China to US Bridge Fulfillment, Run From Houston

How the China-to-US bridge works

Bridge fulfillment means your inventory crosses the ocean once, in bulk, and then lives on US soil until it sells. Instead of air-expressing parcels from Shenzhen or handing Amazon a whole container it may not have room for, you hold stock in Houston and release it in small, cheap moves.

1. Your factory loads a container — palletized or floor-loaded — and your freight forwarder ships it to Houston.
2. After customs clearance, the container delivers to our dock at 6117 Long Dr, Houston, TX 77087. We devan it, count it, and book it into stock. Receiving is $20 per pallet ($5 per carton).
3. Inventory sits in climate-controlled storage at $25 per pallet, billed monthly — you pay for the fraction of the month you actually use, not a flat monthly block.
4. When your FBA stock runs low, we prep and forward a batch at $0.75 per unit. When a Shopify or TikTok Shop order drops, we pick, pack, and ship it — same day if it lands before 2pm CT, Monday to Saturday.
5. You watch all of it — receipts, stock levels, orders, tracking — live in the KAK WMS dashboard, from any time zone.

That is the whole model: one ocean move, then domestic speed. Every rate is published on our pricing page and price list, and locked through Q1 2027.

Container receiving and devanning in Houston

Receiving costs $20 per pallet ($5 per carton), and

Devanning, the physical unloading of the container, is quoted per shipment at our negotiated labor and carrier cost. A palletized container is a faster job than a floor-loaded one stacked with loose cartons, so the honest answer on price is: tell us the carton count and whether it ships palletized, and you will have the number in 24 hours. We also arrange LTL freight and white-glove handling the same way — quoted per shipment, no invented markup.

On timing: our published same-day cutoff covers outbound work — inventory and orders in before 2pm CT, Monday to Saturday, ship or get prepped the same day. For inbound container freight, time-to-available depends on the load type and carton count, so we confirm your receiving turnaround together with your devanning quote, within 24 hours of getting your specs. Either way, we count what actually arrived and book it into KAK WMS, so the first stock figure you see from overseas is a verified one, not the packing list's promise. The building is climate controlled and monitored 24/7.

What the bridge costs, line by line

These are the published rates, the same ones on our price list. No setup fees, no contracts — month-to-month — and no peak-season surcharges.

Rates locked through Q1 2027. Kitting, bundling, subscription-box assembly, and branded inserts are available and custom-quoted — send your specs and you get the number in 24 hours. Bundles do not require preassembly: we pick multi-item orders at the flat per-order rate.

Forwarding to FBA, or shipping FBM direct

Most sellers on this pipeline run both channels from the same Houston stock, and that is the point of the bridge: one pool of inventory, two ways out.

Into Amazon FBA

Full-service FBA handling for units under 5 lb is $0.75/unit, including FNSKU labeling and prep labor. Materials are separate: polybag $0.20/unit and bubble wrap $0.20/unit when needed. Receiving, storage and outbound freight are separate. Lean label-ready units start at $0.50; heavier units use the published weight bands.

FBM and DTC orders

Orders from Shopify, TikTok Shop, Walmart, eBay, Amazon FBM, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Etsy, and Magento flow into KAK WMS and ship for a flat per-order rate: $2.00 up to 5 lb, $2.75 for 5–8 lb, $4.00 for 8–15 lb, custom-quoted over 15 lb — packaging materials from $0.25. Orders in before 2pm CT ship the same day, so your US customers see domestic tracking numbers and domestic speed, not a three-week China parcel. Details on the full service are on our 3PL warehouse service page.

What a month actually costs: a worked example

Say your factory ships one palletized 40-foot container that devans to 20 pallets. Over the month you forward 2,000 units to FBA, ship 300 FBM orders (all under 5 lb), and take back 10 returns. Eight pallets leave in the first half of the month.

Two things sit outside this table, both quoted transparently: devanning (per shipment, based on carton count and load type) and postage (carrier rates passed through at cost, no markup).

Scaling down instead of up? At the $2.00 tier, fulfillment alone runs $100 for 50 orders, $200 for 100, $600 for 300. There is no minimum, so a 500-unit first production run is a normal-sized account here, not an exception. Run your own numbers, then get a quote to confirm them.

Selling into the US from overseas

US customs requires an importer of record for every inbound shipment — your freight forwarder or customs broker typically arranges that, and it is standard practice for overseas sellers shipping to a US 3PL. We take over after clearance: the container delivers to our dock and from that point everything runs on the published rates above. Not sure how your setup fits? Email sales@kaksourcing.com with your situation and you will have a straight answer in 24 hours.

On billing: storage bills monthly, there is no setup fee, and there is no long-term contract — the account is month-to-month, so you are never locked in with a partner you have only met over email. For payment specifics from your country, ask sales@kaksourcing.com when you request a quote.

On trust, which is the real question when your inventory is 7,000 miles away: KAK was founded by Sohail Ahmed and Kanwar Khan, who have spent 7+ years building DTC fulfillment infrastructure in Houston, and we serve 180+ ecommerce sellers. We carry insurance up to $500,000 per occurrence, we are fully liable for our own handling, and we are reviewed on Trustpilot. The KAK WMS dashboard shows your stock in real time, 24/7, so you are not waiting for a Houston morning to know what happened overnight. And if you ever fly in: walk-ins are welcome with 24 hours notice, Monday to Saturday, 9am–6pm CT.

The RFQ questions, answered before you ask

Overseas sellers send us detailed RFQs, and they should. Here are the straight answers.

• Minimum volume or spend: none. A 500-unit launch qualifies. So does one unit.
• Setup fees: none, and no contract — the account is month-to-month. The KAK WMS dashboard is included.
• Contract or cancellation penalty: none. Month-to-month.
• Receiving cost and speed: $20 per pallet ($5 per carton). Time-to-available depends on the load — send the carton count and load type and we confirm turnaround with your quote in 24 hours.
• Storage billing basis: $25 per pallet, billed monthly, climate-controlled.
• Lot and expiration tracking: available in KAK WMS.
• 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.
• Packaging: standard packaging materials start at $0.25 per order. Branded inserts and thank-you cards are custom-quoted.
• Carriers and markup: discounted USPS, UPS, and FedEx rates passed through at cost. No markup, no peak-season surcharges.
• Returns: $1.50 per return, inspection included.
• Errors and damage: insured up to $500,000 per occurrence; we are fully liable for our own handling.
• Support: sales@kaksourcing.com or +1 832 759 1368 — or contact us and reference your SKU list. Quotes come back within 24 hours.

China-to-US bridge fulfillment: FAQ