Ecommerce Compliance · Fulfillment Strategy
The $800 De Minimis Loophole Is Gone. Here's What Sellers Do Now.
For years, ecommerce brands shipped orders straight from overseas factories to US customers duty-free, one parcel at a time, under the $800 de minimis exemption. That exemption is gone. Here's what actually changed, what it costs you if you ignore it, and how a Houston-based 3PL replaces the loophole with a system you control.
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Tell us what you sell and your monthly volume. A real person replies within one business day with exact numbers.
Before you request a quote
Know the cost. Check the fit. Plan your first shipment.
Start with a small shipment or an established operation. There is no minimum volume. Tell us what you sell so we can confirm the handling, space and shipping you actually need.
What will my first month cost?
Example: 500 single-item orders under 5 lb × $2.00 full-service handling = $1,000. At $0.25 per mailer add $125; two full billable pallet-months add $50 and one inbound pallet adds $20. Total: $1,195 BEFORE postage, returns or extra work.
Examples use standard storage in the first three months. Long-stay pallet rates are $28/month in months 3–6 and $32/month after six months. Your written quote separates receiving, storage, handling, materials and shipping. Build your own estimate.
Why are there two handling prices?
Under 5 lb, Lean FBA is $0.50/unit and Lean FBM is $1.75/order when goods arrive pre-packed and ready to label. Full-service handling is $0.75/FBA unit or $2.00/FBM order; materials and postage are separate. These are service tiers, not automatic volume discounts.
Heavier items use different weight bands; over 15 lb or bulky items need a written quote. See the complete rate card.
Can you handle my products and platform?
Share your product type, packed dimensions and weight, sales platform and expected volume. Small batches and returns-only enquiries are welcome. Batteries, liquids, food, supplements, temperature-sensitive, hazardous or oversized items need acceptance and handling requirements confirmed before you ship.
For Shopify, Amazon, Walmart or another platform such as Amboras, tell us how orders and inventory are exchanged. The team confirms the connection or file workflow before onboarding; a platform name alone does not guarantee a supported integration.
How do I send inventory?
- Send your SKU list, dimensions, weights and carton/pallet count.
- Receive the written scope, rates and product-acceptance confirmation.
- Confirm account setup, labeling and receiving instructions with the team before dispatch.
- Send shipment details and tracking; agree the first prep job or order workflow.
Receiving location: 6117 Long Dr, Houston, TX 77087. Confirm inbound instructions before sending goods.
What about shipping and storage dimensions?
For a shipping estimate, send origin and destination ZIP codes, packed dimensions, weight, parcel count and desired delivery speed. Handling prices do not include carrier postage. Storage is charged only by carton or pallet. Bin and shelf storage is included in our standard pick-and-pack rate, with no separate charge. Send product dimensions and quantities so the team can confirm usable space, availability and the applicable carton or pallet storage rate in writing.
After you enquire: a real person from our Houston team replies within one business day, confirms any missing details and sends itemized pricing. You can ask for a written quote without booking a sales call. Unsure of volume? Select “Not sure yet” in the quote form.
What the de minimis loophole actually was
Section 321 of the Tariff Act let any single shipment valued at $800 or less enter the US without duties, formal customs entry, or a broker. For over a decade, that rule was the quiet engine behind direct-from-China ecommerce: a factory in Shenzhen or Guangzhou could pack one order into one parcel, hand it to an international mail carrier, and land it on a US doorstep with zero duty owed — because each individual package stayed under the $800 threshold, even if the seller moved millions of dollars of goods a year.
Dropshippers, print-on-demand shops, and China-sourced private-label brands built entire cost structures on that gap. No warehouse, no US inventory, no landed-cost math — just a listing and a supplier who shipped one-off.
What changed
Starting in 2025, the federal government eliminated de minimis treatment — first for shipments originating in China and Hong Kong, then for parcels from every country. Every commercial import now gets a formal or informal customs entry and owes duty, regardless of how small the package is or how low the declared value. The per-parcel loophole that made single-unit direct shipping cheaper than bulk importing no longer exists.
Why this makes a US warehouse the default, not an upgrade
Before, a seller could avoid paying for storage, receiving, and pick-and-pack by shipping direct from the factory and calling the per-parcel duty-free status their "fulfillment strategy." That math is dead. Now the cheaper path is the one 3PLs have run for decades: import in bulk, clear customs once on the full shipment, and warehouse the goods close to your customers so each individual order is a short, cheap domestic hop instead of an international one.
That shift changes three things for a seller who used to ship direct:
- Duty gets paid once, predictably — on the container or pallet, calculated into your landed cost, instead of showing up as a surprise per-order customs charge or a delayed parcel.
- Delivery gets faster. A US-warehoused order ships same day; an international parcel with a new customs entry can sit for days.
- You need a receiving and storage partner — which is the part of the business a 3PL like KAK exists for.
The new playbook
- Consolidate purchase orders into fuller container or pallet loads instead of parcel-by-parcel shipments.
- Clear customs once, on the bulk shipment, with duty calculated into your per-unit landed cost up front.
- Ship the bulk load to a US warehouse for receiving and storage.
- Fulfill each customer order domestically — pick, pack, and ship from US inventory, same day if it's in before cutoff.
