With the booming development of cross-border e-commerce, the demand for cross-border logistics services is constantly increasing. Many cross-border sellers do not know how to choose between overseas warehouses and FBA warehouses. Let's take a look at the differences between FBA warehouses and overseas warehouses.

The difference between overseas warehouse and FBA warehouse

Differences in Service Platforms

Overseas warehouses can provide sellers with global warehousing and logistics services, while FBA warehouses mainly serve sellers on the Amazon platform, providing warehousing and logistics services related to the Amazon platform.

Differences in Logistics Services

FBA warehouses do not provide customs clearance services and sellers need to solve them themselves, while some overseas warehouses provide customs clearance services, door-to-door goods, customs clearance, transportation, distribution, and other complete logistics services.

Differences in product selection range

The storage requirements of FBA warehouses are much stricter than those of overseas warehouses, so the selection of products tends to be small in scale, high in profit, and of good quality. However, overseas warehouses can accept a wider range of products, except for those that are prohibited and cannot be accepted. Other products do not have strict requirements, and oversized products are a good example.

Different warehousing costs

Compared to FBA warehouses, overseas warehouses have lower storage costs, especially for large goods. At the same time, overseas warehouses can serve as backup warehouses for FBA, allowing goods to be transported to overseas warehouses in advance and shipped from overseas warehouses to FBA warehouses when there is insufficient inventory. This not only allows for the convenience brought by FBA warehouses, but also reduces storage costs compared to storing in FBA warehouses.

Inventory restrictions

Amazon has strict inventory restrictions during the off-season, which prevents sellers from stockpiling a lot of goods in FBA warehouses. Once inventory cannot keep up with sales during the peak season, there is a risk of stockouts. Overseas warehouses do not have this restriction, as long as there is space available, they can store them.

Different handling of returns and exchanges

Amazon supports buyers to return products without reason. Even if the returned products are not problematic, they will not be resold and can only be destroyed or sent back to the seller. On the other hand, overseas warehouses use the account of the overseas warehouse for final delivery, which can help sellers detect the quality of the returned products and determine whether they can be relisted for sale, reducing losses for sellers.

Different storage risks

FBA warehouses are associated with Amazon accounts. Once a product is sold and the account is closed due to a problem, the goods stored in the FBA warehouse will also be temporarily seized and unable to be sold. However, overseas warehouses do not have the risk of being temporarily seized except for paying storage fees.

Other value-added services

FBA warehouses only provide delivery services for orders through the system. Sellers need to pre label the goods. If the labels cannot be scanned, the goods cannot be shelved. Overseas warehouses are flexible in operation and can provide assembly, label replacement, sorting and delivery services. If special value-added services are needed, overseas warehouses are more flexible than FBA.

Overseas warehouses and FBA warehouses have their own advantages and disadvantages, and can complement each other. Reasonable selection can better help sellers. For some sellers with sufficient funds, FBA can be chosen, which has a faster delivery time; If you don't have a high requirement for timeliness and want to save storage costs, you can choose an overseas warehouse.

A-handler operates its own overseas warehouse in Los Angeles, USA, focusing on providing integrated solutions for cross-border e-commerce sellers, including one-stop shipping of medium and large items, FBA transit, return and label exchange, customs clearance and transportation, and final delivery.