Guide · China fulfillment
To fulfill an order from China you need someone to run six steps between your supplier and your customer: route the order, receive the supplier parcel with evidence, prep or consolidate it, pack and measure it, quote from that measurement, and track both legs as one timeline. Three models cover who does that work.
The three models are buying through a dropshipping platform, committing inventory to a 3PL, and keeping your own suppliers behind an operated coordination layer. Which fits depends on two things only: who you want choosing your suppliers, and how much cash you can tie up in stock before anything has sold. The model can be chosen per SKU rather than per store.
| Model | How it works and what it costs you | Best fit |
|---|---|---|
| Dropshipping platform | The platform sources the product, holds it, and ships when you forward an order. Fastest to start; you give up supplier choice, price negotiation and quality continuity. | New sellers testing demand without existing supplier relationships. |
| Inventory 3PL | You buy stock upfront and ship it into the 3PL’s warehouse; they pick, pack and dispatch. Fast fulfillment; every SKU must earn its stock commitment before it has sold. | Proven sellers with steady volume on known SKUs. |
| Coordination layer over your own suppliers | You keep buying from your own suppliers; an operator receives each parcel in China, records evidence, consolidates, packs, quotes from measurement and dispatches. Stocking is optional per SKU. | Stores that already have suppliers and want to test without stock, or mix stocked bestsellers with forwarded long-tail items. |
All three are legitimate. The deeper comparison — including where an inventory 3PL is still the right answer — is in Coordination layer vs agent vs 3PL.
The model comparison above describes what each one is. This one answers the questions merchants ask individually, which is usually how the decision is really made.
| Question | Dropshipping platform | Inventory 3PL | Coordination layer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who chooses the supplier | The platform | You | You |
| Who pays the supplier | The platform, inside the product price | You, before the stock ships in | You, directly, per order |
| Cash committed before a sale | None | A full stock buy per SKU | None |
| Do you own the goods | Not until the platform ships them | Yes, throughout | Yes, throughout |
| Can one order mix models | No | No | Yes — routing is per order line |
| Where the margin leak hides | The product price you never see broken down | Storage on SKUs that stopped selling | Volumetric weight on badly packed consolidations |
| What you cannot do | Negotiate the factory price or change specs | Test a SKU without buying stock | Outsource sourcing — you still have to find suppliers |
These are mechanisms, not advice. The destination authority sets the rules and its ruling prevails — so each row carries the authority to confirm it against rather than asking you to trust this page.
| Region | What changes | Operational consequence | Confirm with |
|---|---|---|---|
| European Union | Consignments up to €150 can use the Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS) so VAT is collected at the point of sale instead of at the border. Above that threshold, import VAT and duty are assessed at clearance. | Whether IOSS applies changes who collects what. Some member states also add their own handling charge on low-value parcels cleared through the simplified scheme — so the same shipment can be cheaper or dearer depending on the scheme it travels under. | The destination member state’s tax and customs authority, plus the EU IOSS registration rules. |
| United Kingdom | Import VAT is collected at the point of sale on consignments under the low-value threshold, and at the border above it. Zones for UK destinations are resolved from the outward code of the postcode. | An unresolvable postcode withholds the zoned lanes rather than guessing a zone, so an incomplete address surfaces as a routing block before dispatch rather than as a surcharge afterwards. | HM Revenue & Customs. |
| United States and Canada | The US de minimis regime that let low-value parcels clear informally was eliminated in 2025, so China-origin shipments face formal entry and duties regardless of value. Canada assesses GST/HST and duty above its own low thresholds. | Brokerage and formal-entry handling become part of landed cost rather than an exception. Both markets are strict on product compliance and labeling, which is prep work that belongs at the China leg. | US Customs and Border Protection; the Canada Border Services Agency. |
| Australia and New Zealand | Australia collects 10% GST on low-value imported goods at the point of sale once a seller passes the A$75,000 turnover threshold. New Zealand works similarly at 15% above NZ$60,000. Australian zones are resolved from numeric postcode ranges. | Biosecurity screening is the operational risk rather than duty: undeclared organic materials cause holds. Declaration accuracy matters more here than in any other market on this list. | The Australian Taxation Office and Department of Agriculture; New Zealand Inland Revenue and Customs. |
Destination policy is a data layer, not a judgement call, and it is evaluated before packing rather than discovered at the border. What each destination sets is its own business; what the layer does with it is the same everywhere.
| Control | What the platform stores per destination | What that looks like in practice |
|---|---|---|
| Weight cap | A maximum chargeable weight per destination, optionally narrowed to one product line or channel. | A destination can cap the packet line while allowing a heavier bulk line, so one country carries two different limits. |
| Dimension caps | Longest side, second-longest side, sum of length + width + height, and girth (length + 2 × (width + height)) each stored separately. | Four separate numbers, because destinations restrict different ones — some cap the second-longest side, some only the total. |
| Shape rejection | A flag that refuses cylindrical, tubular and irregular parcels outright. | Set per destination and product line; a rolled poster tube fails the check before anything is packed. |
| Declared-value floor and ceiling | A minimum declared value per item, a maximum declared total per parcel, and the currency each is expressed in. | A floor stops under-declaration; a ceiling keeps the parcel inside the destination’s low-value clearance path. |
| PO-box rejection | A flag that refuses PO-box delivery addresses, plus free-text address requirements (APO/FPO handling, phone-digit counts, full recipient name). | Rejected at address validation rather than discovered by the last-mile carrier. |
| Recipient tax identity | A per-destination requirement flag plus stored validation patterns, so a rule change is a data edit rather than a release. | Mexico requires RFC or CURP, Brazil a CPF, South Korea a PCCC. The pattern lives in the policy record, not in code. |
| Item restrictions, three outcomes | Every restriction resolves to prohibited, restricted, or documentation-required — matched on declared-name keywords, with the requirement and the consequence stored alongside. | Prohibited refuses the booking with the country basis attached; restricted proceeds only on a recorded merchant acknowledgement; documentation-required proceeds and lists what is missing. |
None of this is a customs opinion. A route match means a lane exists for that destination and cargo type — it is not clearance permission, and the destination authority decides admissibility. Uncertain goods go through the restrictions checker or a support ticket rather than a guess.
Sell first, then buy. Your supplier ships each batch to your own warehouse address in China after the customer has ordered; the parcel is received, scanned, photographed, measured and matched to the order, then packed, quoted and forwarded. Stocking is a per-SKU optimisation you add later, not an entry requirement.
The model where a platform posts single parcels straight from China is squeezed by customs changes — notably the end of US de minimis — and by long transit. What replaces it for serious stores is usually a hybrid: keep your own suppliers, forward supplier parcels for long-tail SKUs, and stock only what has proven demand.
It depends on route, service level, destination and customs, which is why this page quotes no transit days. Lanes carry their own transit ranges and those are shown against the actual route at quote time. A provider who promises a fixed number regardless of those variables is quoting marketing rather than operations.
The destination country sets them, and they are not part of a shipping quote. The operational question is who collects: IOSS and GST-style schemes collect at the point of sale, otherwise clearance collects from the importer. On supported European lanes duties can be prepaid so nothing is collected at the door.
The warehouse operator who physically opens the box on receipt, and the record stores who confirmed it and when. Your declaration and your store category only pre-fill that screen. A category says what a product is, not what is inside it — one headphone category holds wireless units with cells and wired units with none.
In a coordination model, yes: routing is decided per order line, so a stocked bestseller and an unstocked long-tail item can share one order. When that happens the order pauses for an explicit recorded decision — forward everything, wait for stock, or re-evaluate — rather than being split on a guess.