Amazon’s first leg refers to the journey from China to Amazon’s overseas warehouse. Amazon sellers call this journey the Amazon FBA first leg. This section of transportation is more complicated, involving customs clearance, payment of tariffs, etc., so it needs to be handled by a professional freight forwarding service provider. However, different service providers have different logistics methods, charging standards, and delivery time limits. Therefore, when choosing a logistics service provider, sellers should choose a suitable logistics service provider based on the characteristics of their products and their actual situation.
Amazon’s first leg transportation method
1. Commercial express
Common commercial express services include DHL, UPS, and Fedex. Commercial express services are good and time-sensitive. The transportation time limit is generally 3 to 5 days, but the unit price of freight is also relatively high. When most sellers choose commercial express, they often first look at its delivery time advantage. Generally, sellers will choose commercial express for emergency replenishment or when the product has very high transportation time requirements.
2. Air freight plus delivery Air freight plus delivery is also called air freight line. It is to transport products from China to the country where Amazon warehouse is located by air, and then use local express companies to transport products to Amazon warehouse. The timeliness is slightly slower than commercial express delivery, and the general transportation time is about 7 days. It is more suitable for small and light products. The current market price of air freight fluctuates between 40 yuan/kg and 60 yuan/kg. Many sellers will choose air freight when they ship new products for the first time, so as to quickly send products to Amazon warehouses and make the products available for sale, so as to obtain market feedback in time.
3. Sea freight plus delivery Sea freight plus delivery is the lowest price mode of transportation, which is divided into fast ship and slow ship. The timeliness of fast ship is generally about 25 days, and the timeliness of slow ship is generally about 45 days. The price of slow ship per kilogram is about 11 yuan, and the price of fast ship is about 13 yuan per kilogram. Generally, logistics service providers for sea freight have a minimum starting standard, such as more than 100 kilograms to count as one ticket. If the weight is less than 100 kg, many sea freight logistics companies will not accept it. Currently, the commonly used sea freights are Yantian Shipping, Zim Shipping, and Matsun Shipping.
4. Railway transportation If you are a seller doing business in Europe, you can also consider railway transportation. Railway transportation may be much cheaper than sea transportation in some cities. Especially in the central and western regions, such as Wuhan, Chengdu and other regions, for Amazon sellers, railway transportation is the first choice for doing business in Europe.