What’s on our minds

Both a Foreign Trade Zone and a bonded warehouse let importers defer, reduce, or in some cases eliminate duty on goods before they enter U.S. commerce. They solve a similar problem, but the mechanics are different enough that picking the wrong one leaves cash tied up that didn’t need to be. What a Foreign Trade ...

Returns are the part of ecommerce that rarely gets designed on purpose. Most brands build a fulfillment process, then bolt returns on afterward as a customer-service afterthought. That gap is expensive: a slow, disorganized returns process doesn’t just frustrate customers, it quietly erodes margin on every item that comes back. Why Returns Are a Margin ...

Most 3PLs can pick, pack, and ship your orders. Very few can legally clear those goods through U.S. Customs first. Customs brokerage requires a license from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the overwhelming majority of fulfillment providers do not hold one. If your brand imports its products, that means the typical “logistics partner” only ...

Every product that crosses a U.S. border needs a Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) code, and that ten-digit number determines the duty rate, whether the shipment needs extra paperwork, and how likely it is to get flagged for exam. Misclassify it and you either overpay duties for years without realizing it, or underpay and end up ...

Splitting inventory across a West Coast and East Coast warehouse cuts the distance a package has to travel to reach most customers, which shortens transit time and lowers shipping cost per order. For ecommerce brands outgrowing a single fulfillment center, deciding where to add a second node is one of the highest-leverage supply chain decisions ...

The short de minimis 2026 answer: no. Section 321 is still written into U.S. law, but duty-free de minimis treatment has been suspended for shipments from every country since August 29, 2025, and CBP made that suspension indefinite on June 24, 2026. No commercial shipment currently qualifies for $800 duty-free entry, and Congress has already ...

Kitting and assembly services bundle multiple SKUs into a single sellable unit before an order ships — think gift sets, subscription boxes, retail displays, or multi-part products built to order. For growing ecommerce and B2B brands, moving this work into a fulfillment center instead of handling it in-house pays off fast. It lowers cost per ...

The new CPSC eFiling requirements took effect on July 8, 2026. Importers of products regulated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) must now file certificate of compliance data electronically with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at the time of entry. If your shipments include children’s products or regulated general-use products, this is now ...