Referral partners

Your clients need China to USA shipping. Send them to us.

Plain Freight is a small China to USA freight agency run by its founder, Melkon Hovhannisyan. We quote door-to-door DDP shipments for Amazon sellers, online brands and small importers. If the people you work with keep asking who should ship their goods, this program gives you a tracked link to share, a clear answer to hand them, and 5% of the invoice on the shipments they book.

Who this is for

FBA prep centers and 3PLs

Your clients ask you how to get cartons from their factory to your dock. We deliver DDP to your receiving address, labelled and cleared, so the freight question stops landing on your team.

Sourcing agents in Yiwu, Shenzhen and Guangzhou

You find the supplier and check the goods. Once the order is ready, the buyer still needs someone to move it across the Pacific and through US customs. That part is what we do.

Amazon seller coaches and communities

Members ask the same question every week: who should I use to ship my first 30 kg from China? A referral link lets you answer with a named forwarder instead of a vague list.

Sourcing bloggers and creators

If you write or film about buying from Alibaba and 1688, your audience reaches the shipping step sooner or later. Our dated price index and import rules timeline are there for you to cite.

Run a freight line, a China warehouse or a customs brokerage and want to carry our shipments instead? That is a different program: see carrier and warehouse partners ›

What your clients get from us

One all-in DDP price: China pickup or warehouse receiving, air or sea LCL freight, the US customs entry, duties and delivery to a door, a 3PL or an Amazon fulfillment center.
An instant offer on screen when they fill our quote form, priced by the same engine our own team quotes from, then checked by a person.
Shipments from a single 100 g sample up to about 2,000 kg. Samples, first orders and sub-pallet restocks are what we are built for.
Air door to door in roughly 6 to 12 working days after pickup, or sea LCL in roughly 30 to 40 days when weight makes sea the cheaper choice.
Suppliers ship domestically to our China warehouse. Cartons from several suppliers can be combined into one shipment.
Cartons are counted, weighed and measured in China before the invoice, and nothing is paid before that. The invoice comes from Fisto LLC, our registered US company.
The HTS code is checked before the price is confirmed, so the duty in the quote is the duty they pay. No bill at delivery.

How referring works

You apply with the form below. When we agree to work together, we send you a tracked link in the form plainfreight.com/?ref=your-name. Any page on the site accepts the ref parameter, so you can point it at a guide or a data page instead of the home page.
Your client opens the link and asks for a quote. The link is remembered in their browser for 90 days, and the first partner link they arrive through is the one that counts. A client can also name you in the notes box of the quote form or in their first email to us.
From there the client deals with us directly. We quote, answer customs questions, invoice and ship. You are never asked to relay prices, chase a payment or forward tracking numbers.
If the client agrees, we tell you when their shipment is on its way, so you can plan receiving or follow up on your side. Their goods, supplier and contact details stay with us.

What you earn

5% of the invoice, up to $100

On every paid and delivered shipment from a client you referred, you earn 5% of the invoice total, capped at $100 per shipment. As arithmetic: a $400 shipment earns you $20; a $5,000 shipment earns you the $100 maximum.

For 12 months per client

The 12 months start from that client's first quote request. A client who ships four times in that year earns you four payouts, not one.

Only on real shipments

A payout is earned once the client has paid the invoice and the shipment is delivered. Sign-ups and quotes alone earn nothing, and a cancelled or refunded shipment pays nothing.

Paid monthly, with a statement

Payouts go out once a month by bank transfer: US ACH, or an international wire. Each statement lists the shipment reference, the invoice total and your payout. Balances under $50 roll over to the next month.

A few conditions keep it honest. Referring yourself or your own company does not count. You must tell your audience or clients that we pay you for the recommendation, as the US FTC endorsement rules require. US partners send a W-9 before the first payout, and we issue a 1099 once payouts pass $600 in a year. We can change or end the program with 30 days' notice; clients you referred before then keep their full 12 months.

What else we give partners

A partner kit. A small badge in light and dark, copy-ready HTML, our one-line description in English and Chinese, and links to the reference tables your readers can use. Open the partner kit ›
A listing on our site. Once we have actually worked together, and only with your written OK, we add you to a short list of partners with one sentence on what you do for importers. We keep that list small on purpose.
A guide we write together. For example, what a prep center needs from a seller whose cartons leave Yiwu, published on our site with your name on it, and yours to summarise and link from your own.

What we will not do

We will not list you without your written agreement, swap links with strangers, or suggest a partnership that does not exist. We will not show a referred client's name, supplier or goods to anyone outside the shipment. Questions before applying go to hello@plainfreight.com. Chinese-speaking partners can read this page in Chinese ›