Shipping from China to Amazon FBA: DDP Freight Guide (2026)

If you sell in the Amazon store and source products from China, your shipping method directly affects your profit margin, your inventory timing, and your risk of customs problems.

DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) means the operating party handles everything from your supplier's factory to the Amazon dock in one all-inclusive price: pickup, freight, customs, duties, prep, and delivery. For a full explanation of how DDP works, what a DDP price covers, and who the importer of record is, see our complete DDP guide.

This matters because Amazon does not act as importer of record for third-party sellers and does not clear customs or pay duties on your behalf. If a shipment arrives with unresolved customs issues, it gets held while your listing runs out of stock. Under DDP, the carrier owns that responsibility. In 2026 it matters twice: the U.S. duty line on China-origin goods grew, and Amazon stopped offering prep and item-labeling for U.S. FBA shipments, so the work has to be right before the cargo leaves China.

A China shipment can end at two different Amazon docks, and the choice changes what you post in the auction.

Direct to FBA. You create a shipping plan in Send to Amazon, Amazon assigns one or more fulfillment centers, and the carrier delivers to those FCs with a booked appointment. Inventory is sellable after check-in. This is the default for launches, small batches, and anything that has to be live fast.

Through AWD. Amazon Warehousing and Distribution is Amazon's low-cost bulk storage service that holds inventory upstream of the fulfillment network and distributes it to Amazon fulfillment centers or to other channels. Inventory is replenished into the fulfillment network automatically, positioned closer to customers based on demand, and Amazon presents it as a way to reduce stock-outs and to avoid holding a full season of inventory inside FBA storage. The carrier delivers your whole shipment to one AWD facility, with a booked appointment, and Amazon moves it downstream from there.

Under either door, the DDP scope is the same on the customs side: the operating party imports, pays duties, and delivers cleared goods. What you specify differently is the destination, the appointment type, and, for AWD, whether the container is palletized or floor-loaded under Amazon's policy. Confirm the current AWD shipping requirements and the fee treatment of AWD-to-FBA replenishment in Seller Central before you post; both change.

Here's the complete process, from creating your Amazon shipment plan to receiving inventory at the Amazon dock.

Before you can ship anything, Amazon needs to know what's coming. For direct-to-FBA shipments, go to Send to Amazon and create your inbound shipping plan with product quantities, carton dimensions, and weights; Amazon then assigns one or more fulfillment centers, and the split option you choose (Amazon-optimized or minimal) decides whether an inbound placement service fee applies. For AWD, create the inbound shipment to the AWD facility instead.

Tip: If your ship-from address is in California (which it will be if your carrier delivers from a West Coast port), Amazon often assigns West Coast FCs, which means faster delivery from China and lower domestic trucking costs.

Every sellable unit needs an FNSKU barcode, Amazon's own product identifier. Don't rely on manufacturer barcodes (UPC/EAN) unless you're enrolled in commingling, which most experienced sellers avoid because it mixes your inventory with other sellers' stock. Every box needs a unique FBA Box ID label within Amazon's weight limit, and every pallet four FBA Pallet ID labels on a compliant 40 x 48 inch wooden pallet. The full unit, box, and pallet rules are in the prep requirements section below.

Tip: labels at origin, pallets at destination. These are two separate decisions, and sellers lose money on the second one. Unit labels (FNSKU) belong at origin, and since January 1, 2026 they have to be right before arrival: Amazon no longer applies them for FBA shipments in the U.S. store, and AWD does not label or relabel units either. Box and pallet labels work differently, because they are generated from the shipping plan once Amazon assigns fulfillment centers; when the plan is not final before the cargo ships, they go on at a U.S. facility instead. Say which of the two you need when you post the shipment. Pallets are the opposite of labels: they belong at the destination end of the lane, for the reasons in the pallet section below.

