01Actual weight vs volumetric weight
Couriers charge whichever is greater: the actual weight on the scale, or the volumetric weight — how much space the parcel occupies.
Volumetric weight is calculated as:
length × width × height (cm) ÷ 6000 or ÷ 8000
The divisor depends on the line. A lower number means volumetric weight punishes you harder.
Worked example
A puffer jacket weighs 800 g on the scale but the parcel measures 40 × 30 × 15 cm. That is 18,000 cm³, which divides to 3.0 kg at 6000 or 2.25 kg at 8000. You are billed for the space, not the jacket.
Practical fixes
- Remove original packaging. Shoe boxes and retail cartons can be 30–40% of a parcel's volume.
- Ask for vacuum compression on soft goods where the warehouse offers it.
- Let the warehouse choose the carton. Their default is usually tighter than what you would pick.
- Split bulky from dense. Two well-packed parcels are sometimes cheaper than one oversized carton billed on volume.
02Choosing a shipping line
| Line type | Speed | Best for | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Economy | Slowest | Bulky, low-value, non-urgent | Long waits, weaker tracking |
| Standard air parcel | Middle | Most clothing orders | The default compromise for a reason |
| Express courier | Fastest | High-value, time-critical | Highest cost, strictest customs scrutiny |
| Restricted-goods line | Varies | Batteries, liquids, cosmetics | Extra rules and paperwork, some items banned outright |
How to actually decide
- Cheapest per kilogram is not cheapest. Compare the all-in figure at your parcel's volumetric weight, not the headline rate.
- Check the tracking quality if you are shipping anything valuable. A cheap line with no tracking is not cheap if the parcel vanishes.
- Read what the insurance covers before you buy it. "Insured" frequently excludes exactly the risk you care about.
- Never ship one item. Consolidate. Handling and the first kilogram get paid once instead of repeatedly.
Popular categories — pick one to start browsing:
03Transit times you should plan around
| Stage | Typical |
|---|---|
| Seller → warehouse (domestic) | 3–7 days |
| Warehouse processing and packing | 1–3 days |
| International transit | 7–20 days, depending on line |
| Peak season (pre-holiday) | Add 1–2 weeks |
Budget three to five weeks door to door and you will rarely be disappointed. Pre-order items and custom-made goods are a separate case entirely — they can sit for a month before they even ship domestically.
04Customs, duty and what gets held
Most small personal parcels clear without drama. The ones that cause real trouble were usually mis-declared on purpose.
What actually triggers a problem
- Branded goods. Counterfeit or brand-marked items are the biggest cause of seizure and destruction. This is a property of the goods, not the courier — no line reliably avoids it.
- Wrong declared value. A $300 handbag declared at $12 is a red flag, not a saving.
- Restricted categories. Batteries, liquids, aerosols, food, seeds, medications and some cosmetics face extra rules or outright bans depending on the destination.
- Volume. Ten identical jackets is not a personal order, and it reads as commercial to a customs officer.
Duty and tax
Most countries apply a de minimis threshold — a value below which no duty is charged. Above it you may owe import VAT, duty, and a courier handling fee. Thresholds vary widely and change often, so check your own customs authority for the current figure rather than trusting any guide. When duty is owed, the courier normally pays it and invoices you before delivery.
If a parcel is held
- Respond to the courier's notice promptly — deadlines are short and silence is treated as abandonment.
- Supply the invoice and payment records the agent issued.
- Pay the assessed duty and handling fee if required.
- If the item is refused or destroyed, ask the agent what the insurance actually covers.
Popular categories — pick one to start browsing:
05The consolidation maths, worked out
Everyone repeats "consolidate, it is cheaper". It usually is — but not always, and the reason it works is more specific than people think.
Every parcel carries fixed costs that do not scale with weight: a handling charge and a first-kilogram charge at a premium rate. Consolidating removes the duplicate fixed costs. It does not reduce the variable cost per kilogram, and it can increase your volumetric weight. So the sum is:
saving = (duplicate fixed costs) − (any increase in billed weight × per-kg rate)
Worked example
Two parcels, a first-kilogram charge of $18 and $9 for each additional kilogram billed.
| Shipped separately | Consolidated | |
|---|---|---|
| Parcel A | 1.5 kg actual, billed 1.88 kg | 2.7 kg actual, billed 3.19 kg |
| Parcel B | 1.2 kg actual, billed 1.23 kg | |
| Total billed weight | 3.11 kg | 3.19 kg |
| First-kilogram charges | 2 × $18 = $36 | 1 × $18 = $18 |
| Additional kilograms | 2.11 kg × $9 = $18.99 | 2.19 kg × $9 = $19.71 |
| Total | $54.99 | $37.71 |
Combining cost 0.08 kg in extra billed weight and saved $17.28 in duplicated fixed charges. Net saving: $17.28 less about 72 cents.
