How Can Cross-border Sellers Run Overseas Warehouses Well

What is Port CongestionPort congestion refers to the situation where ships are unable to dock and offload or load cargo efficiently at a port due to overcrowding or logistical complications. This issue can stem from various factors, including increased shipping volumes, limited port capacity, inadequate infrastructure, labor shortages, or stringent customs regulations. The effects of port congestion are widespread, affecting shipping timelines, increasing transportation costs, and disrupting global supply chains. As trade volumes continue to grow, understanding and mitigating the causes of port congestion is crucial for maintaining efficient and reliable global trade operations.Causes of Port Congestion:1. Increased Demand: Surge in global trade and consumer demand often outpaces the capacity of ports to handle incoming and outgoing shipments efficiently.2. Infrastructure Limitations: Many ports struggle with outdated infrastructure and lack adequate space and technology to manage the volume of traffic.3. Labor Challenges: Strikes, shortages, and training gaps in port labor can lead to significant delays in cargo handling.4. Regulatory Procedures: Complex customs and security procedures can slow down the processing of cargo, exacerbating congestion.5. Weather and Environmental Factors: Severe weather conditions can halt port operations temporarily, leading to backlog.Effects on the Supply Chain:1. Increased Shipping Times: Delays at ports extend the shipping times, affecting delivery schedules across the supply chain.2. Higher Costs: Congestion leads to longer waiting times for shipping vessels, increasing fuel costs and operational expenses that are often passed on to consumers.3. Inventory Shortages: Disruptions in the arrival of goods can lead to inventory shortages, impacting businesses downstream in the supply chain.4. Adoption of Just-in-Time Practices: Businesses may alter their inventory strategies, shifting towards just-in-time practices to mitigate the impact of unpredictable shipment arrivals.How Port Congestions Affect Shipping RatesPort congestion can significantly impact shipping rates in several ways:1. Increased Operational Costs: When vessels are delayed at congested ports, the additional time spent waiting translates to higher operational costs, including fuel and crew wages. These costs are often passed on to customers through increased shipping rates.2. Detention and Demurrage Fees: Delays can lead to fees such as detention (for holding containers beyond the lease period) and demurrage (charges for extended use of the ship beyond the laytime). These fees contribute to higher overall shipping costs.3. Rate Fluctuations: The uncertainty caused by port congestion can lead to fluctuations in shipping rates as shipping companies attempt to manage risks and unexpected delays.4. Redistribution of Routes: To avoid congested ports, shippers may reroute vessels, which can lead to longer routes or the use of alternative ports, potentially increasing the cost of shipping.Overall, port congestion creates inefficiencies in the supply chain that lead to increased shipping rates, affecting global trade dynamics.Strategic Responses:Companies and port authorities are increasingly turning to technology solutions like digitalization and automation to enhance efficiency. Investments in infrastructure upgrades and better collaborative practices among port stakeholders are also critical in addressing these challenges.Understanding and addressing port congestion is essential for smoothing out disruptions in the global supply chain, ensuring more reliable and efficient trade operations.

