Người bán hàng Amazon FBA: Làm thế nào để tồn tại khi vận chuyển hàng từ Trung Quốc mà không cần mức miễn thuế tối thiểu
For almost a decade, Section 321 de minimis was the silent motor powering thousands of Amazon FBA operations that relied on Chinese sourcing. The merchant might send a test batch of twenty units or a restock of two hundred phone cases or even a single sample packet, and none of it ever saw a duty queue. That era ended slowly, until 2025, and by the time it did, every shipment from China to the United States, big or small, needed formal customs entry. In this article, we’ll take a practical, no-fluff look at what changed, why it’s hitting China-sourced FBA sellers harder than just about anybody else in e-commerce, and what a workable shipping strategy actually looks like now that the loophole is gone for good.
It didn’t happen overnight and it didn’t happen in one neat announcement. Rather than being one planned strategy update, it came over about a year in a succession of policy moves, so many sellers adjusted to the shift in pieces, reactively changing their sourcing and shipping behaviours. Looking back across the entire timeframe in concert, rather than reacting to each news in isolation, makes it easier to discern the shape of the new normal and develop a sourcing and shipping approach that will hold up, rather than necessitating frequent patching.
What Actually Happened to De Minimis
That time line is important because it explains why so many sellers were caught with their trousers down. The United States ended the de minimis exemption for goods originating in China and Hong Kong on May 2, 2025, terminating the duty-free status for shipments priced at $800 or less. Many vendors first thought this was a carve-out particular to China they could bypass through third nations. That workaround expired on August 29, 2025, when the hold was expanded globally, requiring low-value shipments from any jurisdiction to be formally entered and assessed relevant charges. A presidential decision in February 2026 revealed there is no timeline for restoration on the table, therefore this is not a short disruption to wait out.
Amazon threw a whole new layer of complication on top of the customs adjustment. As of January 1, 2026, Amazon eliminated its FBA prep and ship-from-China services that previously handled certain import coordination for merchants. In practice, this means that the seller, or whichever goods forwarder and customs broker the seller has decided to partner with, now has the duty for import compliance. Sellers who had never worked directly with a customs broker before now found themselves the importer of record on every single shipment.
Why This Hits China-Sourced FBA Sellers Harder Than Anyone Else
The de minimis basis was the backbone of the dropshipping and small-parcel model that many FBA sellers used to test new products. A $20 item shipped in its own unique packaging cleared customs free and the entire cost structure of product testing, small-batch launches and slow-moving SKUs assumed zero duty exposure. But now that formal entry is required, the compliance cost per package, the broking fee, and the duty on that same twenty dollar item can outweigh the worth of the commodity itself.
Section 301 tariffs just add fuel to the fire. The trade truce reached between Washington and Beijing in November 2025 has kept the combined tariff rate on most consumer goods imported from China in the 20-30 percent range, with surcharges on fentanyl-related imports lowered by 10 points and reciprocal tariffs generally put on hold through November 2026. That consistency is good news compared to the volatility of 2025, but 20 to 30 percent is still a permanent new line item that didn’t exist for de minimis shipments before. Those that priced their listings without factoring this expense in are now seeing the shortfall hit their margins directly.
Low-MOQ testing, formerly the cheapest and lowest-risk approach to validate a new product idea, has slowly morphed into one of the more expensive portions of running an FBA business. Many sellers say test orders and minor restocks now cost 20 to 50% more than they did in 2024, which affects the maths on how many new SKUs a seller can afford to attempt in a given quarter.
Which Product Categories Feel the Squeeze Most
Not all categories are affected equally and knowing where the pain is concentrated helps a seller determine where to spend time renegotiating with suppliers versus where to just eat the new cost. The worst hit are large, low-value commodities items – the kind that used to do well because they were inexpensive enough to send duty-free in little packages. Even before 2025, phone cases, small household goods, inexpensive clothes accessories and novelty items frequently operated on razor-thin margins, and a duty of 20 to 30 percent on top of an already low retail price can completely obliterate profitability without volume or pricing adjustments.
Higher-value, differentiated products tend to absorb the adjustment more gracefully – just because duty is a lower fraction of a bigger retail price and there is more flexibility in the margin to handle it. Sellers of electronics accessories, nhà exercise equipment and speciality tools have typically rated the rise as painful but doable, particularly when they switched to bulk ocean shipments rather than air-shipped tiny parcels. The lesson for portfolio planning is simple. The cheapest tier is where the new cost structure bites hardest, and it should be the first to be pruned or repriced. For a seller with a mix of extremely inexpensive, high-volume SKUs and a few higher-ticket items, that is the cheapest tier.
Seasonal and trend-driven products are a problem on their own. These products rely on rapid, typically air-freighted small runs to take advantage of a narrow selling window, which is precisely the shipping profile that has become most expensive under formal entry. Sellers chasing trend cycles are increasingly committing to somewhat bigger production runs earlier in the season and shipping by consolidated air or expedited ocean, taking a little more inventory risk in exchange for a considerably cheaper per-unit landed cost.
