Frequently asked questions.

Straight answers about how we run fulfillment, what a quote includes, and what happens when something goes wrong.

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Getting started
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How do I start working with Commercive?

Send us your product and we send you a quote. Once you accept, we connect to your store through our ERP, which takes about five minutes. We can start processing orders the same day, and you get dashboard access the same day too.

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What do I need to provide to get set up?

Your store URL and a connection code from Shopify. That is it. We handle the rest of the setup.

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Do I need to already be doing a certain number of orders?

No. We have no minimum daily order requirement. We work with brands that are just launching and with brands shipping thousands of orders a day.

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What does it cost to get started?

Nothing. There is no setup fee, no account fee, no platform fee and no monthly minimum. You pay per order at the quoted all-inclusive price, and storage is free.

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Can I switch to Commercive without pausing my store?

Yes, and that is the normal case. The connection is non-destructive, so orders keep flowing while we take over fulfillment. Most brands switch without any downtime.

Shipping and carriers
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Which carriers do you use?

We run a large number of carriers, grouped into three tiers so you can choose the trade-off. The best tier includes YunExpress, Yanwen and 4PX. The cheaper tier includes lines such as Wanbang, Cainiao and Sunyou. The cheapest tier includes SDH, JS and LX. We route each order through the line that suits its destination, and your agent will tell you which tier a quote is based on.

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How long does delivery take?

These are averages, not guarantees, because weather, carriers and customs all move them. Our best lines run 6 to 12 days. Mid-tier lines average around 15 days. The cheapest lines run anywhere from 8 to 30 days. US orders shipped from our Arkansas warehouse reach most of the country in 2 to 4 days. We publish what every line actually does per country, measured from our own delivered parcels, at software.commercive-app.co/shipping-status.

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What is the difference between the carrier tiers?

The best tier is fastest and safest, and if a parcel goes wrong there is a real claim behind it. The cheaper tier is slower, and most but not all of those lines carry after-sales. The cheapest tier is where the risk sits: parcels are held or seized in customs far more often, there is usually no proof of delivery, and usually no claim if one goes missing. Because those carriers move many sellers' parcels together, one bad clearance can hit a lot of your orders at once.

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Why do you tell me which carriers are worse?

Because you are paying for the trade-off and you should get to make it. Most fulfillment companies quote one blended estimate and never name the line your parcel actually went on. We publish the tiers, the carriers and the real transit ranges so you can price and promise accurately.

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Will my customers know the order shipped from China?

No. Tracking is masked end to end. Your customer sees your brand and the destination-country carrier, with no China origin exposed at any point in the journey, and masking does not slow the parcel down.

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Can you ship batteries or liquids?

Usually yes. We place no category restrictions on legal goods. Restrictions come from individual carriers, not from us, so because we run eight lines a restriction on one is normally not a restriction on your order.

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Do you provide proof of delivery?

Yes on premium and mid tier lines, including doorstep photos where the carrier supports it. The economy lines, LX and SDH, do not offer proof of delivery, which is part of the trade-off for their lower cost.

Pricing and payments
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What is included in your quote?

Everything. Cost of goods, handling and shipping to the destination country are all in the quoted price, with nothing added afterwards.

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Do you charge storage fees?

No. Storage is free, with no monthly warehouse fee and no long-term storage penalty.

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Is there a handling fee for custom packaging?

No. You pay for the packaging itself and we add nothing on top. We do not charge a per-order handling fee for using your own packaging.

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When is payment due?

Before each order ships. Credit terms are possible but rare, and they are arranged privately on specific terms rather than offered as a standard package.

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How do I get a quote and how fast?

Send us the product, either a link, a sample or clear photos, and we come back with a quote. Quoting is usually quick because our sourcing team checks our existing network of 1,845+ vetted factories first.

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Are there any hidden fees?

No. The quote is the price. We do not charge storage, packaging handling, account fees, or platform fees.

Sourcing and manufacturing
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Can you source products for me?

