You've bought a pile of things on Taobao and 1688, spread across different sellers — how do you save on freight and ship them all back to Taiwan together? That's "consolidation." This guide walks a beginner through the whole consolidation flow and flags the most common pitfalls.
What is consolidation?
Consolidation means shipping parcels from multiple sellers to a single consolidation warehouse first, combining them into one shipment, and then sending it back to Taiwan together. The upside: you share the freight across the lot and clear customs once — far cheaper than each seller shipping separately.
The four-step flow
1. Into the consolidation warehouse
When you order from each seller, enter the consolidation warehouse as your shipping address. As parcels arrive at the warehouse, the system logs them into inventory.
2. Combine and ship
Once all the parcels you're waiting on have arrived, you request a combine. The consolidation warehouse repacks the lot, strips out excess packing material, and measures weight and volume — all of which feed straight into your freight cost.
3. Customs clearance
The combined shipment travels back to Taiwan by sea or air, and once it reaches port it's declared to customs. Consolidated shipments often span many different items, so the HS classification and the declared customs value have to be right — that's where a customs broker earns their keep.
4. Home delivery
Once it's cleared and released, home delivery is arranged and it lands in your hands.
The three pitfalls beginners hit most
- Volumetric weight blowout: light-but-bulky items (pillows, lamps) are charged by volume on ocean freight, so the cost can run higher than you'd expect. Estimate the volume first.
- Prohibited and restricted items: items with batteries, liquids, counterfeits, food and the like carry import restrictions — check before you order, rather than finding out at the warehouse that it can't ship.
- Under-declaration risk: under-declaring the customs value to save on tax isn't worth it if customs catches it. Declaring to the actual value is the only safe way.
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