Re: Sea shipping from China to UK
Old post but my reply might be useful to someone.
Compiling shipments for sea freight is obviously a great idea and as long as you do your customs paperwork correctly its relatively painless.
Firstly, forget about trying to find a third party company to compile the shipment for you, it is after all just another person in the chain you will have to trust (and pay). Instead choose the supplier you have the best relationship with and ask them if all the goods can be sent to them directly and complied there.
If you have a good relationship with them then this will not be a problem, i must do this every month at least once.
Doing this also means that any QC you intend on carrying out cal all be done at one place at the same time. Suppliers will usually agree to payment terms allowing balances to be paid once this is done, even if its done away from there premises.
When it comes to actual shipping prices then think about it carefully, a saving can often wind up leading to extra costs. Unless your quite experienced in shipping then i would recommend you book your shipping with a UK company, booking through a Chinese company will probably save you 25% of the initial costs but if you get into any issues at the UK end you may well be on your own - pretty daunting if you don't know what your doing.
All in all this is a good step and means your business is growing so keep it up |