eCommerce Importing under Coronavirus with Burak Yolga - a podcast by Michael Veazey

InfeCommerce Importing under Coronavirus
Burak Yolga of Forceget.comeCommerce importing is Burak's business. Burak spent  7 years in China Shenzen, established his international freight forwarding company from scratch – which is now present in China, US, Dubai and many other countries.
Burak is living in Miami now and with us to answer Amazon dealers questions about China-US trade. New platform coming out in May.When it comes to eCommerce Importing under Coronavirus, when do you think will China open?
In fact, 80-90% of businesses are back to work but don’t have full capacity.The issue is not labour now; it's more raw materials.

Raw materials under Coronavirus SituationRaw materials prices have greatly increased because of demand.
One of the issues is the carton boxes - there is a big shortage of those at the moment.Paper prices went up a lot in China.


Maybe of  8-10 raw material suppliers, 6 are working full timeMany suppliers will be in Taiwan or Japan etc.

Communicate in advance with Chinese Suppliers...because prices tend to go up if you look desperate!
3. Are you ready for the year ahead? – When Coronavirus is over, there will be capacity bottlenecks (both in factories and logistics providers?)4. How to manage your global supply chain when importing  asdf China to US in todays uncertain environment.

Air freight e-commerce importingcapacity down 50% 
Most of shipment flights in mainland China - are cancelled.20 flights a day are down to 1-2.
HK still working but capacity is down7-10 working time
Price for air freight from 5-6 USD to 9-10 USDMost of main sea ports and air ports are closed in China.
50-60% of air freight was carried on passenger flights in cargo hold.That’s obviously going to hit margins hard.

What are the possibilities for importing from China into USA?There are a lot of backload shipments in Hong Kong.
HK is the largest airport in the world for commercial.They are waiting 7-10 days waiting to take off.

Alternative shipments for e-commerce importingDDP sea shipment
Get it picked up fromFedex or UPS in LA port
This takes 18-22 days which is similar to air freight.But the price is about ⅓.

Getting around FBA LabelsOffer sellers storage in LA.
So as soon as you have FBA available, you can get things in.Don’t keep your products in China because once Amazon starts accepting shipments, everyone will start shipping. So it will create a big delay.
They had this issue in Xmas/NY time - took about 7-10 days to update stock status.Burak recommends shipping stock into USA.

FBM Fulfilment for ecCommerceA couple of Amazon FCs have been shut down due to virus.
So mix FBA/FBM.On 5 April sellers can theoretically create shipments.

Freight Forwarder checklist when ecommerce importing under Coronavirus,   a. Fluctuations
  b. Quarantines  c. Post closures
Be sure you get ALL the costs included!Another risk is that Chinese freight forwarders are trying to get a cheap price. But make sure they are paying the right HS code for tax. If they don’t pay the right one, it could get stuck.

What about when choosing a 3PL/FBM fulfilment house in the USA?Make sure the warehouses have enough capacity. A lot of people are trying to switch to FBM. A lot don’t have capacity. Or their cheap prices have slow delivery.
It’s all about costs and speed.Best thing is to collect prices from different options. You need to be clear about what your customer’s response time expectations are - some products will be more flexible.
LA is getting expensive - there aren’t enough warehouses.LA port is cutting shifts.

Chinese Suppliers under Coronavirusa. How to pay attention while selecting the right supplier
b. How to negotiate with suppliersc. How to buy from China safely?
d. How to ship safely.Since trade war USA-China - some of the buyers have started shifting to Cambodia, Vietnam, Taiwan.

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