When consolidating stops paying
- The combined carton crosses a size band. Some lines price in bands. Two medium parcels inside one band is fine; the next band up can swallow the saving.
- You pair a dense item with a bulky one. The bulky item's volume gets billed at the dense item's per-kg rate. This is the most common way consolidation backfires.
- It pushes your declared value over a duty threshold. One parcel under the de minimis and one over is often cheaper than one parcel comfortably over. Check your own country's threshold.
- One item is urgent. Waiting two weeks to add a second parcel to save $15 is usually the wrong trade.
06Insurance: what a claim will and will not pay
Transit insurance is priced as a small percentage of declared value, usually somewhere between one and three percent. The reason to read the terms before buying is that the two most common losses — a seized parcel and a badly packed one — are frequently the two that are excluded.
| Event | Usually covered? | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Parcel lost in transit | Yes | Usually requires a waiting period, often 30–60 days after the last scan |
| Total damage in transit | Yes | Needs unboxing evidence — photograph the sealed parcel before opening it |
| Partial damage | Sometimes | Often paid as a proportion, and disputed more than total loss |
| Seizure or destruction by customs | Almost never | Widely excluded. This is the single biggest gap between what people assume and what is paid |
| Damage from poor packing | No | Blamed on the packing choice, whether or not it was yours |
| Delay, however long | No | Insurance covers goods, not inconvenience |
| The freight itself | Often not | Check whether shipping cost is insured or refunded |
Should you buy it?
- Yes when the parcel value is more than about twenty times the premium. That is most clothing hauls of any size.
- No on a low-value parcel where the premium is a meaningful fraction of the goods.
- Either way, the packing decision protects you more than the policy does. Request the smallest carton, ask for fragile items to be wrapped separately, and photograph the parcel as it arrives.
07Tracking that stops moving
A stalled scan history is normal, and most of the panic around it is caused by reading the tracking wrong rather than by anything going wrong. Here is what the stages mean and when silence actually becomes a problem.
| What the scan says | What is happening |
|---|---|
| Accepted / collected | The line has the parcel. Nothing has left China yet |
| Dispatched to air transport | Waiting for a flight. This stage can sit for several days without a new scan |
| Departed origin hub | The next scan often only appears on arrival in your country — a 5–10 day gap is ordinary |
| Arrived at destination | Now in customs or handed to the domestic carrier |
| Customs hold / awaiting clearance | Not lost. You or the agent may need to supply documents, and deadlines are short |
| Handed to local carrier | The tracking number may change here. Ask the agent for the local number |
When silence becomes a problem
- Under 10 days without a scan: normal. Do nothing.
- 14 days with no movement at all: ask the agent to open a trace with the line. This is a request, not a claim.
- 21 days with no arrival scan: ask what the line's own loss window is, and check your insurance terms for the waiting period — claims often cannot be filed before it expires.
- The number stops resolving entirely: ask for the destination-country tracking number, which is often different from the one you were given.
08Shipping questions, answered
Why is my parcel charged more than the weight I measured?
Volumetric weight. Couriers bill the greater of actual weight and space occupied, calculated as length × width × height ÷ 6000 or 8000. Remove original packaging and ask for the smallest carton.
Is express actually worth it?
Rarely for clothing. Express earns its cost on high-value, time-critical items. For anything you can wait three weeks for, a standard air parcel is usually the better trade.
Can I make a parcel lighter by removing the shoe box?
Yes, and it is one of the few free wins available. Shoe boxes add volume without adding protection once the shoes are wrapped. Ask for it on every footwear order.
How much should I declare?
The honest value. Under-declaring is the single most common cause of a held parcel, and it costs you the item rather than saving the duty.
That is the last of the mechanics. The rest is just picking something you actually want and sending the link to your agent.
Browse the catalogue →