eCommerce
How Much Does China Fulfilment Cost? The 2026 Pricing Guide
"How much does it cost?" is the question every seller actually wants answered, and the one most fulfilment providers bury behind a contact form. So here is a straight answer, with real numbers. China fulfilment is priced in a handful of lines: pick and pack, storage, any prep or value-added work, and shipping. The handling side is genuinely cheaper at the source than in the West; the shipping side is the big variable and depends on your product and destination. This guide breaks down each line, shows what we charge, and flags the hidden costs that make a cheap headline rate expensive in practice.
Quick answer: China fulfilment handling is low-cost: our pick and pack is $0.99 per order with no minimums, storage is $0.49 per CBM per day (first 30 days free), and there are zero receiving fees. Prep is priced per unit (labelling from $0.15, poly bagging from $0.30, kitting from $0.50), and standard visual inspection is free. Shipping is the biggest variable and is quoted by weight and destination. For comparison, Western 3PLs often charge around $2.75 just for the first item's pick and pack.
Every fulfilment quote, wherever in the world, is built from the same components. Here is what each one is and what we charge.
| Cost line | What it covers | Our published rate |
|---|---|---|
| Pick and pack | Retrieving items and packing each order | $0.99 per order, no minimums |
| Storage | Holding inventory, charged by volume | $0.49 per CBM / day, first 30 days free |
| Receiving | Booking your stock into the warehouse | Zero receiving fees |
| Labelling | FNSKU / barcode labelling for FBA and marketplaces | from $0.15 per unit |
| Poly bagging | Protective bagging where required | from $0.30 per unit |
| Kitting / bundling | Assembling sets, bundles and multipacks | from $0.50 per unit |
| Inspection | Standard visual quality check | Free |
| Shipping | Carriage to the customer or destination | Quoted by weight and destination |
The handling lines are fixed and transparent. The one that moves is shipping, and it is worth being honest about why.
Nobody can give you a single, honest "shipping from China costs $X" number, and you should be wary of anyone who tries. Shipping depends on the weight and dimensions of the item and the destination country, and the mode you choose:
A light, small item ships cheaply by express; a heavy or bulky one may only make economic sense by sea. This is why a real quote beats a headline number: the same $0.99 pick and pack sits in front of wildly different shipping costs depending on what you sell and where it goes. Our express and freight options are quoted per shipment for exactly this reason.
On handling and storage, China is generally cheaper, and the reason is simple: labour and warehouse space cost less at the source. Western 3PLs commonly charge around $2.75 for the first item in pick and pack alone, before storage and prep, against our $0.99 per order. Prep work, labelling, bagging, kitting, follows the same pattern, which is a large part of why sellers prep for Amazon FBA in China rather than paying destination rates.
Shipping is where it gets nuanced. Individual parcels from China can cost more per unit than domestic last-mile delivery inside the destination country. That is why the cost-optimal answer for a growing brand is usually not "all China" or "all destination", but a mix: import your proven sellers in bulk and fulfil them locally, and ship the long tail direct from China. We work through that maths in detail in our guide to shipping direct to FBA versus staging first.
A low pick-and-pack headline can hide the lines that actually cost you money. When you compare providers, ask about these:
Add those up and the "cheapest" quote is often not the cheapest once the real cost lands.
For a light e-commerce product shipped direct to a customer, your per-order cost is roughly: $0.99 pick and pack + any prep + the express shipping quote + prepaid duty. Storage is a small monthly line spread across your inventory, near zero in the first 30 days. For bulk movements into a destination warehouse or Amazon, the model flips to a low per-unit sea-freight cost plus one bulk customs entry, then domestic fulfilment at the other end. Which is cheaper per order depends on your volume, weight and where your customers are, and that is precisely the calculation a quote answers and a blog post cannot.
China fulfilment is transparently cheap on the parts you control, $0.99 pick and pack, $0.49 per CBM per day storage with 30 days free, free inspection, zero receiving fees, and priced honestly on the part you cannot fix, shipping, which depends on your product and destination. The real skill is putting duty, prep and the bulk-versus-direct mix into one number that reflects your actual business. Send us your products and destinations and we'll build you a real quote.
$0.99 per order pick and pack. DHL/FedEx/UPS to 200+ countries. Tracking auto-syncs to Shopify. DDP so your customers never see a duty charge. 30 days free storage.
See eCommerce Fulfillment →The fulfilment handling itself is low: our pick and pack is $0.99 per order with no minimums, and storage is $0.49 per CBM per day with the first 30 days free and zero receiving fees. The larger and more variable cost is shipping, which depends on the item's weight and dimensions and the destination, so it is quoted per shipment rather than fixed. As a rough comparison, Western 3PLs commonly charge around $2.75 for the first item in pick and pack alone, so the handling side is markedly cheaper at the source.
A typical China fulfilment quote covers pick and pack, storage, and any prep or value-added work such as labelling, poly bagging, kitting and inspection, plus the shipping to the customer or destination. Our published rates are $0.99 per order pick and pack, $0.49 per CBM per day storage after a free first 30 days, FNSKU labelling from $0.15 per unit, poly bagging from $0.30 per unit, kitting from $0.50 per unit, free standard visual inspection, and zero receiving fees. Shipping is quoted separately by weight and destination.
On handling and storage, generally yes, because labour and warehouse space cost less at the source, so pick, pack, prep and storage are lower than typical Western rates. The picture on shipping depends on volume and model: individual parcels from China can cost more per unit than domestic last-mile in the destination country, which is why higher-volume brands often import in bulk and fulfil locally for their proven sellers while running direct-from-China for the long tail. The right mix is a maths question, not a slogan.
The ones that catch sellers out are receiving fees, long-term storage penalties, minimum-order charges, and duty. Since US de minimis ended and the EU changed its low-value rules, duty now applies to parcels that used to clear free, so it must be priced in and ideally prepaid via DDP. Ask any provider whether receiving is free, whether there are minimums, what storage costs after any free period, and how duty is handled, so the headline pick-and-pack rate is not hiding the real cost.
Our storage is $0.49 per CBM per day, charged by the cubic metre, with the first 30 days free for new inventory and no long-term penalties. Storing bulk stock at a low origin rate and drip-feeding it to a destination fulfilment centre such as Amazon is often far cheaper than holding everything at the destination, where storage, especially in Q4 peak periods, is considerably more expensive.