Category: Shipping & Fulfillment

China Free Trade Zones: A Complete Guide

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Since the introduction of the first Free Trade Zone in Shanghai, the Chinese government has added a dozen more and has plans to further expand and create new zones.

It’s an important brick of the One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative, where China plans to develop infrastructure and invest in many countries in Africa, Asia, and Europe.

In this article, I explain everything you need to know about Free Trade Zones in China, what benefits these bring, why they were created in the first place, and more.

Definition of a Free Trade Zone

Before we start, you must have a general understanding of what an FTZ is, and what benefits these zones bring.

In short words, FTZs are designated areas where foreign companies can engage in economic activities that are generally not accepted elsewhere in the country.

Continue reading China Free Trade Zones: A Complete Guide

Top 5 Bonded Warehouses in China: An Overview

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China is quickly moving from being a pure manufacturing and export nation to having a large middle-class that crave foreign products. Along with this, the government does it utmost to make it easier for overseas companies and brands to enter the market.

The rise of cross-border eCommerce prevails and bonded warehouses have made it remarkably easier to enter the Chinese market. Previously, many small and medium-sized companies couldn’t enter the Chinese market due to strict import regulations and a significantly smaller domestic market.

If you look for bonded warehouses, don’t look any further. In this article, we list the top 5 bonded warehouses available in China.

1. KLG

KLG ITM is a leading bonded warehouse in China that was founded in 2013. It’s a joint-venture between Kuijken Logistics Group (KLG) and Intermax (ITM) and they provide high-quality services to customers from all around the world.

The company provides the following solutions:

  • Warehousing
  • Freight forwarding
  • Supply chain management
  • Tailor-made solutions
  • Digital solutions
  • Quality controls

They can also help with the unloading of cargo, sample picking, QC and labeling, repacking, loading, pick & pack, order management, and more. Continue reading Top 5 Bonded Warehouses in China: An Overview

Hong Kong Fulfillment when Selling Cross-Border to China: by ZhenHub

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Hong Kong fulfillment is one of the most popular options when overseas companies sell products cross-border into mainland China.

Not only can fulfillment centers help you reduce shipping lead times, but they’re also often efficient and offer competitive shipping rates.

In this article, Vince Poon from ZhenHub explains how it works when shipping cross-border from Hong Kong to China. It’s an established fulfillment center with warehouses in almost a dozen countries.

Vincent, please introduce yourself and your work at ZhenHub in Hong Kong.

I’m the CEO of ZhenHub, a single dashboard terminal that helps you fulfill and ship your goods globally.

Here, you can get quotes, execute your shipments, communicate with your shipper, and manage your inventory all in a single location.

Our terminal allows easy communication and our customers to automate their fulfillment and shipping. We also provide business intelligence and analytics around costs, delivery times, and easy view of all documentation required for each shipment.

Before ZhenHub, my background was in the legal field and consulting. I saw a lot of issues within the supply chain, for example:

  • No visibility of pricing
  • No visibility over where shipments are located
  • Slow communication

After working with eCommerce companies, dropshippers, and different brands for the last 8 years, I realized these problems meant the survival or growth of a successful eCommerce business.

This all flows down to how well your business is serving its customers.

Continue reading Hong Kong Fulfillment when Selling Cross-Border to China: by ZhenHub

How to Fulfill & Ship Products with Shopee: A Complete Guide

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Shopee has become one of the biggest E-Commerce marketplaces in Southeast Asia. Nowadays, it can also be found in countries like Korea and Taiwan.

Thus, Shopee operates in Asian countries where Lazada currently doesn’t have a presence.

Increasingly more cross-border sellers wonder how they can start selling on Shopee. Often, they ask how they can fulfill and ship orders to clients in so many countries.

In this article, you’ll learn the following:

  • What shipping options are available for Shopee sellers?
  • 3rd party fulfillment centers
  • Fulfilled By Shopee (FBS)
  • How can sellers offer free shipping on Shopee?
  • How can customers track orders?
  • How do sellers manage returns and failed deliveries?

What shipping options are available for Shopee sellers?

Shopee doesn’t have a mature logistics infrastructure for global cross-border sellers. At least not in comparison to Lazada and major Chinese E-Commerce platforms, like Tmall Global and JD Worldwide.

Its services are mainly to serve sellers in China, at least at the moment.

This is not strange as most of the products sold online in Southeast Asia are in the lower price range, manufactured in- and sold from sellers in China.

Continue reading How to Fulfill & Ship Products with Shopee: A Complete Guide

Shipping Products with Lazada Global Shipping (LGS): A Complete Guide

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We’ve already written a number of articles explaining how it works with payment methods on Lazada, about fulfillment, fees & commissions, and more.

Truth be told, it’s easy to get started and to start selling here, at least when comparing to many Chinese marketplaces.

If you plan to sell on Lazada, you’ll need to use either Lazada’s own shipping services, or get in touch with a third party that can help you out. Personally, I’d go for the first choice.

In this article, I explain about Lazada’s shipping solution and what benefits this can bring you.

What is LGS (Lazada Global Shipping)?

LGS is Lazada’s own in-house shipping solution, solely dedicated to cross-border sellers.

