What will this parcel cost?
Estimate the parcel
Four service shapes are modelled. Enter the weight, the number of items and your own fee assumptions; the tool shows how widely the routes diverge on this specific parcel.
| Line shape | Shipping | Fees | Total CNY | Total USD |
|---|
—
All-in: —
These four rows are rate shapes, not quotations. Duty, remote-area fees and oversize surcharges are not included. Quote a real line on the index
Five things that move the total more than the fee percentage
Readers usually arrive asking about a fee rate. These five decide more of the bill, which is why the estimator starts with weight rather than with a percentage.
- Billed weight, not scale weight
- Whichever of the two is higher sets the price, and a bulky box is often billed on its dimensions.Where to look: Run the volumetric calculator before estimating anything.
- Route choice
- Economy and priority air can differ by well over half on the same parcel, and the gap widens with weight.Where to look: The route table in the estimator output.
- Consolidation
- One parcel of five items costs less than five parcels of one, because the fixed parts of a shipment are paid once.Where to look: Compare the per-kilogram figure at one item and at five.
- Volumetric-heavy categories
- Outerwear, headwear and boxed footwear bill on volume; flat items and small accessories rarely do.Where to look: The category indexes note the boxed categories.
- Optional services
- Reinforcement, extra photographs, shoe boxes kept rather than removed — each is optional and each adds up.Where to look: Read the line items on the order summary.
The order matters: weight and route set the floor, consolidation lowers it, options raise it again. A fee percentage applied to any of them is a rounding step by comparison.
What the estimate does and does not include
Stated plainly, because an estimate that quietly omits a line is worse than no estimate.
| Line | Included? | Note |
|---|---|---|
| International freight on the billing weight | Yes | Modelled from the four service shapes you select |
| Domestic leg inside the source country | Yes | Entered by you, since it depends on the seller |
| Agent service share | Yes | Entered by you rather than assumed, because it varies by account and promotion |
| Optional services | No | Added after the estimate; the order summary is the authority |
| Duty, tax or customs handling | No | Depends on your destination and the declaration; not modelled here |
| Currency conversion spread | Partly | Applied through the rate you enter, which should be the one your payment method uses |
Three of six lines are outside the model. That is not a shortcoming of the tool so much as an accurate description of what an estimate can know.
Estimator questions
Four answers about reading the output.
Why do the four routes differ so much?
Because they are different services rather than different prices for the same thing. Economy air trades weeks for cost, priority air does the opposite, and sea-rail trades the most time for the lowest rate. On a heavy parcel the spread can exceed the value of any discount you will find.
What is the per-kilogram figure for?
It normalises the parcel so you can compare it with another one. Two parcels of different weights and routes are hard to compare by total; per kilogram, the comparison is immediate.
Should I split a large order into two parcels?
Usually not, unless a single parcel crosses a threshold that triggers a different treatment. Run the estimator both ways; the fixed parts of a shipment are what make consolidation pay.
Where does the estimator stop being useful?
Past the point where the differences between routes are smaller than the uncertainty in your own inputs. If the two inputs you are least sure about change the ranking, the ranking was never reliable.
Weight is only half the surprise
The other half is size. A light box billed on its dimensions is the most common first-order shock, and the volumetric calculator takes thirty seconds.