"Overseas warehouses are the product of cross-border e-commerce. More and more cross-border logistics have overseas warehouses. Overseas warehouses not only provide strong logistics support for cross-border sellers, but also provide certain conveniences for overseas buyers. Therefore, in the current logistics industry, the important role of overseas warehouses is becoming more and more prominent.1. There are Three Types of Overseas Warehouse Models, Namely Third-party Overseas Warehouses, Amazon FBA Warehouses and Self-Operated Overseas Warehouses:(1) Third-party Overseas WarehousesThe third-party overseas warehouse model refers to an overseas warehouse established and operated by a third-party enterprise (mostly logistics service providers), and can provide customs clearance, warehousing quality inspection, order acceptance, product sorting, delivery and other services for multiple cross-border e-commerce companies. Our overseas warehouses are The warehouse can also provide FBA return and exchange, transfer, re-printing or labeling, product testing, customs duty payment and other services. In other words, the third-party overseas warehouse model means that the entire cross-border logistics system is controlled by a third-party enterprise.(2) Amazon FBA warehouseFBA warehouse is a one-stop logistics service provided by Amazon, including warehousing, picking and packaging, delivery, collection, customer service and return processing. The logistics level of FBA warehouse is the benchmark in the overseas warehouse industry. The daily shipment volume, product variety and number of consumers of FBA warehouse far exceed those of third-party overseas warehouses. It is conceivable that FBA faces huge management difficulties. However, except for the high shipping cost and the trouble of return, FBA's logistics are almost impeccable for sellers.(3) Self-operated overseas warehousesAt present, the service level of third-party overseas warehouses is still relatively basic and cannot meet the personalized needs of customers. Many e-commerce companies choose to build their own overseas warehouses. In addition, FBA is not perfect, so many cross-border merchants choose to build and operate their own overseas warehouses, which only provide warehousing, distribution and other services for their own products. In other words, the entire cross-border logistics process is controlled by the cross-border merchants themselves.Although overseas warehouses can improve many problems in cross-border logistics, they are not perfect. Cross-border e-commerce logistics is in the choice.2. Overseas Warehouses also Face the Following Challenges:(1) High requirements for information technologyThe core problem of overseas warehouse operations is the high requirements for information technology. Merchants place goods in overseas warehouses. When overseas customers place orders, they need to issue operation instructions remotely, and at the same time To implement and monitor inventory, it requires extremely advanced information technology. Auto Shipping Overseas Warehouse has an experienced professional operation team and its information technology is well protected.(2) Requirements for the nature of goodsMerchants will store goods in batches in overseas warehouses in advance, which poses a certain inventory risk. This requires that the goods themselves are best-selling products with a high turnover rate, otherwise it may lead to warehouse explosion.(3) Difficulties in multi-cultural managementThe situation of overseas warehouses abroad is actually an "awkward" existence. For foreign countries, overseas warehouses should be regarded as a company with actual transactions, rather than a simple "warehouse", and they need to pay various taxes. In addition, the localization management of overseas warehouses also requires local operations and local employees. People who are consistent with local consumers in terms of language, culture, and beliefs need to participate in the marketing, management, and operation of the entire enterprise.3. Why do We Need Overseas Warehouses?For those cross-border e-commerce sellers who have not yet used overseas warehouses, there are some data from the platform that can tell us, such as the eBay platform. Overall, 40% of the transaction volume on the eBay platform already comes from overseas warehouses. This proportion may be higher on the Amazon platform, and may be lower on the AliExpress and Wish platforms. This is the trend. In the future, if many products want to go deep into the local area to do some work other than sales, to expand more business, or even to establish their own brands, they need to conduct local research.Nearly 80% of sellers are very satisfied with the performance of overseas warehouses in helping them improve their accounts. At the same time, 80% of sales of many large sellers come from overseas warehouses or third-party overseas warehouses. So from the perspective of the entire market environment, overseas warehouses have become a standard.The reason why overseas warehouses are chosen as the standard for their own logistics delivery is that they have been practiced and measured in terms of timeliness and cost.4. How to Choose an Overseas Warehouse?If your goods really enter the US market and start to do it, but the United States is so big, how to distribute your goods is a very interesting thing.If you are doing overseas warehouses or using overseas warehouses now, most people will choose Los Angeles as their first overseas warehouse. Why? The distance is short, on the west coast of the United States, so the transportation distance is also short, the time is fast, and the cost is low. The key is that there are many local Chinese people, and there may be many friends. Many large and small sellers who build warehouses or third parties will choose Los Angeles as their first warehouse. It is