You’re probably familiar with the term cross-border by now, but let’s have a quick recap. Practically speaking, you ship your products from overseas (f.e. The US or Europe) to Lazada’s fulfillment center in Hong Kong.

Continue reading Shipping Products with Lazada Global Shipping (LGS): A Complete Guide

Lazada Order Fulfillment: How it Works

Posted on by Marcus Sohlberg — 16 Comments

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We’ve already covered how you can start selling cross-border on Lazada in Southeast Asia, an E-Commerce market that will grow massively in the coming years.

Today, I’ll deep dive more into how it works when using Lazada’s highly successful fulfillment services for cross-border sellers.

By letting Lazada managing the complete logistics cycle from pick-up at your warehouse to end delivery you can increase sales, customer ratings, and focus on other important things, like marketing.

In this article, I explain the whole process from the time you ship your products to Lazada to managing returned products.

1. Ship your products to a Lazada fulfillment center

Cross-border sellers are requested to use Lazada’s own fulfillment service FBL (Fulfillment by Lazada), sending products to their centralized sortation center in Hong Kong.

From here, Lazada takes care of, storage, pick & pack, cross-border deliveries, and last mile deliveries, with competitive costs.

And it comes with many benefits.

Continue reading Lazada Order Fulfillment: How it Works

Ecommerce Fulfillment in Vietnam: By Boxme.asia

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Vietnam Fulfillment Center

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Ecommerce in China get all the headlines, but the real ecommerce boom is actually taking place in South East Asia. Lazada and Shopee are the top ecommerce platforms in ASEAN and are far easier to break into than Tmall.hk or JD Worldwide.

That said, consumers in South East Asia are as savvy as those in Europe, the US or China. They demand fast deliveries, and the option to return products.

Managing your ASEAN product fulfillment from overseas is practically impossible.

Luckily, Ecommerce fulfillment companies like Boxme.asia enable businesses worldwide to store, pack and ship products across South East Asia.

In this article, Jerad Tan, General Manager of Boxme.asia, explains how they can help you tap into the world’s fastest growing ecommerce market by utilizing their fulfillment centers in Vietnam.

Jerad, what’s the story behind Boxme.asia?

Jerad TanFounded by Nexttech.asia – a group of companies focusing on E-commerce solutions in Asia, Boxme is the premier cross-border e-Commerce fulfillment network in South East Asia, enabling worldwide merchants to sell online into this region without the need to establish a local presence.

We provide fulfillment and shipping solutions for E-commerce merchants so they can easily sell and manage orders from Omni-channels and cross-borders, especially in the South East Asia region.

Basically, with Boxme, anyone from any country can easily sell cross-border to other countries and automate their orders through various e-commerce platforms that are connected to Boxme, while we help them fulfill orders and delivery to customers. Continue reading Ecommerce Fulfillment in Vietnam: By Boxme.asia

How Foreign Companies Can Sell Online in China: By Michael Michelini

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There is undoubtedly a lot of hype around the Mainland China ecommerce market. While the market is open to foreign sellers, there are few success stories to be found.

In this Q&A with Michael Michelini, founder of GlobalfromAsia.com and the Cross Border Summit in Shenzhen, you will learn if you’re products are a good fit for the Mainland China market.

In addition, you will also learn how you can use a Hong Kong company as part of your supply chain, and much more.

Michael, please introduce yourself and the upcoming Cross Border Summit

Hi, my name is Michael Michelini and I’m the founder and host of Global From Asia – a cross-border business podcast and blog for ecommerce executives.

Cross Border Summit is our annual conference every April to bring together top leaders and experts to discuss cross-border e-commerce, both importing into China (via Wechat marketing and logistics) as well as exporting from China (via Amazon FBA and other means). Our third annual summit is a full 2 day conference on April 20-21, 2018 in Shenzhen China.

Say that I am a semi-established ecommerce entrepreneur in the US or Europe. Why should I care about China?

China is getting harder and harder to ignore. Both for importing and selling into China as well as exporting globally – the Chinese business owner is covering more and more of the market.

Many of our network overseas has been studying closely Chinese sellers on Amazon and learning from them now!

On the consumer side, for importing and selling into China, the middle class market has continued to grow and the hunger for imported (foreign) goods is better than ever.

It depends on your product line and the strength of your brand. If you are able to build a brand that the Chinese consumer trusts, you can command a healthy profit margin and repeat buyers.

Just like anything in life, if you are willing to invest for the long term, the Chinese market can pay big dividends on the long term. Continue reading How Foreign Companies Can Sell Online in China: By Michael Michelini

Shipping to Japan – The short guide that presents the best freight option for your products

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Suggestion: Watch the 10 minutes video tutorial before reading this article

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To initiate exports to Japan is not always an easy task for small business owners who long for increased sales in the far East. If you plan for exports to Japan, I recommend you to read this short guide. I guide you through the benefits of using different freight options and present the import procedure to Japan. Let’s start with the latter one.

Export/import procedures to Japan

The Japanese Customs provides valuable information on their website. You can find information regarding certification, application procedures when exporting/importing goods, FAQ and lists that show goods with prohibition. Continue reading Shipping to Japan – The short guide that presents the best freight option for your products