With AiDeliv's reverse auction, you post your shipment details once: origin (your supplier's city in China), destination (the FC or FCs assigned in your shipping plan, or the AWD facility), cargo weight and dimensions, product category, and the FBA prep you need. Pre-vetted carriers then bid for your shipment during a defined auction window. Each bid must meaningfully beat the previous one, so prices drop through competition rather than negotiation. You see all bids transparently and choose the one that fits your budget and timeline.

You retain full discretion: accept the winning bid, reject it, or start a new auction. Booking only happens when you accept.

Once you accept a bid, the carrier coordinates pickup from your supplier's factory or warehouse in China and handles export customs clearance and all Chinese-side documentation. At the origin warehouse the cargo is measured and photographed; if the measurements match what you posted, the price stands, and if they differ you approve or decline the updated total before anything moves further. Ask the carrier to confirm the HS code and duty line before a large order; on China-origin goods that line now has three layers, and one digit can move the rate by tens of percentage points.

This is where DDP earns its value. The carrier files the Importer Security Filing before vessel loading, arranges the customs entry when the shipment arrives at a U.S. port, pays import duties and taxes on the 2026 stack, and handles FDA, CPSC, or other agency requirements where they apply; since July 8, 2026 CPSC Certificates of Compliance for regulated consumer products are filed electronically at entry.

Through AiDeliv, the executing carrier (the carrier whose bid you accept) provides importer-of-record capability via its approved IOR structure. You don't need to obtain your own customs bond or hire a separate customs broker.

The carrier arranges last-mile trucking from the port to the fulfillment center or the AWD facility and books the delivery appointment through Amazon's carrier appointment system. Amazon enforces strict appointment windows: a missed appointment means your shipment gets turned away and rescheduled, adding days or weeks to your timeline, and FBA shipments that arrive late, at the wrong location, or not at all can trigger Amazon's inbound defect fee. Experienced FBA carriers know this process and schedule proactively.

After delivery to an FC, Amazon receives, inspects, and checks in your inventory, which typically takes 3–7 business days before units become available for sale. After delivery to AWD, inventory moves into the fulfillment network on Amazon's replenishment schedule.

Amazon's fulfillment centers enforce strict inbound requirements. Even if your shipment clears customs perfectly, it can be rejected at the dock for operational non-compliance, and since January 1, 2026 Amazon no longer fixes prep or labeling for you. Here's what to get right before the cargo leaves China.

Amazon's pallet rules describe what it receives, not where the pallet has to be assembled, and on an ocean shipment that distinction is worth money.

A pallet loaded in China is cargo you pay to move and cannot sell. The deck takes about five inches of the stack height Amazon allows, a wooden GMA pallet weighs roughly 15–20 kg before anything goes on it, and pallets do not tessellate inside a container, so the gaps between the stacks and the container walls are volume you have already bought. On LCL the loss is direct, because you are charged per CBM and the pallet's footprint and deck sit inside your chargeable volume. On air freight the pallet's own weight is charged as freight. There is a compliance cost on top: wood packaging entering the United States has to be heat-treated or fumigated and carry the ISPM 15 mark, the importer is responsible for it, and a shipment with non-compliant wood packaging is not allowed to enter, which means an Emergency Action Notification and then treatment, destruction of the wood under APHIS supervision, or re-export.

Floor-loading avoids all of that: cartons are hand-stacked in columns and fill the container. Amazon accepts floor-loaded containers under its floor loading policy, which asks for column stacking, clearance between the stacks and the container walls and roof, a stack height within the same limit that applies to pallets unless the load is handled by clamp truck or slip sheet, and load bars or straps securing the load. A container that misses the policy can be turned away at the dock, so the carrier you pick has to know it.

Floor-loading works when the whole container goes to one destination: a single fulfillment center, or an AWD facility. When your shipping plan splits inventory across several FCs, the container is unloaded in the United States and the pallets are built there for the LTL or FTL legs, which do have to be palletized. Either way the pallet belongs at the destination end. Post the shipment with that scope: unit labels at origin, a floor-loaded container, and palletization in the U.S. where the plan requires it.