The Real Cost Math: A Landed-Cost Comparison
Numbers are easier to internalise than narrative alone. The table below compares the pre-2025 de minimis era to the formal-entry context in which sellers presently operate.
| Mục chi phí | Pre-May 2025 (De Minimis Era) | 2026 (Formal Entry Required) | Approx. Impact |
| Duty on a $20 item under $800 rule | $0 | Full Section 301 + MFN duty applies | +20% to 30% of item value |
| Customs entry / broker fee | Not required for de minimis parcels | $125 to $300 per formal entry | New fixed cost per shipment |
| Small parcel test orders | Cheap, duty-free, low risk | Often 20% to 50% costlier than 2024 | Margin compression on MOQ tests |
| Recommended shipping mode | Air/express small parcel | Consolidated air or ocean LCL/FCL with DDP | Fewer, larger, formally cleared shipments |
The story in every row is the same: individual, small, informal shipments have become the most expensive way to transfer products, and concentrated, planned, formally documented shipments have become relatively cheaper per unit. That reversal will be the biggest strategic adjustment for any seller still sourcing from China in 2026.
It’s useful modelling landed cost at the SKU level, as opposed to using one blanket estimate across a full catalogue. A seller with fifty active listings from many different factories may discover that duty rates, freight density and packaging efficiency varied enough among products that a flat 25 percent assumption either underestimates the true cost on some things or overestimates it on others. A simple spreadsheet, constructed in an afternoon, to track the cost of the factory, the cost of goods per unit, the applicable duty rate and entry fee apportioned on a per unit basis, is a much more solid basis for making pricing decisions than gut-feel estimations from the de minimis days.
DDP Is No Longer Optional, It Is the Baseline
Delivered Duty Paid shipment, where the freight forwarder handles duty payment and official entry as part of the freight rate, has gone from premium convenience to the default expectation. Under the former de minimis regime, a seller could get away with a simpler DDU arrangement for little parcels, as there was seldom any duty to worry about. That is no longer the case. But now, before a shipment leaves a Chinese warehouse, there must be clear answers to three questions: Who is the importer of record? What is the HS code? Who is truly paying the duty and entry fee?
Self-clearance versus using a forwarder’s bond
If you are a seller with a US business corporation, customs bond and internal bandwidth to manage commercial invoicing, packing lists and power-of-attorney documentation, then you can pursue self-clearance and official entry on your own. This can be more cost efficient at big volume, but it requires predictable demand, correct documentation on every shipment and a fast response mechanism when customs requests explanation. For sellers lacking such infrastructure, which is most small and mid-sized FBA firms, the most feasible route is to deal with a forwarder that already has a bond and handles entry as a bundled service.
This is exactly the type of collaboration Topway Shipping has built its company on. Topway Shipping has been active in Shenzhen since 2010 and focuses on cross-border e-commerce logistics. The founding team has over fifteen years of expertise in international freight and customs clearance, with a heavy focus on the China to US corridor. Instead of piecing together first-leg pickup, customs clearance, overseas nhập kho and last-mile delivery as vendor relationships, Topway Shipping operates the entire chain as a single, coordinated service. That’s just the kind of single point of accountability that formal-entry shipping calls for today.
It is worth mentioning that DDP is not necessarily the cheapest choice in all cases, it is just the option that removes the uncertainty that was okay under de minimis but no longer is under formal entry. When comparing bids, a seller should ask what is included in a DDP rate. For example, how is the duty calculated, is the entry filed, is there any danger of storage or demurrage? Is the rate guaranteed or subject to change if customs challenges the declared value of the shipment? A imprecise DDP quote that ends up becoming a series of add-on costs after-the-fact negates the purpose of paying for predictability in the first place.
Consolidation and Bulk Shipping Change the Equation
Splitting one order into numerous little shipments was an acceptable strategy to keep the order under the 800 dollar level and avoid duty completely. Now that threshold is out of the way, the motivation goes the other way. Consolidating inventory into fewer, larger shipments and clearing it once through formal entry rather than a thousand times through individual parcel entries, crushes per-unit fixed costs, and allows a seller to pay duty on the lower wholesale worth of the products instead of a marked-up retail value.
Sellers that have adapted well have used a hybrid sourcing model. Fast-moving, bestselling SKUs are kept in a US warehouse for quick restocking into FBA, and long-tail or lower volume products are still shipped more traditionally from China when needed. If you need to refill urgently or recover from a stockout, vận tải hàng không DDP is still a viable option. For dependable base inventory, ocean LCL or FCL is usually the more inexpensive option. Depending on the urgency of a given batch, the two can be utilised in tandem.
This consolidation model is a good fit for Topway Shipping’s ocean freight services, which include full-container-load and less-than-container-load service from China to major ports globally, allowing sellers to consolidate SKUs from multiple suppliers into a single formally cleared shipment, rather than managing dozens of parcel-level entries.
Choosing a Freight Partner Who Can Actually Clear Customs
Today a package price is also a customs, tax and documentation decision, not only a transportation cost, therefore not all goods quotes are the same anymore. If a forwarder merely provides transportation of boxes from a Chinese port to a US dock and has no involvement in formal entry, HS classification, and duty payment, then the seller is left to take care of the most difficult and consequential element of the shipment on its own.
