How to Vet an FBA Freight Forwarder in China

Choosing a freight forwarder for Amazon FBA is different from choosing one for general cargo. A normal importer can take a delivery at any door on any weekday, but Amazon doesn’t work that way. Fulfillment centers book inbound appointments, refuse cartons with missing or wrong labels, and often split one shipment across several warehouses. A forwarder that ships pallets to distributors without trouble can still leave your inventory stuck at a fulfillment center gate.

This guide covers what to check, what to ask, and what should make you walk away. If you’d rather see how one forwarder answers these points, our Amazon FBA freight forwarder service page walks through them.

Start with what Amazon requires

Before you compare forwarders, get clear on what Amazon expects from an inbound shipment. The rules change, so check Seller Central for the current version. These are the basics as of September 2026.

Unit and carton labels

Most products need a scannable FNSKU label, unless the listing qualifies to use the manufacturer barcode. Every carton needs its own FBA box label, printed from the shipment you created in Seller Central. Pallets headed to a fulfillment center get their own labels too. A missing, damaged or duplicated label can mean the carton is refused or held for manual processing, which costs you time and fees.

Prep: in the US, it’s now on you

Amazon’s prep rules depend on the product type. Examples include poly bags with suffocation warnings, bubble wrap for fragile items, bundling sets so they stay together, and covering old barcodes. Amazon ended its own FBA prep and item labeling services for the US marketplace on January 1, 2026. For US inventory, the prep has to be done before the goods reach Amazon: by you, your supplier or a prep provider.

That makes a forwarder’s prep capability a real selection criterion. Doing prep in China, before you pay for freight, is usually cheaper than fixing cartons at a US prep center after arrival.

Carton size and weight limits

In the US, standard inbound cartons are generally limited to 50 lb and 25 inches on any side. The exception is a single item that’s heavier or larger on its own, which has to be labeled accordingly. Check Seller Central for the current limits for your marketplace, and give them to your supplier before production packing starts. Once goods reach the forwarder, repacking is extra work.

From the warehouse floor: We photograph cartons when they arrive at our warehouses in China and again before dispatch. If a supplier carton is over Amazon’s limit or damaged, you see it in the photos before it ships, not in a receiving report weeks later.

The vetting checklist

1. Can they do FBA prep, or only move boxes?

Ask whether they can receive, count, label, poly bag, bundle and repack in China, and where that work is done. If they use a third-party warehouse, get its name and city. A forwarder that preps before loading can catch a supplier’s labeling mistake while the goods are still in China. One that can’t leaves you to find the problem at the fulfillment center.

Useful questions:

• Can you apply FNSKU labels and FBA box labels if I send the PDFs?
• Do you photograph cartons and labels before dispatch?
• What happens if my supplier’s carton count doesn’t match the packing list?

From the warehouse floor: Our Amazon prep work before loading covers labeling, poly bagging, bundling items into sets and repacking. Doing it in China means a mistake gets fixed before you’ve paid freight on it.

2. How do they handle split shipments?

Amazon often assigns cartons from one shipment plan to two or more fulfillment centers. Your forwarder needs to sort cartons by destination at origin, keep the paperwork separate and book a separate final delivery for each destination. Amazon’s inbound placement options can mean a fee if you choose fewer destinations than its recommended split, so check the current terms in Seller Central. Ask each forwarder how they price a split: one delivery fee per fulfillment center, or a single all-in rate? That one question can change a quote a lot.

3. Who is the importer of record?

This is where many new sellers go wrong. Amazon won’t act as the importer of record (IOR) for your goods. Someone else has to be the legal importer, responsible for the customs declaration and for paying duties and taxes. That can be you, working through a customs broker with the right registrations, or a party the forwarder arranges under a DDP service.

A good forwarder tells you in writing, before you book, whose name the entry is filed under. Ask directly:

• On your DDP service, whose name is on the customs entry as importer?
• If customs questions the classification or value, who responds, and who pays any extra duty or penalty?
• Can I get copies of the customs entry documents?