known that the distance from the west coast to the east coast of the United States is more than 4,500 kilometers. The land area of the United States is only slightly smaller than that of China, and more than 200 million people are distributed in such a large country.From the perspective of the entire population distribution of the United States, the population density in the western California and eastern regions, as well as the southern Florida region, and the Great Lakes, Michigan, is very high. As we all know, the timeliness and cost of logistics are proportional to the distance. The longer the distance, the longer the timeliness and the higher the cost. So if your warehouse is only in Los Angeles, and you want to send to the densely populated eastern regions such as New York, Chicago or Florida, how can you control your timeliness and delivery costs? Based on these situations, we built a warehouse in the east in 2015, and built another warehouse in southern Texas at the end of last year.Auto Shipping continues to set the standard for reliability and innovation in freight forwarding, ensuring that we not only meet but exceed the expectations of our valued customers.5. How to do a Good Job in Overseas Warehouses?First, multiple warehouses in one country, reducing costs and speeding up deliveryIn terms of cost, we used the data of outbound delivery in 2016 to make a calculation, that is, these orders are sent to the West Coast of the United States or distributed to the West Coast and East Coast, or distributed to three warehouses, that is, according to the division just now, they are sent in a combined place. In terms of cost, we can see that the dark orange line at the top is sent alone, the yellow is sent from the East Coast warehouse alone, and the green is sent from the most advantageous warehouses of the West Coast warehouse and the East Coast warehouse. It can be seen that the overall cost reduction can reach nearly 30%, that is, using the optimal delivery range of two warehouses to deliver orders can also reduce the proportion of costs. The three warehouses can further increase by two points.Second, develop large and heavy goods and expand blue ocean categoriesIn terms of categories, we can see that more and more cross-border e-commerce companies are doing large and heavy goods. The entire market competition is very fierce. In terms of the entire category, if you have a good source of goods, the pressure of competition on the platform will still be much smaller. For example, furniture such as sofas, tables and chairs, lockers, generators, lawn mowers, and the engraving machine we just saw, all products of 15 kg, 30 kg or even heavier weight and larger volume need to have more suitable delivery methods. For example, DHL in the United States, delivery services in the United Kingdom, UPS services, or Toll services in Australia can all support the delivery of large products. In other words, we can further expand the product category through the last-mile service of large products. Third, use value-added services to enhance local advantagesAs we all know, overseas warehouses also receive some push services, etc. In fact, using value-added services well can give your buyers and customers a better shopping experience. "

Navigating the complexities of international shipping can be daunting for Amazon sellers. One solution that has gained traction is FBA Dual Customs Clearance & Taxes Included. This comprehensive logistics service simplifies the process, ensuring your products reach Amazon’s warehouses smoothly and efficiently. In this article, we’ll delve into what dual customs clearance and taxes included mean for your FBA business, how it works, and the benefits and considerations you should be aware of.What is FBA Dual Customs Clearance & Taxes Included?FBA Dual Customs Clearance & Taxes Included is a logistics service tailored for Amazon sellers that covers the entire shipping journey from your warehouse in China to Amazon’s FBA warehouses in your target country, such as the United States. This service encompasses two main components:1. Dual Customs ClearanceDual customs clearance refers to the handling of customs procedures both in the exporting country (e.g., China) and the importing country (e.g., USA).Export Customs Clearance: In the exporting country, the logistics provider manages all necessary export declarations and paperwork. This ensures that your goods comply with local export regulations and are cleared for shipment.Import Customs Clearance: Upon arrival in the destination country, the same logistics provider takes care of the import customs process. They handle the necessary documentation, inspections, and any other requirements to ensure your products pass through customs without delays.2. Taxes IncludedTaxes included means that the logistics provider’s quote encompasses all potential import duties, Value-Added Tax (VAT), and other related fees. As a seller, you won’t need to worry about these additional costs because they are already factored into the service fee.How Does It Work?Here’s a step-by-step overview of how FBA Dual Customs Clearance & Taxes Included operates:Pickup from Your Warehouse: The logistics provider collects your products from your warehouse.International Shipping: Your goods are transported via air or sea to the destination country.Export and Import Customs: The provider handles both export and import customs clearance, ensuring compliance with all regulations.Tax Payment: All applicable duties and taxes are calculated and included in the service fee.Delivery to Amazon FBA: Finally, the products are delivered directly to Amazon’s FBA warehouses, ready for fulfillment.Benefits of Dual Customs Clearance & Taxes Included1. Simplified ProcessHandling customs can be complex and time-consuming. By opting for a dual customs clearance service, you delegate this responsibility