How to ship 1688, Taobao and Pinduoduo orders to the USA in one box

What we do, and what we do not do

It is worth being exact here, because the words forwarder and agent get used for very different services.

• We give you a warehouse address in China and a receiving mark that is yours alone.
• We receive every parcel carrying that mark, count them against what you told us to expect, and combine them into one box.
• We weigh and measure the finished box, and that real number is what you are invoiced on.
• We ship the box by air to your US address and handle US customs. Up to about 35 kg the duty is inside our price and nothing is collected at your door.
• We do not buy for you. You place the orders and you pay the sellers, on the platform, the way any buyer does.
• We do not open your parcels. That means we cannot tell you whether a seller sent the right size or colour, so sort out any doubt with the seller before the box leaves China.

If you already order from Alibaba.com suppliers, this is the same pattern described in combining several Alibaba suppliers into one shipment. The difference with the domestic platforms is the number of parcels: ten small poly bags from ten shops is normal, and it changes nothing about the price.

Forwarder or shopping agent: which one do you need?

A shopping agent buys on your behalf. You send links, the agent pays the seller in RMB, receives the goods at its own warehouse and ships them abroad on its own lines, and it charges a service fee on top of the goods for doing so. A forwarder starts where the buying ends.

The honest rule: if you cannot pay on the platform yourself and nobody you know in China can do it for you, you need an agent for the buying, and a forwarder cannot replace that. If you can get the orders placed, by yourself, a friend or a supplier you already work with, a forwarder is one party fewer between you and the box.

Step by step: from checkout to your door

• Ask us for a quote first. Say what the goods are, your best guess at the total weight, and your US ZIP code. The quote form gives a price straight away.
• We send you the warehouse address and your receiving mark, with a note on where to put the mark so it prints on every courier label.
• Place your orders and enter that address at checkout, exactly as we sent it. Delivery inside China is by ordinary domestic courier, sent by the seller at their cost or yours, and it is not in our price.
• Tell us how many parcels to expect and from which platform. If the order page shows a courier number you can pass it on, but you do not have to: the mark on the label is what we match.
• When everything has arrived we combine it into one box, then weigh and measure the box.
• We invoice you on those real numbers. Nothing is paid before the weigh-in, so a seller's wrong weight estimate never becomes your problem.
• Once the invoice is paid the box flies, and you receive tracking through to delivery.

What does it cost? Our prices at eight weights

These are our own prices for general goods from our China warehouse to a US address, priced by our engine on 2026-10-05. They are per box, not per seller: five parcels that weigh 10 kg together cost the 10 kg price.

Chargeable weight is the greater of the real weight and the volumetric weight (length x width x height in cm, divided by 6,000). Marketplace sellers often send light items in oversized bags, which is one more reason the box is measured after combining and not before. You can test your own numbers in the chargeable weight and CBM calculator, and the full series from 0.5 kg to 1,000 kg is in the China to USA shipping price index.

For a single cheap item the freight can cost more than the item. That is true of every way of getting one parcel out of China, and we would rather you see it in the table than at checkout. The arithmetic improves quickly once several orders share one box.

What changes at US customs when you buy on these platforms?

Nothing about the platform itself. What matters is the goods, and since the $800 de-minimis exemption ended for Chinese-origin goods, a small personal order owes duty the same way a commercial one does. That duty is already in the prices above wherever the table says Included.

• Batteries, magnets, liquids, powders, cosmetics and food need a check before they ship. Marketplace listings do not always say that a gadget has a battery inside, so read the specifications before you buy and tell us when you ask for the quote.
• Branded goods: we legally ship them. Say so in the quote request, because they ride our branded channel at a higher rate, shown in your quote.
• Describe the goods as they are. A box declared as one thing and containing another is the usual way a parcel gets held.

When should you place the orders?

The box ships when the last parcel is in, so the slowest seller sets the pace.

• Order from every shop in the same few days. Domestic couriers inside China typically deliver in 2 to 5 days.
• Watch for pre-sale listings. Taobao and Pinduoduo shops sell items that only ship days or weeks later, and one of those holds the whole box. The ship-by date is on the listing.
• Avoid the days around a public holiday. Many couriers and some warehouses slow down or stop for Golden Week and the Spring Festival; the dates are in our China holiday shipping calendar.

After the box leaves the warehouse, delivery to a US address takes 6 to 12 working days on the door-to-door air service. The stages are broken down in how long shipping from China to the US takes.