell their imported and private label products in the United States. Readers are eager to get access to the 330 million + consumers in the states and understandably so- the American ecommerce market is huge.

This happens to be a question I am well versed in answering as I live in Vancouver,

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