If your brand sits overseas but your customers sit in the US, this guide walks you through the full journey — from your factory's dock to an Amazon Prime badge — without the 3 AM calls to confused customs brokers.
Six stages sit between overseas production and a US sale. Here's how each one works when you ship through Houston — and where Shipprep sits in the chain.
You manufacture in Turkey, China, or Europe. We work alongside your existing factory and freight forwarder — no vendor switch required.
Air freight (5–10 days) or ocean freight (25–45 days). We accept full containers and LCL shipments directly. We advise on which fits your cash flow and timeline.
Your customs broker clears the cargo. We coordinate with them and the trucker to get your goods into our warehouse within 24 hours of release.
We count, photograph, and inspect every unit. If anything's damaged or mis-shipped, you hear from us before the cargo touches Amazon.
FBA-compliant labeling, bundling, bagging, and palletizing — built to Amazon's spec for your category. Or hold in storage until a sales signal arrives.
Freight to Amazon's fulfillment centers on your schedule, or ship directly to US customers from our dock. Many sellers run both.
The universal flow is the same, but each origin comes with its own constraints — time zones, currency, regulations, grant programs. Here's how we adapt for the three biggest sender regions.
Longer transit times from Izmir/Istanbul, currency-driven cash flow pressure, language gaps with US vendors.
Turkish-speaking ops team available during Turkey business hours. Grant-ready invoicing aligned with T.C. Ticaret Bakanlığı e-ihracat destekleri — warehouse rent, marketing, certification costs often eligible for reimbursement.
Volume at scale, inconsistent FBA prep quality from origin, communication lag across a 13-hour time gap.
Direct Port of Houston receiving for ocean containers. Full QC inspection with photos before Amazon ingest. Documentation aligned with MOFCOM export formats.
CE-to-US certification gaps, CBAM paperwork, EUR/GBP currency exposure, post-Brexit UK-specific quirks.
US-compliant relabeling and packaging. Reference documentation for EU SME Internationalisation Fund, UK Export Finance (UKEF), and country-level programs (Business France, Germany Trade & Invest).
You can land cargo in Los Angeles or New York and pay coastal prices, or you can land it in Houston and get the same Amazon ingest speed at a fraction of the cost.
2nd largest US port by foreign tonnage. Direct ocean routes from Izmir, Istanbul, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Rotterdam, and Antwerp.
Daily direct flights from Istanbul, Frankfurt, and major Asian hubs via connections. Air freight lands directly in our city.
1–2 days ground transit reaches roughly 60% of the US population. Cheaper last-mile costs than coastal warehouses.
Labor, real estate, and taxes are typically 20–30% below California and New York — the savings pass through to your prep rate.
Most of what kills margin on international orders isn't the freight cost — it's what happens after the container lands. Here's what we see new clients walk in with.
Amazon rejects non-compliant inventory or marks up unplanned prep by 50%+. Doing it right upstream costs a fraction.
Containers sit in port while you scramble. Daily demurrage starts at $250+. Arrange a broker before your shipment arrives.
Storing inventory in multiple states creates nexus. Back taxes add up quickly once a state catches on.
Foreign-entity sales trigger withholding tax and complicate Amazon Seller Central registration. Most international sellers form a US LLC within year one.
40-day cycles mean you need roughly twice the inventory buffer you'd plan for a domestic supply chain. Miss this and shelves go empty.
When QC flags an issue and it's 3 AM in Istanbul, who answers? Time zone and language fit are operational, not decorative.
We focus on the warehouse floor and operate a curated partner network for everything else. One quote, one point of contact, but we're honest about where our work ends and our partners begin.
Get a custom quote in 60 seconds. Talk to a real person — not a chatbot, not a form-filler. Start shipping within 14 days.