Overseas customers rarely entrust an entire order to a single factory when sourcing from China. They typically source sofas from Guangdong, lighting fixtures from Zhejiang, and hardware from Shandong, utilizing their respective industrial clusters – this approach itself isn't problematic. The issue lies in logistics: a single shipment is split among five or ten factories, resulting in inconsistent delivery times, varying packaging standards, and frequent labeling errors. Without a unified consolidation point before the goods leave China, these problems will persist all the way to the destination port, leading to rejection, stockouts, and disputes. Identifying and resolving these issues while the goods are still in China minimizes costs.
Our consolidation and warehousing service takes care of these matters for you before the goods leave the country. This is divided into six parts:
Supplier Receiving: Every shipment entering the warehouse is recorded.
- Delivery time confirmation: We send a unified Shenzhen or Guangzhou warehouse address to all factories to confirm the delivery time of each supplier, ensuring goods are received sequentially.
- Order verification: Upon arrival at the warehouse, verify the number of boxes, gross weight, and volume of each shipment against the factory's packing list and your purchase order (PO). Record this in the warehouse entry ledger and generate an inbound document number.
- Anomaly handling: For short shipments, incorrect shipments, or damaged outer boxes, take photos on-site for documentation and send you the warehouse entry photos for confirmation.
- Shipping mark management: Each shipment is stored separately according to supplier and PO number, with identification labels affixed to prevent mixing even with large quantities of goods.
Goods Inspection
- Label compliance: Check if FBA or overseas warehouse barcodes are correctly affixed and if destination country markings are complete-UK UKCA, EU CE, MADE IN CHINA.
- Packaging condition: Check for moisture, deformation, or damage to outer boxes; assess the load-bearing capacity and stacking strength of cartons to ensure they can withstand long-distance sea freight and multiple handling operations.
- Key categories: Check for rust and damage to hardware components and packaging; check if cushioning materials are in place and suitable for palletizing for fragile items.
Warehousing: Two weeks free, goods are shelved upon arrival, and can be tracked at any time.
- Free period: Two weeks of free short-term storage, specific terms negotiable; beyond that, charges are calculated daily, with advance notice before expiration, and fees are clearly stated.
- Inventory visibility: After goods are shelved upon arrival, the warehouse system records the arrival status and inventory quantity of each shipment, eliminating the need for daily inquiries.
- Warehouse location management: Storage is zoned by supplier and batch, with first-in, first-out (FIFO) to prevent incorrect shipments.
Consolidated Packaging: Heavy and light argo mixed.
- Remeasurement: Goods are remeasured and weighed upon arrival, and charges are based on actual data, not necessarily the volumetric weight as listed by the factory.
- Light and heavy cargo mixed: Heavy and light cargo are mixed to maximize container space; a loading plan will be provided for your confirmation before loading.
- Reinforcement: Fragile items and irregularly shaped parts are reinforced with wooden frames (Wooden Frame/Crating) or pallets, secured with wrapping film, and affixed with standard logistics labels.
- Transparent pricing: Wooden frames and pallets are provided by long-term local suppliers; prices are quoted and confirmed before operations begin.
Consult our expert about your shipment: sales16@senghorlogistics.com
Phased Shipments: No need to wait for the slowest factories.
- Cut-off date scheduling: We monitor the SI (shipping instruction) cut-off time and CY (container yard) cut-off for each voyage. If a factory's shipment is delayed, qualified goods already in the warehouse are shipped via LCL or FCL.
- Contingency plans: Delayed urgent shipments can be rerouted by air or the next fast ship voyage, without affecting goods already in the warehouse.
- Documentation accompanying shipments: For phased shipments, bills of lading and customs declarations are issued separately for each batch, ensuring clear accounting and preventing discrepancies.
Multi-Destination Delivery: One shipment consolidated for delivery to different countries or warehouses.
- Domestic sorting: For customers purchasing from multiple suppliers with goods destined for different destinations (e.g., multiple FBA warehouses in the US, multiple European countries), we sort and label goods according to their destination at the consolidation warehouse. (Not dropshipping)
- Separate shipments: Goods are shipped separately according to their destination, with separate customs declarations and clearances. No secondary transshipment is needed upon arrival overseas, saving on shipping costs and time.
- One-stop service: You only need to deal with one freight forwarder, us. We handle all shipping schedules, documentation, and delivery for each destination.
A Real Case: A US High-End Furniture Importer with Five Suppliers
The US client purchased sofas, floor lamps, chandeliers, bedside lamps, and wall lamps from five factories in different cities in China. The shipment consisted mainly of bulky goods, with the lamps being fragile and their original factory packaging unsuitable for long-distance sea freight.
Our solution: We consolidated the goods in our Shenzhen warehouse, utilizing a two-week free storage period until all goods arrived. Upon arrival, we remeasured and weighed the goods, inspected the packaging of the lamps, and loaded the sofas and lamps together into a container. The entire shipment was secured with reinforced wooden frames, labeled with standardized tags, and cargo insurance was arranged. A final customs declaration and consolidated shipment were then completed.
Results: The overall dimensions were reduced, resulting in lower volumetric weight and lower shipping costs. The client only needed to deal with one freight forwarder and handle one set of customs declaration and clearance documents. No further damage occurred to the shipment.
Through this series of "warehousing + reorganization" operations, we significantly reduced the overall dimensions of the goods, successfully helping our client eliminate unnecessary volumetric weight freight costs. Simultaneously, the client only need to deal with one freight forwarder and handle one set of customs declaration and clearance documents, greatly shortening overall logistics waiting times and completely resolving the pain point of damage during cross-border transportation of fragile goods. The client not only saved real money but also gained an extremely worry-free experience.
We can handle the entire process of receiving, inspecting, warehousing, consolidation, repackaging, and multi-destination shipments in our warehouses at major ports such as Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Shanghai.
If you are purchasing from multiple suppliers or have goods awaiting consolidation, please send us your factory address, cargo volume, and destination port. We will first provide you with a consolidation and shipping plan based on your cargo volume, and then we can cooperate if it suits your needs.
Welcome to contact our expert, Amy.
