Cargo consolidation in China

The problem it solves

An importer working with six different suppliers receives six shipments. Each one with its own freight bill, its own documentation, its own customs clearance and its own final delivery. On small loads, the fixed costs of each shipment far outweigh the value of the transport: a customs clearance costs practically the same for one carton as for a container, and a local delivery is billed the same for one pallet as for ten.

Consolidation turns those six shipments into one. Suppliers deliver in Shenzhen — many of them deliver free or for very little within Guangdong — and from there a single load leaves with a single set of documents.

How we reduce volume

Air freight and express courier are billed on volumetric weight, so the space the packaging occupies is paid for as if it were product. When the goods arrive we apply three standard cuts: we remove individual cartons when the product is already protected, we replace oversized packaging with packaging sized to the product, and we group units into master cartons when the supplier was shipping them loose.

In textile, plastic or kitchenware products, that work usually reduces billable volume by between 20% and 40%. In products that are already compact, such as boxed electronics, the margin is much smaller and we do not promise it.

What we do when your goods arrive

At receiving we check the reference, the quantity and the external condition of the packaging, and we send you photographs of what arrived. We document any dent, open carton or discrepancy before the goods enter the shipping flow: finding it at that point lets you claim against the supplier and reorder; finding it at destination does not.

From there the goods stay in storage until the load closes. During that time we can apply prep center services — SKU labelling, repacking, kitting — so the product leaves China ready to enter a MercadoLibre or Amazon warehouse with no further handling at destination.

When consolidation is NOT worth it

If your supplier already offers you a competitive DDP price for the full volume, adding a consolidation stage may not pay off. It is also not worth it when the product has a critical deadline and waiting for the rest of the load delays the launch: in that case it is better to ship separately and absorb the cost.

And it is not worth it when the load exceeds 15 cubic metres, because from that point a full 20-foot container is usually cheaper than consolidated sea freight. We will tell you when that happens instead of selling you a service that costs you more.

If you bought the goods yourself, we have not seen them

You can buy on any platform or from a supplier you already know and have it dispatched straight to our Shenzhen warehouse. It is a service we handle often, and it does not require the order to pass through us.

With one condition worth being clear about up front: on goods we did not purchase, we do not verify the origin, the lawfulness or whether they infringe third-party intellectual property rights. That responsibility sits with the buyer. If the goods turn out to be counterfeit or to infringe a patent, the seizure and the claim fall on whoever imports them, even though we were the ones who moved them.

If you want us to check the supplier before you buy, factory verification is a separate service with a published price.