Amazon requires carriers to book a delivery appointment through its carrier appointment system before arriving at an FC or an AWD facility. This isn't optional: a truck without an appointment is turned away, and the reschedule costs days. Experienced FBA carriers book proactively and know how Amazon's system behaves, which is one reason a carrier's Amazon track record matters more than the cheapest bid.

On AiDeliv, BidBox analyzes multiple factors to determine which carriers qualify to bid on an FBA lane, including on-time performance, rejection history, and appointment compliance alongside price.

Amazon offers its own freight service, Amazon Global Logistics (AGL), part of Amazon Supply Chain Services. Here's how it compares with DDP through a carrier platform like AiDeliv, based on the AGL Freight Service Terms dated January 14, 2026.

AGL can work for sellers who want everything in one Amazon interface and are comfortable being the importer of record, which means the duties, taxes, and customs bond are yours even though Amazon arranges the broker. If you ship regularly, care about the total landed cost, or want someone else to carry the customs and duty responsibility entirely, DDP through a competitive platform is the better fit: carriers compete for your shipment, and the winning carrier handles the full scope from pickup to the Amazon dock. One price. One point of contact.

Use air for launches, emergency restocks, high-margin products, and test orders of 100–500 units. Use ocean for planned replenishment you can forecast 4–6 weeks ahead, for 5+ CBM or 500+ kg, for lower-margin products, and for full containers going into AWD. Many experienced sellers do both at once: a small air batch (100–300 kg) to start selling immediately, and the bulk by ocean (5–20 CBM) to arrive 3–4 weeks later. The air batch generates sales and reviews while the ocean batch is in transit, and it keeps you clear of the low-inventory-level fee, which since January 15, 2026 is calculated per FNSKU. Watch volumetric weight on air: light but bulky products (pillows, lampshades) can cost 3–5 times what their scale weight suggests, and any pallet loaded at origin is charged at its own weight too.

As planning ranges cited from our DDP shipping cost guide, freight and delivery from China to the USA run $4–8 per kg by air, $100–150 per CBM by ocean LCL, and $3,500–7,000 for a 40ft container on main West Coast lanes, before duties and U.S. entry fees; for China-origin goods, duties are now usually the largest single line. A DDP bid to Amazon covers origin charges, export clearance, freight, customs clearance and duty payment, FBA prep when requested, the appointment, and delivery to the dock; Amazon's own fees sit outside it. The cost guide's worked Example 1 prices 150 kg of phone cases at $1,974.58 all in by air, or $0.66 per unit landed, on an illustrative duty rate that includes the 12.5% line; FBA prep is priced into the bid when you add it to the scope. Reviewed: September 2026.

Timing your shipments from China is critical for Amazon success. Ship too late and you're out of stock for peak sales. Ship at the wrong time and you pay premium rates.

The biggest sales period for Amazon sellers, and the most expensive time to ship. Ship ocean freight by mid-August to have inventory at Amazon by early October, and air freight by mid-September for late October arrival. Expect peak-season surcharges from August through October; the spread varies by year and lane, and a live bid is the only reliable read. FCs get overwhelmed in October and November, and check-in can take 2–3 weeks instead of 3–7 days; Amazon's holiday peak fulfillment fees apply from October 15, 2026 to January 14, 2027. Sellers who move volume pre-position a season of stock in AWD by ocean before peak and let Amazon replenish FCs from there. Book early: post your auction on AiDeliv 6–8 weeks before you need goods at Amazon.

Most Chinese factories close for 2–4 weeks around Chinese New Year, which creates a shipping blackout every year. Chinese New Year 2027 is expected in early February; the official holiday schedule is published by China's State Council late in the year, so plan on the pattern, not the exact dates. Place orders and ship before mid-January, or wait until late February or early March when factories reopen; stock up on 8–10 weeks of inventory before the holiday, and expect port congestion in the weeks after it as backlogged orders ship at once.

