“And how much to ship it?” In almost every enquiry we receive, that is the second sentence. Reasonable, because a product price without a freight cost is not a price at all, it is half of one. As a Yiwu shipping agent, or more exactly a sourcing and buying agent that manages the shipping leg for its clients, our job is to make the second half of the price as visible and as controlled as the first.
One honest sentence before anything else: we are not a shipping line and we do not own vessels or aircraft. Nobody in Yiwu does. Freight is carried by carriers and booked through forwarders; our role is to prepare your cargo properly at our own warehouse in Yiwu, choose the sensible option for your shipment, book it through forwarders we work with, and stay accountable to you for the whole journey. That combination, Yiwu buying and shipping under one roof, is the service.
Choosing how your goods travel
Four families of options leave Yiwu, and the right one falls out of your cargo’s weight, volume, value and urgency rather than out of preference.
- Sea freight, as a shared container or a full one, for the bulk of wholesale cargo. Slowest, cheapest per cubic metre.
- Rail freight toward Europe, sitting between sea and air on both cost and speed for the routes it serves.
- Air freight for cargo that is urgent or valuable relative to its weight.
- Express courier for samples and small trial orders, door to door.
Each has its own quirks and our blog covers them route by route. On this page the point is simpler: you should not have to become a freight expert. Tell us the destination and the deadline, and we put the realistic options in front of you with costs, so the decision takes minutes.
What we actually do on the shipping leg
Before booking: weights and measurements taken carton by carton in our warehouse, because freight quoted on guessed figures becomes freight re-billed on real ones. Weak cartons repacked. The packing list built to match the physical cargo exactly.
At booking: quotes gathered through forwarders for the sensible options, shown to you before commitment. You approve the number you will pay, not a number you will discover.
After booking: cargo delivered or loaded on schedule, documents passed to the forwarder, and tracking milestones relayed to you until the goods reach the destination port or door. When something slips, and in freight things do slip, sailings roll, holidays choke space, you hear it from us with a revised plan, not from silence.
What decides your cost
Volume and weight, obviously, but two things surprise first-time importers. Freight on small shipments is dominated by minimum charges, which is why shipping three cartons is disproportionately expensive per carton, and why we sometimes advise waiting to consolidate more goods into one load. And packing quality is a cost lever: tighter cartons, sensibly repacked, can trim the cubic metres you pay for. Preparing cargo well is not cosmetic. It is money.
Edges of the service
Import clearance in your country is done by you or your appointed broker; we prepare the shipment and its paperwork from the China side and coordinate with your broker gladly, but duties, taxes and import rules for your market are outside what we advise on. Transit times we quote are the carriers’ schedules, not promises we can enforce on the ocean. And cargo insurance is worth arranging for meaningful shipments; we can include it in the arrangements when you want it, and we would rather you decide about it consciously than discover the question after a rough voyage.
Do you ship goods you did not source?
Yes. Goods you bought directly can come to our warehouse for checking, consolidation and shipping. The Yiwu sourcing and shipping combination is our core, but the shipping leg stands on its own when needed.
Which is cheaper for me, sea, rail or air?
It depends on volume, weight, route and urgency, and the answer flips as those change. Give us the cargo details and destination and we will show the realistic options priced side by side.
Can you deliver to my door, or only to the port?
Both are arrangeable through the forwarders we book with. Door delivery bundles the import steps at destination, so tell us early which you want; it changes the paperwork and the quote.
When do I pay the freight?
Freight is quoted before booking and paid per the forwarder’s terms for that mode, which we state in the quote. There are no freight surprises added after the fact by us.
Get the second half of your price
Send us what you are buying, roughly how much of it, and where it is going. We will come back with product and freight numbers together, the way a landed cost actually works. WhatsApp or call +86 136-6892-2294, or email info@sourcingagentyiwu.com.