Apparel Imports Through LA and Long Beach

OC3PL receives the freight at our dock. The stages before that are arranged by your forwarder and broker. We coordinate the dock appointment with them so the handoff is smooth.

When a warehouse is far from the port, freight has to travel across the country before it can be received. That adds days, and it adds cost, to every inbound.

With a warehouse near the port, the last leg is short. For an apparel brand that plans drops and restocks around production dates, that changes the calendar. The launch date depends on when the ship arrives, not on a week of trucking afterward.

• Restocks of core styles are back on sale sooner.
• Drops can be scheduled closer to the arrival date.
• Holiday stock that arrives late still has a chance to sell.
• Freight claims for damage are easier to document, because cartons are inspected and photographed on arrival.

1. Your forwarder's or drayage carrier's contact, so the dock appointment can be booked.
2. An advance shipping notice listing SKUs, quantities and carton counts.
3. The expected arrival date and container or shipment reference.
4. Notice of anything unusual: a floor-loaded container, mixed cartons, samples in the shipment.

With that in hand, receiving is planned before the container leaves the port. Shipments that arrive labeled, scheduled and matched to an ASN are received and slotted within one business day.

Apparel often ships floor-loaded: cartons stacked loose in the container to fit as many as possible. That is efficient for freight and slower to unload. Palletized freight is quicker to unload but carries fewer cartons.

Tell us which you are sending so labor is planned for the unload.

Port congestion, vessel delays and holiday volume can all push an arrival back. None of it is in the warehouse's control or yours. The answer is buffer.

• Do not announce a drop or restock date until inventory is received.
• For holiday stock, plan arrival well ahead of your first promotion.
• Keep your ASN updated as the arrival date changes.
• Tell your account manager when a delay will push a launch, so labor can be moved.

See peak season fulfillment for the holiday calendar.

Once freight reaches our dock, cartons are inspected for damage, matched against your ASN, scanned, photographed and slotted by size, color and style. Inventory then syncs to your store and is available to sell.

Orders imported by 12 PM PST ship the same day. For a restock that has a waitlist, that means customers can be notified as soon as the received count is confirmed. See receiving apparel from factories and restocks.

Imported stock often feeds more than your own site. From the same inventory, OC3PL ships wholesale purchase orders with retail-compliant labeling and palletized freight, and preps Amazon FBA shipments with FNSKU labels and poly bagging with suffocation warnings.

Decide the split between DTC, wholesale and Amazon before the container lands, and tell us. See Amazon FBA prep for apparel and apparel wholesale and retail.

When a launch date is tight, brands sometimes air-freight part of a run and send the rest by ocean. The first units arrive quickly for the launch. The bulk arrives later at a lower freight cost.

Send an ASN for each part of a split shipment. Each one is received and slotted as it arrives, so the air portion can go on sale while the ocean portion is still on the water.

Work backward from the date you want to sell. Each step needs time and some buffer.

1. Choose the launch or restock date.
2. Set a received-by date at least a week before it.
3. Add time for drayage from the port and the dock appointment.
4. Add time for customs clearance.
5. Add the ocean or air transit time, plus a buffer for delays.
6. That gives you the date production must be packed and ready to ship.

Share the calendar with your account manager. When the container is booked, send the ASN. When the vessel arrives, the dock appointment is already planned.

Holiday stock is the import that matters most and the one most often late. The ports and carriers are at their busiest in the months before the holidays.

• Book freight early for holiday production.
• Aim to have holiday stock received before your first promotion, not before your biggest one.
• Build gift sets as soon as stock and packaging arrive.
• Keep a plan for late arrivals: which styles to promote instead, and how to tell customers.

See apparel peak season fulfillment and the apparel holiday shipping calendar.

Long ocean trips are hard on cartons. Crushed corners, water damage and broken pallets happen. What matters is catching it at the dock.

Each shipment is inspected for damage on arrival and every SKU is photographed at receipt. Damaged cartons and units are set aside and documented. That record is what you take to your forwarder, carrier or insurer when you file a claim. File it quickly; claims raised months later are harder to recover.

If damage is serious, your account manager will call you before anything else is done with the freight.

Each of these is fixed before the freight leaves the factory or the port. None of them depends on luck.

For a brand whose production lands at Los Angeles or Long Beach, every extra mile between the port and the warehouse is time before the product can be sold. A nearby warehouse keeps that time short and predictable.

• Restocks are back on sale sooner after the vessel arrives.
• Launch dates can sit closer to the arrival date.
• Inbound problems, like a damaged container, are caught and documented quickly.
• Your team can visit the warehouse to see a critical inbound in person.

Our Anaheim warehouse is twenty-five miles from both ports, and your account manager is on site to coordinate each inbound with your forwarder.

Once imported stock is received, it ships the same way as everything else. Orders imported by 12 PM PST ship the same day. The warehouse is near major carrier sorting hubs, so packages handed off later in the day still make that night's outbound. Carriers are rate-shopped per package, and shipping is billed at what the carrier charges.

See carrier strategy for the West Coast.

Your freight forwarder and our receiving team should talk directly. That saves you from relaying messages about dock times and paperwork.

• Introduce your forwarder to your account manager during onboarding.
• Ask the forwarder to share arrival updates with both of you.
• Agree how dock appointments are requested and confirmed.
• Make sure the forwarder has our receiving requirements, including the ASN.

When everyone works from the same dates, containers are unloaded on schedule and stock is on sale sooner.