Yes. We work with over 1,845 vetted factory partners across China, so send a link, a sample or clear photos and our sourcing team finds and vets the manufacturer. Because sourcing and fulfillment sit in the same operation, the product goes from the factory straight into your orders.

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Is there a minimum order quantity?

Not from us. A minimum only appears when the factory itself requires one, and we default to sourcing the option with no minimum or the lowest available. Custom products almost always carry a factory minimum, and we work to keep it as low as possible.

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Can you make a custom product from scratch?

Yes. We manage custom and private label production in China, including the product itself, packaging, inserts, clothing tags and market-adjusted size charts.

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Can I get a sample before ordering in bulk?

Yes. Sample production and approval happen before any bulk commitment, so you sign off the actual product before money goes into a production run. This is the step where most sourcing problems get caught.

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Can I keep using my existing supplier?

Yes. If you already have a factory relationship you want to keep, we work with them.

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Do you publish a product catalog or a best-sellers list?

No. Product research is your competitive advantage, and publishing what our clients sell would give it away.

Processing and fulfillment
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How fast do you process orders?

1 to 3 business days normally, because we buy the item, check it and pack it. If you keep stock in our warehouse it drops to 24 to 48 hours, since we pick it straight off the shelf. Chinese New Year, Q4 and large sale events slow everything down, and we announce those in advance so you can plan around them.

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What happens during Chinese holidays?

Multi-day Chinese public holidays such as Chinese New Year and Golden Week pause manufacturing and add transit time. We announce every one in advance, and our dashboard's China calendar builds the buffer into your reorder forecasts automatically.

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Do I need to tell you about new orders?

No. Once your store is connected, orders flow to us automatically and are fulfilled without you doing anything. You are alerted only when something genuinely needs your attention.

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Do you handle quality control?

Yes. Items are inspected before they enter inventory and checked again before packing. Two checkpoints is how we hold 99.8% order accuracy.

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Can you handle peak season and Black Friday volume?

Yes. We run at 50,000 orders a day across four warehouses, so a spike in your volume does not sit in a queue behind every other client. For peak periods we plan carrier capacity in advance rather than discovering the problem in November.

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What happens to stock that stops selling?

We work it out with you. We do not have a fixed dead-stock deadline and we do not seize or destroy inventory that has sat too long. Storage is free, so there is no meter running while you decide.

Tracking and packaging
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Is tracking provided on every parcel?

Yes, on every parcel, and it is branded to your store. Tracking runs on your own domain so the customer never leaves your brand.

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Do you offer custom packaging?

Yes. Boxes, mailers, logos, inserts, cards and full custom unboxing. You pay for the packaging itself and nothing more, with no per-order handling fee. There is no order-volume minimum from us, though the packaging supplier may set a print minimum.

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Do packages have Chinese lettering on them?

No. Products ship in plain or branded packaging with no Chinese text and nothing identifying the origin.

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Can you do size charts and clothing tags?

Yes, including charts adjusted for your target market's sizing, and custom tags.

Returns and after-sales
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What is your return and refund policy?

We cover lost parcels, where 15 days with no tracking update means we reship at no cost to you. We cover late parcels, including ones that trigger a chargeback. We cover it when we shipped the wrong item, and damage caused by our packing if you report it within 3 days with an unboxing video. We also cover empty parcels, because we can check the shipped weight against the carrier.

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When is a package officially considered lost?

When tracking has not updated for more than 15 days. At that point it qualifies for a refund or re-delivery and we cover it.

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Do parcels include return labels?

No. Returning goods to China costs more than the goods are usually worth, so we handle failures through refund or re-delivery under the policy above instead.

Software and dashboard
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What does the Commercive dashboard show me?

Orders, inventory, tracking and invoices in one place, updated live. It also carries reorder alerts, a demand forecaster, profit analytics and shipping performance by carrier and lane, so it is the single source of truth for your operation.

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Do you build your own software?