If your supply chain already runs through China, you don't have to rebuild it — you have to add a domestic landing point. That's what our China-to-US bridge service and warehouse fulfillment are built for.
What it actually costs to run the domestic model
Once you move to that playbook, the cost structure stops being one duty-free parcel and becomes a handful of line items instead. Here's what each piece runs, using our own published rates as a concrete example of what that structure looks like in practice:
| Service | Rate | What's included |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon FBA prep | $0.75 / unit | FNSKU labeling, polybagging, bubble wrap, standard cartonization — packaging materials billed separately (polybag $0.20) |
| FBM / DTC fulfillment, up to 5 lb | $2.00 / order | Pick, pack, ship — packaging materials from $0.25 |
| FBM / DTC fulfillment, 5–8 lb | $2.75 / order | Same as above |
| FBM / DTC fulfillment, 8–15 lb | $4.00 / order | Same as above |
| FBM / DTC fulfillment, over 15 lb | Custom quote | Same as above |
| Pallet storage | $25 / pallet, billed monthly | Climate-controlled; you pay only for the fraction of the month you use |
| Receiving | $20 / pallet ($5 / carton) | Charged on every inbound |
| Returns processing | $1.50 / return | Inspection included |
| Postage / carrier labels | Pass-through at cost | Discounted USPS / UPS / FedEx rates, no markup |
Kitting, subscription-box assembly, custom inserts, container devanning, and freight fall outside a flat per-unit rate — they're custom-quoted based on the specifics of the job. Full rate detail lives on our price list and pricing page.
What a real month costs, worked out
Take a mid-size DTC brand running 300 FBM orders a month, plus a steady trickle of FBA prep and a small footprint of stored inventory. Here's the arithmetic using only published rates:
| Line item | Volume | Rate | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| FBM fulfillment (under 5 lb) | 300 orders | $2.00 | $600.00 |
| FBA prep | 150 units | $0.75 | $112.50 |
| Pallet storage | 8 pallets × 1 month | $25.00 | $200.00 |
| Receiving (one inbound shipment) | 8 pallets | $20.00 | $160.00 |
| Returns | 12 returns | $1.50 | $18.00 |
| Total | $1,090.50 |
That's roughly $3.64 per order, fully loaded — storage, receiving, returns, and all — against a fulfillment model that used to depend on a duty exemption that no longer exists. Scale that same $3.64-per-order figure to 100 orders (about $364/month) or 500 orders (about $1,818/month) and it holds in roughly the same proportion, because none of these rates carry a volume minimum that would distort a smaller shipper's numbers.
The questions every buyer sends us now
Since the loophole closed, the RFQs we get ask about mechanics, not marketing — how receiving works, how storage is billed, what's actually included. Here's how each piece works, in plain terms:
Onboarding and contracts
No minimum order volume. No setup fees. We run month-to-month — no contract, no cancellation penalty.
Receiving and time-to-available
Receiving is $20 per pallet ($5 per carton). Inventory received before the 2pm CT cutoff is checked in and available to ship the same day.
Storage billing and climate control
Storage is $25 per pallet per month — prorated, so you're only billed for the days you actually use, not a flat monthly rate. The warehouse is climate-controlled and monitored 24/7. Lot-number and expiration-date tracking is available through our real-time inventory dashboard.
Per-order pricing and bundles
Every order is picked and packed at the flat per-order rate above, based on weight, plus $0.25 × the item count when an order has two or more items. We don't force preassembly of bundles; if you want kits pre-built ahead of time, that's available and custom-quoted.
Packaging, carriers, and surcharges
Basic packaging materials are billed separately — from $0.25 for a standard mailer, $0.20 per polybag. Branded inserts and custom packaging are custom-quoted. Carrier labels are billed at our discounted USPS/UPS/FedEx rates, passed through at cost with no markup. There are no peak-season surcharges.
Integrations and visibility
We connect natively to Shopify, TikTok Shop, Walmart, eBay, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Etsy, Magento, and Amazon FBM, with real-time inventory syncing through KAK WMS.
Why sellers land the domestic leg in Houston
We've run this exact model from Houston since 2024 — bulk inbound, one customs clearance, and domestic fulfillment out of a single facility.
We're a Trustpilot-reviewed 3PL at 6117 Long Dr, Houston, TX 77087, monitored 24/7. Walk-ins are welcome with 24 hours' notice, Monday through Saturday, 9am–6pm CT. Every shipment we handle carries insurance coverage up to $500,000, and we're fully liable for our own handling.
If you're still shipping direct from an overseas supplier and want to see what the domestic numbers look like for your actual SKUs, start with our quote form or browse the full warehouse and fulfillment service and storage pages. Questions before that? Contact us directly.
Frequently asked questions
What was the $800 de minimis loophole, exactly?
Is the de minimis exemption really gone?
Does this mean I have to stop sourcing from overseas?
What does Amazon FBA prep cost?
What does FBM or DTC order fulfillment cost?
How is storage billed?
Are there setup fees or minimum order requirements?
Is there a contract?
What's your turnaround time?
What platforms do you integrate with?
Ready when you are
Get a fulfillment quote in 24 hours
Lean handling under 5 lb: FBA $0.50/unit or FBM $1.75/order for pre-packed goods. Full service: $0.75/FBA unit or $2.00/FBM order. Materials and postage are separate; storage is $25/pallet/month.