Comparative analysis of three common FBA first leg transportation methods

In recent years, with the continuous improvement of cross-border e-commerce basic services, the usage rate of Amazon's e-commerce platform has become increasingly widespread, and more and more e-commerce companies are starting to use FBA logistics. FBA's first leg logistics transportation methods are mainly divided into three types: sea freight, air freight, and international express delivery. In the past two years, with the opening of the China Europe Railway, more and more European FBA cross-border e-commerce companies have chosen the China Europe train transportation. Today we will mainly explain the sea freight, air freight, and international express delivery in FBA's first leg transportation.

mong the three common FBA first leg transportation methods, international sea freight has a higher cost-effectiveness, so its usage rate has always been wider than air freight and international express delivery. Although the logistics timeliness of international sea freight is easily affected by natural weather at sea, the shipping cost is cheap. In addition, Amazon merchants now mainly use Amazon warehouses for shipping, so as long as merchants do a good job in inventory management of Amazon warehouse goods, the impact of timeliness issues in FBA's initial sea freight process on sellers can be almost ignored.

International air freight in FBA's first leg transportation is a highly efficient and expensive transportation method. Amazon sellers cooperate with domestic freight forwarding companies to complete the FBA first leg transportation of goods through air freight. The goods are then transported to the destination country by local delivery agencies. The freight cost of FBA international air freight is twice that of sea freight, but the flight options are more flexible and the flight time is short, so FBA international air freight usually saves 20-30 days compared to sea freight. If the goods are small in size, high in price, and require high timeliness, air freight can usually be chosen.

International express delivery in FBA's first leg transportation is a more efficient transportation method than air freight. The transportation time of international express delivery usually only takes about a week to reach Europe and America, and its timeliness can meet most urgent transportation requirements. When choosing international express delivery, merchants need to pay attention to the customs clearance capabilities of the courier company. Cross border e-commerce express delivery is different from domestic express delivery. If the customs clearance ability of the express delivery company is not strong, even if the transportation time is fast, it may be due to customs clearance issues that the goods cannot be stored in a timely manner.

The above are the main differences between the three FBA first leg transportation methods: sea freight, air freight, and international express delivery. When sellers choose the FBA first leg transportation method, they usually choose based on the product price, profit margin, and timeliness requirements. If the early sales of Amazon stores are not high, sellers can also choose to use Amazon FBA shipping method. This way, the goods can be transported to Amazon's FBA warehouse by sea, which can save the trouble of selecting and contacting FBA's initial transportation service provider in the early stage.