There are a few factors worth reviewing before committing to a partner for 2026 volumes. Does the forwarder have its own customs bond or does it depend totally on the seller’s? Can it provide correct commercial invoices and packing lists that reflect the real product description, as customs holds are now much more expensive to settle than they were under de minimis? Does it offer both air and ocean alternatives in one place, so a seller doesn’t have to maintain two vendor connections for urgent vs. normal inventory?
Topway Shipping’s model was established on just this sort of end-to-end responsibility. Services include first-leg transport from the supplier’s door, foreign warehousing, customs processing and last-mile delivery into FBA or a seller’s own fulfilment network, as well as flexible full-container and less-than-container ocean freight. For a seller wanting to streamline vendor relationships in a formal-entry environment, having pickup, clearing, warehousing and delivery with a single provider removes a huge part of the coordination risk that has tripped up sellers since the rule change.
And communication speed matters more than it once did. Under de minimis, a documentation issue on a small parcel was hardly worth tracking out as the parcel cleared nonetheless. A documentation issue can detain an entire shipment at port under formal entry, therefore the freight forwarder’s customs team needs to be approachable and responsive in hours, not days, when customs has a query. If you’re a seller assessing a new partner, ask how fast their team normally fixes an entry question. That one detail frequently tells you more about how they will perform in the real world than any rate sheet ever would.
A Practical Playbook for the Next Two Quarters
Start by assessing every active SKU against its actual landed cost including duty, entrance fees and any broking costs rather than the prior assumption of a duty-free small shipment. Products that were only economically viable under de minimis must either be re-priced or shipped in bulk to remain viable.
Next, figure out which SKUs merit US warehouse staging. Bulk import and domestic redistribution are particularly beneficial for high-velocity products, because duty is paid once on wholesale value rather than multiple times on individual retail shipments. Cheaper for slower moving or made to order items if transported individually, providing DDP terms are utilised so there are no unexpected charges at the border.
Finally, think of your relationship with your goods forwarder as a compliance collaboration rather than simply a pricing comparison. In actuality, the lowest estimate on paper can become the most expensive cargo when it triggers a customs hold, an incorrectly categorised HS code, or a gap in documentation that causes inventory to miss FBA during a peak selling window.
It also helps to build in a tiny buffer into your reorder schedule . In other words, formal entry adds processing stages that literally did not exist for de minimis shipments. Even a well-prepared shipment may spend an extra day or two in review compared to the former method. Sellers who once closely timed restocks against estimated stockout dates are increasingly adding a week or more to the timeframe, especially as they move into peak seasons such as the fourth quarter, when the congestion at ports and the frequency of customs reviews tend to ratchet up in tandem.
It’s worth thinking of documentation discipline as a recurring activity, not a one-time setup. “Product descriptions, HS codes and declared values should be verified routinely, not just at the time of the initial setup of a shipment, because slight discrepancies that were harmless under de minimis may suddenly result in an expensive hold under formal entry. A simple internal checklist checked before each shipment leaves China – covering invoice accuracy, HS code confirmation and importer of record details – costs almost nothing to maintain and can prevent the kind of delay that ties up inventory just when it is needed most.
Kết luận
The removal of de minimis wasn’t a small legal adjustment, it was a structural reset of how FBA businesses that source from China needed to function. The sellers who are adapting well aren’t looking for loopholes that don’t exist anymore, they’re rebuilding their cost models around formal entry, shifting toward consolidated bulk shipments, and working with logistics partners that can do customs clearance as a core competency rather than an afterthought. With the late 2025 trade truce, duty rates are rather steady today, so the way forward is less about waiting for the regulations to revert and more about developing a shipping strategy that expects otherwise. A logistics partner with true China to US customs and freight depth, such as Topway Shipping, can truly bridge the gap between the former low-cost era and the compliance-heavy reality sellers are now faced with.
Câu Hỏi Thường Gặp
Q: Is the 800 dollar de minimis exemption really gone for good?
A: Yes, according to the most recent guidance. It was deleted for shipments to China and Hong Kong on May 2, 2025, internationally suspended on Aug. 29, 2025, and an action in February 2026 revealed there is presently no anticipated restoration date.
Q: Does every single shipment now require formal customs entry?
A: Yes, all packages or containers arriving from China are subject to formal entrance irrespective of shipment value or size and are subject to appropriate tariffs and entry fees.
Q: Is DDP shipping worth the extra cost for small test orders?
A: Yes, mostly. DDP includes duty and entry in the freight rate, so you don’t have the unexpected fees and customs holding that might delay small test batches even further.
Q: Should I move all my inventory to a US warehouse?
A: No. For many sellers, a hybrid approach is the best strategy, staging high-velocity SKUs in the US but still shipping slower-moving products from China on DDP terms.
Q: How can a freight forwarder like Topway Shipping help with this transition?
A: We provide a single point of accountability for sellers by coordinating first-leg transportation, overseas warehousing, customs clearance and last-mile delivery, as well as offering various FCL and LCL ocean freight options, thus eliminating the need for them to communicate with multiple contractors.
