Import & customs: from the factory to Amazon's warehouse gate

• Sea freight: the standard. 30–40 days port to door, unbeatably cheap per kilo. Sensible from about half a cubic meter (LCL — your cartons share a container).
• Air freight: 5–10 days, but several times the cost per kilo. Sensible for a small, light first order (time gained = learning earlier) and for express restocks when inventory runs low.
• Rail: the middle ground (~20–30 days), availability depends on world events.
• Freight is charged by volume OR weight (whichever “uses more space”) — which is why carton dimensions and weights belong in every freight inquiry.

Don't piece freight together yourself — a forwarder specializing in China imports handles pickup, shipping, customs declaration and delivery (on request straight to Amazon, see lesson 11). Get two or three quotes with identical data: carton count, dimensions, weight, goods value, pickup location, incoterm FOB. The forwarder is also your best advisor for everything in this lesson.

• EORI number: your importer ID, free, applied for online at customs, takes days. No EORI, no customs clearance — apply as soon as the order is placed.
• HS code (customs tariff number): every product has a code that determines the duty rate. Research it in the EU TARIC database; your forwarder helps. Put it on the supplier's commercial invoice — wrong codes are a classic delay.
• Duty: a percentage (often 0–12 % depending on product) on the customs value = goods value + freight to the EU border.
• Import VAT: 19 % in Germany on customs value + duty. Under standard VAT you reclaim it as input tax (lesson 2) — a liquidity topic, not a cost. Small-business-rule sellers pay it for good.

• CE marking: mandatory for electronics, toys, protective equipment and more — including a declaration of conformity and technical documentation that YOU as importer must keep.
• Product testing: toys EN 71, food contact LFGB (Germany), textile fiber labeling, electronics LVD/EMC/RoHS. Scrutinize supplier test reports (does the report cover EXACTLY your product?) — when in doubt, test at an independent lab.
• Markings on the product: responsible person with EU address (GPSR), warnings in German, CE where applicable, material declarations — all part of your spec sheet from lesson 8.
• German instructions included if the product needs any — missing local-language instructions are a classic for warning letters and bad reviews.

“We ship DDP, all inclusive, no customs stress” — tempting, but often runs through bulk clearances with under-declared values. The problem: legally, you are the importer. If the under-declaration surfaces, you pay the taxes — plus possible proceedings; and without clean import documents you have no input-VAT deduction either. Importing cleanly means: buy FOB, use your own forwarder, clear customs on your EORI with the real value. The price difference to DDP is usually small — the risk is not.

• Week 0: order placed (30 % deposit). Apply for EORI, request forwarder quotes, settle the HS code.
• Weeks 4–6: production done. Quality inspection → pay the 70 %. Forwarder collects (FOB: supplier brings goods to port).
• Weeks 6–11: sea freight. Time to build the listing and launch prep (Listing track!).
• Weeks 11–12: arrival, customs clearance by the forwarder (duty + import VAT due), delivery — to you or straight to Amazon.

The standard FOB setup from this lesson leaves two gaps open that only become visible when something goes wrong — and then get properly expensive.

Gap 1: FOB settles risk transfer, not insurance. The moment the goods are placed on board in the Chinese port, the transport risk is YOURS — but under FOB, nobody is obliged to insure the main leg. If the container is lost or damaged, deposit and balance are simply gone. Even less known: general average. If the ship sacrifices cargo in an emergency or salvage costs arise, ALL cargo owners share the loss proportionally — even if your cartons are untouched; without your own policy, your goods are then only released against a security deposit. Cover costs almost nothing: typically a few tenths of a percent up to about half a percent of the insured value (goods + freight, often with a minimum premium — assumption: typical market rates). For the AURELO shipment (€2,250 goods + about €600 freight) that is usually under €20; your forwarder offers it inside the freight quote. And even CIF only obliges the seller to minimum cover — never rely on the other side's policy.

Gap 2: the HS code is only your claim — until customs checks it. Clearance runs on the code you declare via your forwarder. Customs, however, can correct the classification up to three years retroactively and claim the difference for ALL shipments of that period. Worked example (assumption: two plausible codes at 2 % and 6 % duty): eight quarterly shipments of €3,100 customs value each, declared under the cheaper code, add up on reclassification to 8 × €3,100 × 4 percentage points = €992 in back duties — plus interest, plus in the worst case the accusation of a negligent misdeclaration.

The antidote is called binding tariff information (vZTA/BTI): you apply free of charge online via the German customs portal, describe your product precisely (material, function, photos), and the customs administration fixes the code bindingly — EU-wide and valid for three years. After that, classification is no longer a back-duty risk. Three things to know:

• The decision binds both sides — you too must use and reference it in your declarations; quietly using a cheaper code on the side is not an option.
• Processing may take up to 120 days — apply during the sample phase, not once the goods are afloat. Until the decision arrives, clearance simply runs on your own classification.
• It pays off above all when several codes are plausible, the duty-rate difference is noticeable, or you plan to import permanently — exactly the situation of every private-label seller.