to experts, allowing you to focus on growing your business.2. Cost PredictabilityWith taxes and duties included in the service fee, you avoid unexpected expenses. This transparency helps you manage your budget more effectively.3. Faster ShippingProfessional handling of customs procedures can significantly reduce delays, ensuring your products reach Amazon’s warehouses promptly and remain available for sale.4. Compliance AssuranceLogistics providers experienced in international shipping are well-versed in the latest regulations. This reduces the risk of non-compliance, which can lead to fines or seized goods.When to Use Dual Customs Clearance & Taxes IncludedThis service is particularly beneficial for sellers who:Lack Expertise: If you’re unfamiliar with the intricacies of international shipping and customs regulations.Seek Efficiency: When you want to streamline your logistics process and minimize delays.Prefer Predictable Costs: If you want to include all potential fees in your shipping budget.Handle Special Goods: When your products require special handling or documentation for customs clearance.Risks and ConsiderationsWhile FBA Dual Customs Clearance & Taxes Included offers many advantages, it’s essential to be aware of potential risks:1. Ownership and Tax IssuesUsing a freight forwarder’s TAX/VAT/EORI number can sometimes lead to issues with ownership rights and the inability to claim import VAT deductions. Ownership of goods during international shipping can become blurry if your logistics provider handles the customs process using their own tax identification. This might prevent you from claiming import VAT refunds, which could have been beneficial if you were the Importing Party. You need to ensure that your agreement with the logistics provider clearly defines these aspects to avoid complications with the tax authorities.2. Regulatory ComplianceIncreasingly stringent tax and customs regulations, especially in regions like Europe and the USA, can pose legal and financial risks. Failing to comply with evolving regulations could result in fines, delays, or even seized goods. For example, some goods require special documentation or certifications, and missing these requirements can halt shipments in customs.3. Seasonal Limitations and Storage ChallengesIn busy periods, such as Black Friday or holiday seasons, Amazon’s FBA warehouses often experience storage limitations. This can result in costly delays or restrictions on the amount of inventory you can send to Amazon. Choosing an FBA logistics provider who understands these seasonal challenges and can plan shipments accordingly can help mitigate this issue.Choosing the Right ProviderSelecting a trustworthy logistics partner is crucial. Ensure they have a solid track record, understand your specific needs, and comply with all relevant regulations to avoid potential legal and economic losses. Here are some best practices for choosing the right provider:Experience with Amazon FBA: Make sure your logistics provider has experience working specifically with Amazon FBA. This ensures they understand the specific packaging, labeling, and documentation requirements for FBA shipments.Clear and Transparent Pricing: Request detailed pricing breakdowns, including all potential extra charges such as cargo insurance, documentation fees, and customs clearance charges. This helps you avoid hidden costs during the shipping process.Check for Compliance and Certifications: Ensure the provider complies with all customs, VAT, and import/export regulations. The logistics provider should be able to provide evidence of tax registration or customs certification to avoid complications during customs processing.Capacity to Handle Seasonal Peaks: Choose a logistics partner who can adjust to peak seasons by managing warehouse space and timely shipping to prevent storage restrictions at Amazon's FBA warehouses.Customer Service & Problem Resolution: A reliable logistics provider should offer prompt customer service and the ability to resolve any issues quickly, especially when things go wrong during transit or customs clearance.Best Practices for Using Dual Customs Clearance & Taxes Included1. Choose Reputable ProvidersResearch and select logistics companies with proven expertise in dual customs clearance and tax-inclusive services. Look for reviews, testimonials, and case studies that demonstrate their reliability.2. Ensure ComplianceStay informed about the latest customs and tax regulations in your target market. Collaborate closely with your logistics provider to ensure all documentation and procedures are up to date.3. Plan for ContingenciesDespite thorough planning, unexpected issues can arise. Have a contingency plan in place to handle delays or complications in customs clearance. Ensure you have the contact details of both your provider and Amazon’s support team to resolve issues quickly.4. Monitor and ReviewRegularly review your logistics process and costs. This helps identify areas for improvement and ensures you’re getting the best value from your logistics provider. Continuously track changes in tax and customs regulations to adjust your process as needed.ConclusionFBA Dual Customs Clearance & Taxes Included is a valuable service for Amazon sellers looking to simplify their international shipping and logistics. By handling both export and import customs procedures and including all relevant taxes in the service fee, this solution offers a streamlined, cost-effective way to manage your FBA shipments. However, it’s essential to choose a reputable provider and stay informed about regulatory requirements to maximize the benefits and minimize potential risks.Embracing this comprehensive logistics service can free you from the complexities of international shipping, allowing you to focus on what truly matters—growing your Amazon business and reaching customers worldwide.