A forwarder that dodges these questions is a risk to your account and your inventory.

4. What exactly does the DDP quote include?

“DDP to Amazon” sounds all-inclusive, but quotes vary widely. Put two or three side by side and check whether each one includes:

• Pickup from your supplier (and whether each extra supplier costs more)
• Export customs declaration in China
• Main freight (sea, air, rail or express)
• Import customs clearance and brokerage
• Import duties and taxes, or whether they’re billed separately at cost
• Destination port or airport charges
• Final delivery to the fulfillment center, including appointment booking
• Cargo insurance

Also ask how the price is calculated: per kg, per cubic meter (CBM) or per carton, and whether there’s a minimum charge.

5. Where do the hidden costs come from?

Most billing disputes come down to a few charges nobody discussed up front:

• Destination charges. Terminal handling, document fees and port congestion surcharges can show up on DDU shipments. They can also show up on “DDP” shipments that define DDP narrowly.
• Delivery appointments and waiting time. Fulfillment centers can reschedule appointments or turn trucks away. Ask who pays for redelivery and waiting time.
• Storage. If Amazon is slow to receive, or your shipment plan changes mid-transit, goods may sit in a destination warehouse. Ask how long storage is free and what it costs per day after that.
• Relabeling and re-palletizing. Redoing labels at destination usually costs far more than doing it right in China.
• Customs exams. Any shipment can be picked for inspection, and the exam fees and extra storage normally go to the importer. Ask how the forwarder handles them.
• Oversize and overweight cartons. Express and air rates can jump sharply for heavy single pieces.

None of these means a forwarder is dishonest. A good one tells you about them before you book.

6. Tracking and communication

You need a named contact who replies, plus updates at each milestone: picked up, departed, arrived, cleared and delivered. Ask which channels they use and what hours to expect.

7. Check real reviews

Look for reviews tied to actual transactions, such as order reviews on Alibaba.com, rather than testimonials with no names or dates. Favor sellers shipping similar products to the marketplace you sell on.

Run a test shipment first

Before you commit a full production run, send a smaller shipment on the same route and mode. A test shows you things a sales call won’t:

• How closely the final invoice matched the quote
• How quickly problems were flagged and fixed
• Whether cartons arrived with labels intact and were received cleanly
• How long each leg actually took compared with the estimate

Red flags

• A price far below every other quote, with no clear breakdown of what’s included
• Vague answers about who the importer of record is
• Promises of fixed delivery dates or “guaranteed” customs clearance (no forwarder controls customs exams or fulfillment center receiving)
• Suggesting you under-declare the value of your goods to cut duties, which is the importer’s legal problem and can lead to penalties and seized goods
• No warehouse address in China, or unwillingness to share one
• Refusing to put the quote and its terms in writing

Questions to copy into your first message

1. Where in China do you receive goods and do FBA prep and labeling?
2. Can you collect from several suppliers and consolidate them into one shipment?
3. Under DDP, who is the importer of record, and are duties included or billed at cost?
4. How do you price a shipment split across several fulfillment centers?
5. What isn’t included in this quote?
6. How long is storage free at destination, and what does it cost after that?
7. Who books delivery appointments, and who pays if a delivery is refused or rescheduled?
8. Can I see photos of labeled cartons before dispatch?

Final thought

The cheapest rate per kg is rarely the cheapest shipment. The real cost includes prep mistakes, refused deliveries, storage, and stockouts while inventory is stuck in transit. Choose the forwarder that answers the questions above clearly and in writing.

YC Logistics has shipped from China since 2009. We have offices in Shenzhen, Ningbo, Shanghai and Yiwu, collect from suppliers across China, do FBA prep and labeling at our warehouses in China before loading, and run warehouses in the US as well. To get answers to this checklist for your own products, send us your shipment details.