Online Retailers / Amazon / eBay / Shipping from China

[fellatthefirst]

I'm an online retailer and just wondered how everyone else was getting on at the moment in regards to the ever increasing shipping prices from China?

I buy my own branded products direct from China and the price of shipping is just making things harder and harder to make a margin. I just had a quote for a 40ft HQ from China this morning for $19,000!

Is anyone that's buying from UK suppliers being affected by constant price increases? I used to buy from UK suppliers (who get everything from China) so i'm a bit out of the loop on that side of online retail now.

Just wondering how everyone's finding it?

When will it end!

[chowiekid]

We’re seeing quotes of around 15k for 40”hq

We have moved a lot of purchasing to Europe and India currently.
We still bring in from the Far East, we just mix loads with much small items to spread the cost.

Things like garden furniture we are mixing with very small lines and normally we would get 130 of a product in a 40”hq

When mixed we are getting 120 with a further 150,000 of a small line making it cost effective.

Also prices have inflated online so margins are still very much there.

[RegMolehusband]

I was about to post a closely related query when I saw the OPs post.

I am well down the road with a Chinese manufacturer for the first time and, being aware of the current high freight costs, thought it time to get a quote. One 40ft container and one 20ft - $32.5K! This was via Freightos.com.

I nearly fell off my chair.

$32K to get $62K (before duty etc) worth of product over almost makes it a non-starter. I want to get a foothold in this particular market but will have to look closely at the resulting retail price taking into account the shipping cost! The container cost graphs are still heading north of north east though!

[WokkaWokka]

RegMolehusband said:

I was about to post a closely related query when I saw the OPs post.

I am well down the road with a Chinese manufacturer for the first time and, being aware of the current high freight costs, thought it time to get a quote. One 40ft container and one 20ft - $32.5K! This was via Freightos.com.

I nearly fell off my chair.

$32K to get $62K (before duty etc) worth of product over almost makes it a non-starter. I want to get a foothold in this particular market but will have to look closely at the resulting retail price taking into account the shipping cost! The container cost graphs are still heading north of north east though!

You need to speak to someone like Kerry or K&N directly, never heard of this freightos lot.

I ship about 20 40ft containers a month.

This price hike won’t be here forever but for now it’s here so we have to adapt our pricing.

[DSLiverpool]

It’s a crap situation made worse by the fact the Chinese sellers are retailing with subsidised shipping.

I agree it’ll sort itself out and prices will stabilise but then we have the start is Ali Enterprises taking on Amazon - how’s that going to play out? Well they’ve just announced super fast delivery from China for retail sales, if that is offered to trade as well it’ll be interesting.

One of the most robust lines right now is also traditionally the flakiest - clothing. Build a brand, at least you’ve got some sort of exclusivity / usp.

[mmmunch]

We are just moving all our packaging (mainly PET) from China as we speak. Transport cost are around the 15k mark, last year considerably less.
Problem is last year was a sellers market for the Chinese, but now everyone is looking to get product from Eastern Europe (as is everyone else now), which means reduced capacity for everyone as costs are so high.

There's now lots of free capacity in China, but transport costs now effectively make it unviable at present.