How to ship from China to the USA: methods, transit times, costs and customs
Every ecommerce brand sourcing in China eventually asks the same question: what is the best way to get products to American customers? The answer depends on what you are shipping (single orders or cartons), how fast it needs to arrive and how much margin you have. This guide covers the four methods, realistic transit times, what actually drives cost, and what changed on customs.
First decision: parcels or freight?
There are two very different logistics flows, and mixing them up is the most common mistake we see.
Parcel shipping means individual orders leaving China one by one, straight to the customer’s door: the dropshipping and China-based fulfillment model. Each parcel travels with its own tracking number and clears customs as a small consignment.
Freight means cartons or pallets moving in bulk to a US destination: your own warehouse, a US 3PL or an Amazon fulfillment center. One shipment, one customs entry, then domestic delivery from there.
Most scaling brands use both: freight for bulk replenishment of proven products, parcels for everything else. The four methods below map onto these two flows.
The four ways to ship from China to the USA
1. Express courier (DHL, FedEx, UPS): 3 to 5 days
Door-to-door in under a week, with the best tracking and the most predictable customs clearance. Works for both single parcels and small cartons. It is the most expensive option per kilogram, so it fits high-margin products, urgent restocks and samples.
2. Economy and commercial line-haul services: 8 to 15 days
Specialized cross-border lines consolidate thousands of parcels, fly them to the US and inject them into USPS or a regional carrier for the last mile. Much cheaper than express, slower, tracking is a little less granular. This is the workhorse of China-based ecommerce fulfillment: the right choice for most parcels under 2 kg where the customer expects delivery in about two weeks.
3. Air freight: 7 to 10 days for cartons
Cartons or pallets flown airport to airport, then cleared and trucked to your warehouse or an Amazon fulfillment center. Priced per kilogram with a minimum, it becomes cheaper than express somewhere around 20 to 30 kg and is the standard way to restock FBA when sea freight is too slow.
4. Sea freight (LCL or FCL): 30 to 40 days door to door
The cheapest way to move volume. LCL (less than container load) shares a container with other shippers; FCL (full container load) gives you a 20 or 40 foot container of your own. Port-to-port to the US West Coast can be under three weeks, but door-to-door including customs and trucking is realistically 30 to 40 days. Plan inventory 6 to 8 weeks ahead.
Typical door-to-door time, including customs clearance. Bars show the upper end of each range.
What actually drives the cost
Chargeable weight, not actual weight
Carriers bill whichever is higher: the real weight or the volumetric weight (length × width × height in cm, divided by 5,000 for most express services and 6,000 for air freight). A light, bulky product like a pillow or a plastic organizer is billed as if it weighed several kilograms. Packaging size is the single biggest cost lever you control.
Service level
Per kilogram, express costs several times more than an economy line, which costs more than air freight, which costs far more than sea. Matching the service to the product margin, rather than defaulting to one method, is where fulfillment partners earn their fee.
Destination zone and address type
Remote areas, PO boxes and residential deliveries carry surcharges. A New York apartment and a rural address in Montana do not cost the same.
Duties and taxes
Covered below. Since 2025 they apply to every shipment, so they belong in your unit economics from day one.
Fuel and peak surcharges
Carriers add fuel surcharges that move monthly, and peak-season surcharges from roughly October to January. Budget a buffer for Q4.
Customs and duties: what changed
For years, parcels under 800 USD entered the United States duty-free under the de minimis exemption, which is what made low-cost China-to-US dropshipping work. In 2025 the US ended de minimis treatment for shipments from China and Hong Kong, then for all countries. Every parcel now goes through customs with duties assessed.
What that means in practice:
- Every product needs a correct HTS code. The 10-digit Harmonized Tariff Schedule code determines the duty rate. Misclassification causes delays and penalties.
- Duty rates depend on the code and on the tariff measures in force at the time of import. Rates on Chinese goods have changed several times; check the current rate for your code before you price a product, and revisit it regularly.
- Decide who pays: DDP or DDU. With Delivered Duty Paid, duties are calculated and paid upfront and the customer receives the parcel with nothing to pay. With Delivered Duty Unpaid, the carrier collects duties plus a handling fee from the customer at delivery, which produces refused parcels and angry reviews. For ecommerce, DDP is the only sane choice.
- Freight shipments need proper documentation. Commercial invoice, packing list, and for higher-value entries a customs bond and a licensed broker. Your forwarder handles this, but you supply the product data.
- Some categories need compliance paperwork. Electronics (FCC), food-contact and cosmetics (FDA), children’s products (CPSC) and others. Sort this out at sourcing, not at the border.
Incoterms in one paragraph
When you buy from a factory, the quote will carry a three-letter Incoterm that says who pays for what. EXW (Ex Works): you collect from the factory door and pay everything from there. FOB (Free On Board): the factory delivers to the Chinese port; you pay ocean freight, insurance and everything after. DDP (Delivered Duty Paid): the seller delivers to your US door with duties paid. Most agent and 3PL arrangements quote you a landed cost that is effectively DDP, which is what you want for clean unit economics.
Shipping to Amazon FBA from China
FBA inventory is a freight flow with extra rules: FNSKU labels on every unit, poly bags with suffocation warnings, carton labels and weight limits, and delivery to the specific fulfillment centers in your shipping plan. Prepping this in China, before the goods fly, avoids paying a US prep center and a second domestic leg. Our FBA prep center in China covers the full process.
Which method for which situation
| Situation | Use | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Single dropshipping orders, standard margin | Economy line | Best cost per parcel; 8 to 15 days is acceptable for most niches |
| Single orders, premium product or urgent | Express courier | 3 to 5 days and full tracking justify the cost |
| Samples and small test batches | Express courier | Speed matters more than cost at this stage |
| FBA restock, 20 to 200 kg | Air freight | Cheaper than express at this weight, faster than sea |
| Bulk replenishment, proven SKUs | Sea freight (LCL, then FCL) | Lowest cost per unit; plan 6 to 8 weeks ahead |
| Light, bulky products | Sea freight or careful packaging | Volumetric weight makes air options expensive |
How to ship from China to the USA, step by step
How Apex Hub handles China-to-US shipping
Every order that leaves our Shenzhen facility is matched to the method that fits its weight, destination and your margin: express, standard or economy lines for parcels, air or sea for bulk. Duties and customs handling are included, tracking is pushed back to your store, and the same team manages bulk inventory, per-order dropshipping and FBA replenishment. If you want a landed-cost estimate for a specific product, send us the dimensions, weight and destination.
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