China Dropshipping Hub: Source Overseas, Ship From Houston

Why ship China-sourced inventory from a Houston warehouse

Because a buyer who waits weeks for a parcel shipped straight from a Chinese supplier usually doesn't order twice, and a buyer who gets a fast domestic package usually does. That's the whole argument.

Classic China-direct dropshipping has real problems: long transit times, no control over how the package looks when it arrives, and zero ability to inspect what your supplier actually shipped. The margins on China sourcing are real — the delivery experience is what kills repeat business. The fix isn't abandoning overseas sourcing. It's moving your inventory across the ocean once, in bulk, and fulfilling each order domestically from a US warehouse.

That US side is what we do. We run a 32,000 sqft climate-controlled warehouse in Houston, operating since 2024, currently fulfilling for 180+ ecommerce sellers. You keep your supplier relationships and your landed cost advantage. We give your customers same-day dispatch on orders in before 2pm CT, Monday through Saturday, with discounted USPS, UPS, and FedEx postage passed through at cost — no markup.

The source-to-shelf pipeline, step by step

Your inventory passes through six stages between the factory floor and a shipped US order. The first two are yours; we run the last four.

1. You place the bulk order. Your supplier, your negotiation, your unit cost. We don't get between you and your factory.
2. Freight crosses the ocean. Ocean or air, through your freight forwarder. Customs clears before the cargo reaches us. Where you need drayage from the port or LTL to our dock, we quote it per shipment at negotiated carrier cost — tell us the specs and you'll have the number in 24 hours.
3. We receive in Houston. $20 per pallet ($5 per carton). Floor-loaded containers that need devanning are quoted per shipment. Freight that arrives before 2pm CT, Monday to Saturday, gets processed the same day.
4. We store what hasn't sold yet. $25 per pallet, billed monthly, in climate-controlled racking monitored 24/7. You see live counts in the KAK WMS dashboard.
5. We fulfill every order. Pick, pack, and ship from $2.00 per order, packaging materials from $0.25, across Shopify, TikTok Shop, Walmart, eBay, Amazon FBM, and more.
6. We process what comes back. Returns are $1.50 each, inspection included, so sellable units go back into stock instead of a black hole.

If part of your inventory goes to Amazon instead of direct-to-consumer, the same inbound feeds both channels: FBA prep runs $0.75 per unit under 5 lb for full-service handling, with materials separate — FNSKU labeling, polybagging, bubble wrapping, and standard cartonization included. Details on our FBA prep service page.

Container receiving: cost and time-to-available

Receiving costs $20 per pallet ($5 per carton). That's the published rate — flat, per pallet, locked through Q1 2027.

Palletized containers go straight into racking. Floor-loaded containers — common out of China because they fit more cartons — need devanning, which we quote per shipment at negotiated cost. Send the container size and carton count and you'll have a firm number within 24 hours.

Time-to-available matters more than the receiving fee. A container that hits our dock before 2pm CT on a working day, Monday through Saturday, is processed the same day and counted into the KAK WMS dashboard, so your listings can go live against real inventory instead of a guess. Every shipment is covered by insurance up to $500,000, and we're fully liable for our own handling.

Devanning, drayage, LTL, and white-glove handling are quoted per shipment at negotiated carrier cost — freight lanes change too often for honest flat rates. Published warehouse rates are locked through Q1 2027.

Storage between containers: $25 per pallet, billed monthly

Storage is $25 per pallet per month — which means you pay for the fraction of the month you actually use, not the calendar month.

That billing basis is built for the container cycle. Your pallet count peaks the week a container lands and drains as orders ship out. Flat calendar-month billing would charge you the peak all month. Prorated monthly billing follows the drain, so a pallet that empties mid-month stops costing you mid-month.

The building is climate-controlled — in Houston humidity that's not a luxury if you sell cosmetics, supplements, electronics, or anything with adhesive or packaging that warps. Lot-number and expiration-date tracking is available for regulated and dated goods. More on our storage service page.

Per-order fulfillment rates

Fulfillment starts at $2.00 per order — pick, pack, ship, standard packaging materials from $0.25 — and scales only with the weight of the order.

For an FBM order with two or more items, add $0.25 multiplied by the total item count. A three-item order under 5 lb is $2.75 full-service handling before materials and postage. Kitting is $0.40 per unit assembled when requested.

What a month actually costs

Here's the arithmetic for a China-sourcing seller with one 10-pallet inbound and a product that ships under 5 lb per order, at three volume levels.

Two honest footnotes. First, postage is on top of this, billed at our discounted carrier rates with no markup — it varies by zone and weight, so we won't invent a number here. Second, this table assumes all 10 pallets sit in racking the full month; in reality the monthly billing means your storage line falls as pallets sell down, so the real bill is usually lower than the table. Want this run against your actual SKUs? Send your specs and you'll have a real quote in 24 hours.

The RFQ questions, answered before you ask

Serious buyers send us itemized RFQs. Here are the standard answers, so you don't have to wait for an email reply.

• Do you take new brands with ~500 units? Yes. No minimum order volume, no minimum spend, no minimum SKU count. One unit is a valid start.
• Setup, onboarding, software, or account-management fees? There's no setup fee. The real-time KAK WMS dashboard comes included with fulfillment, and the arrangement is month-to-month with no contract. Anything we'd need to charge for beyond the published rates is custom-quoted up front — no surprises on the first invoice.
• Contract or cancellation penalty? Neither. Month-to-month; leave whenever you want.
• Integrations? Shopify, TikTok Shop, Walmart, eBay, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Etsy, Magento, and Amazon FBM, with real-time inventory in the KAK WMS dashboard.
• What packaging is included? Standard packaging is in the per-order rate. Branded mailers, custom inserts, and thank-you cards are custom-quoted.
• Carrier mix and markup? USPS, UPS, and FedEx at discounted rates, passed through at cost. No markup, and no peak-season surcharges.
• What if you make a mistake? Our error, our cost. We're fully liable for our own handling, with insurance coverage up to $500,000 per occurrence.
• Who do I actually talk to? Call +1 832 759 1368 or email sales@kaksourcing.com, Monday–Saturday 9am–6pm CT. Walk-ins welcome with 24 hours notice — the warehouse is at 6117 Long Dr, Houston, TX 77087, and we'd rather show you the racking than send you a brochure.

For the broader warehouse operation behind all this, see our 3PL warehouse service page, or contact us directly.

What we quote instead of publishing

Three things on this page carry no published price, on purpose: container devanning and freight, kitting and branded packaging, and subscription-box assembly. Anyone who publishes a flat ocean-freight or devanning rate is either padding it heavily or planning to surprise you later.

Our rule instead: tell us your specs — container size, carton count, insert design, box configuration — and you'll have a firm number in 24 hours. Published warehouse rates stay locked through Q1 2027 regardless. Start a quote here.

China dropshipping and sourcing FAQ