Smart sellers plan their largest ocean shipments during the low season, when rates typically run well below peak: March through June brings the best rates, faster transit through less congested ports, and more carrier availability, so your auction on AiDeliv attracts more bids.

Eight changes this year touch a China-to-Amazon shipment. None of them is optional, and most of them land on you unless a DDP scope absorbs them.

Reviewed: September 2026. The mechanism and dates for the whole cluster are on our DDP guide; the current rates by layer and worked examples are in the cost guide.

Most FBA sellers accept whatever their freight forwarder quotes. The forwarder sets a price, you negotiate a little, and you have no way to know if you are paying a fair rate. This is how information asymmetry works against small shippers: the forwarder knows the market rate, you do not.

A reverse auction fixes this by making carriers compete transparently. When Carrier A sees that Carrier B bid $4.00/kg, Carrier A bids $3.85/kg to win the volume. This is not negotiation. This is price discovery, the same mechanism that drives commodity markets.

On AiDeliv, this works specifically for Amazon shipments:

• You post your shipment details once: origin, the FC or AWD destination, cargo specs, and the prep you need
• Pre-vetted carriers with FBA experience bid during a defined auction window
• Each bid must meaningfully beat the previous one
• BidBox, the platform's scoring system, analyzes multiple factors to determine which carriers qualify, including reliability, on-time rates, and Amazon delivery track record
• You make the final call: accept, reject, or start a new auction

Carriers bid directly, with no forwarder margin layer in between, and they compete on the same FBA scope. That is why auction prices on the same DDP scope typically come in 15–40% lower than comparable forwarder quotes. On completed AiDeliv auctions, shipments draw 4–6 binding bids, and the median time to first bid is three to four hours. What you pay is the carrier's winning rate; AiDeliv charges the carrier a platform fee, not you.

Carriers maintain cargo coverage of at least $100,000 per shipment as a platform participation requirement, with claims paid on invoice value up to the coverage limit; that is a carrier-level requirement, not shipper insurance, and for high-value cargo we recommend adding Marine Cargo Insurance. For a full explanation of how the auction works, see our Freight Auction Marketplace page.

• You have no U.S. customs broker, bond, or importer-of-record setup and don't want to build one for an inbound shipment
• You want one price approved before pickup, with the 2026 duty layers, FBA prep, and the appointment inside it
• Your inventory timing is tight enough that a customs hold would mean a stockout and a low-inventory-level fee
• You ship regular replenishment in the 100 kg to 20 CBM range, or full containers into AWD ahead of peak, where competing carrier bids price a real lane
• Your products are standard, compliant goods with a clear HS classification

• You are comfortable being the importer of record, hold your own bond, and want everything inside the Amazon interface: AGL is built for that
• Your product needs U.S.-side kitting, inspection, or rework before it can meet FBA prep rules: a domestic prep center between the port and the dock may be worth its cost
• You sell low-velocity or oversized items where FBA storage and placement fees outweigh the fulfillment benefit: Fulfilled by Merchant with a DDP delivery to your own warehouse may be the better structure
• You ship samples or test quantities under 50 kg: an express courier is faster and simpler than an auction

The auction shows you the market for a defined Amazon shipment; it does not replace the product-compliance and listing work that stays with you under any structure.

FBA prep, labeling, pallet, and fee rules follow Amazon Seller Central help pages as checked in September 2026; the AGL and AWD comparisons follow the Amazon Global Logistics Freight Service Terms and the Amazon Warehousing & Distribution Service Terms, both dated January 14, 2026, and the Amazon Supply Chain Services program pages. Duty and entry changes follow the primary sources listed below. Rate ranges and the worked example are cited from our DDP cost guide, the single source of figures for this cluster; platform metrics are drawn from completed AiDeliv auctions. Seller Central requirements change; confirm them before every shipment. Reviewed: September 2026.