Retail and Wholesale Logistics for US Importers

A routing guide is the document your retail customer gives you that specifies exactly how goods must be packaged, labeled, palletized, and delivered to their DC. Walmart, Target, Costco, Home Depot, and most major retailers maintain routing guides that cover everything from master carton dimensions to GS1-128 barcode placement to the specific appointment window for delivery. A violation triggers a chargeback: a financial penalty deducted from your invoice, typically 2 to 5 percent of the shipment value per violation. Common violations include wrong pallet height, missing or incorrect ASN transmission, incorrect carton labeling, and late delivery. Routing guide compliance is an origin-side problem as much as a logistics problem: if the factory packs wrong, no amount of downstream logistics fixes it. We load your routing guide specs into your account profile and verify compliance during loading, so violations are caught at origin rather than at the DC.

Each major retailer has its own routing guide, and the requirements are not standardized across accounts. Walmart and Target have different pallet configuration specs. Costco has different carton marking requirements than Home Depot. Some retailers require an EDI 856 ASN transmitted within hours of shipment confirmation; others have a 24-hour window. Managing multiple routing guides without a systematic approach is where chargebacks accumulate. We maintain a routing guide library for your account that covers all active retail customers, applied automatically at the booking and loading stage so each shipment is packaged and documented to the spec of the specific retailer it is going to, regardless of how many accounts your program covers.

An EDI 856 is the electronic Advance Ship Notice your retail customer requires before goods arrive at their DC. It tells their receiving system exactly what is coming: which purchase orders, which SKUs, what quantities, in which cartons, on which pallets, with which UCC-128 barcode identifiers. Most major retailers require the ASN transmitted within a specific window after the container is loaded, ranging from 4 hours to 24 hours depending on the routing guide. A late or missing ASN is a chargeback event in most routing guides, and an ASN with quantity or carton data that does not match the physical freight is treated the same as no ASN at all. We generate ASN data from the booking and loading confirmation rather than from manual re-entry, which eliminates the data mismatch that causes most ASN chargebacks.

Buyers consolidation is the mode for this: we coordinate pickup from multiple origin factories, consolidate the cargo at an origin CFS or transload point, and load a single FCL container with goods from several vendors. The benefit is lower per-unit freight cost than shipping each vendor LCL separately. The complexity is that each vendor's goods need separate documentation, separate HTS classification, and often separate routing guide labeling, all of which has to be correct before the container is sealed. For retail programs sourcing from several factories in the same region, buyers consolidation is often the most cost-efficient mode and we plan container assignments by vendor and SKU before the production cycle ends.

China to the US West Coast averages 14 to 18 transit days from Shanghai or Ningbo into Los Angeles or Long Beach, plus 5 to 7 days for origin booking and documentation, 2 to 4 days for customs clearance and port drayage, and 1 to 2 days for DC appointment and receiving. Total planning window on the China West Coast lane runs 22 to 32 days under normal conditions. Vietnam to the West Coast averages 18 to 22 transit days from Ho Chi Minh or Hai Phong, with a similar door-to-DC window of 26 to 35 days. Peak season from August through October adds 5 to 10 days on both lanes due to vessel rolling and port congestion. For programs with hard floor-set or on-shelf dates, we build the container booking schedule backwards from the DC appointment, not forwards from the factory ready date.

Section 301 tariffs add a percentage on top of the standard MFN (most-favored-nation) duty rate for goods imported from China. For most consumer retail goods, the additional rate is 7.5 percent under List 4A or 25 percent under Lists 1 through 3, depending on the HTS classification. That adds directly to landed cost before any retail markup. On a $10 FOB product with a 7.5 percent Section 301 rate and a 5 percent MFN rate, the duty stack is $1.25 per unit before freight, insurance, and delivery. For programs where retail customers set prices annually, an unexpected duty increase between the price-setting conversation and the import can eliminate a season of margin. We map Section 301 rates against your HTS codes before the PO cycle and flag any code where an exclusion has lapsed or a rate change is pending.

Yes, and multi-origin programs are the norm for most retail importers who have diversified out of China over the last several years. A typical program might have core volume from China, apparel from Vietnam or Bangladesh, and seasonal replenishment from Mexico. Each origin has its own booking cycle, transit time, duty treatment, and documentation requirements. USMCA applies to Mexico-origin goods with proper origin certification, reducing or eliminating duty on qualifying categories. Vietnam and Bangladesh goods have their own duty rates and Section 301 does not apply to them. We manage all origins on one account file with one operations team, so your logistics team is not coordinating separately with multiple forwarders across different time zones.

DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) means the seller or forwarder is responsible for all costs and risks through delivery at the named place, including import duties, customs clearance, and last-mile delivery. DAP (Delivered at Place) means the buyer is responsible for import duties and customs clearance, with the seller covering transport to the named location. For retail imports, most US importers buy on FOB or CIF terms and handle US customs and delivery themselves, which is the model Platton runs: we manage the US customs entry, duty payment, drayage, and DC delivery under the importer's bond and account. DDP from an overseas supplier is less common in retail because it removes the importer's control over HTS classification and duty payment, both of which affect landed cost and compliance liability.