Yes. Our dashboard is built in house rather than assembled from off-the-shelf ERP software, which is why it can show you true landed profit per order and a reorder date based on your actual sell-through.

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Does it tell me when to reorder?

Yes. The forecaster tracks sell-through against inbound stock and flags what to reorder and when, with Chinese factory shutdowns factored into the dates so a holiday does not catch you out.

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Can I see my real profit per order?

Yes. Cost of goods, shipping and fees are all in the system, so margin is calculated per order rather than estimated.

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What platforms do you integrate with?

We connect directly to Shopify, which is what most of our brands run on, and we also work with WooCommerce and BigCommerce. The connection takes about five minutes and needs only your store URL and a code from Shopify.

Warehousing
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Do you offer 3PL as well as dropshipping?

Yes. We run China 3PL from Wuxi, Hangzhou and Shenzhen, US 3PL from Arkansas, and hybrid setups where stock sits in China and restocks the US warehouse so domestic orders land in 2 to 4 days.

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Can I split my inventory across warehouses?

Yes, and it is one of the most effective setups we run. Stock sits in China for global orders while a smaller buffer sits in Arkansas for US orders. China replenishes the US warehouse as it draws down, so you get domestic speed on your biggest market without tying up capital in a full US inventory.

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How much stock should I send you?

Enough to cover your sell-through plus the lead time to restock, and the dashboard calculates that for you. Since storage is free, holding a sensible buffer costs you nothing but the cash tied up in the goods.

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How fast can I get stock into your warehouse?

A few days for our China warehouses once the goods are ready. If we sourced the product for you, it moves from the factory straight into our warehouse without a separate leg.

About Commercive
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What is Commercive, and what do you actually do?

We source, store, pick, pack and ship your orders from both China and the US, and we run sourcing and manufacturing too. One partner takes your product from the factory floor to your customer's doorstep, so there is no gap between sourcing and fulfillment where orders get lost.

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When was Commercive founded?

2020. We started as a China-based fulfillment operation and now run four warehouses, three in China and one in Arkansas, having shipped over 5 million orders for brands in more than 65 countries.

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How many orders have you shipped?

Over 5 million since 2020, at 99.8% order accuracy and a 99% on-time rate. We measure both from live shipment data rather than quoting an industry figure, and every client sees their own numbers in the dashboard.

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Where are your warehouses?

Four in total. Three in China: Wuxi, Hangzhou and Shenzhen. The fourth is in Arkansas in the United States, which reaches most of the country in 2 to 4 days. Storage is free at all of them.

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How big is your team?

Over 200 people across warehouse operations, quality control, sourcing and client-facing fulfillment staff in China and the United States, which is why support covers both time zones.

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How many countries do you ship to?

More than 65. Our biggest markets are the United States, the United Kingdom and Western Europe.

Support
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How do I reach my team?

WhatsApp and Discord, plus email. You get a named team rather than a shared ticket queue, and real people rather than bots.

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What are your support hours?

Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 22:00 China time, and Saturday 09:00 to 18:00. In EST that is roughly 20:00 through to 09:00 the next morning, so there is cover across both working days. Hours shift a little with the season, and urgent issues get handled first.

When things go wrong
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What happens if a parcel gets stuck in customs?

We help with the paperwork and chase the carrier, but customs is run by governments. They inspect, hold and check whenever they choose, and no fulfillment company can stop it or speed it up. For that reason a customs delay is not refundable. Choosing a better shipping line is the most effective way to reduce how often it happens.

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What do you not cover?

We do not speak to your customers directly, though we give you everything you need to. We do not cover a wrong or incomplete address supplied by the customer, delays caused by a product being out of stock or in custom production, high value or fragile claims with no unboxing video, remote and island addresses, or chargebacks arising from fraud, payment disputes or problems inside your store.

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How do you help with chargebacks?

Nobody can stop chargebacks completely. We reduce them by shipping reliably, providing proof of delivery wherever the line supports it, chasing carrier claims, and telling you when your stock or your chosen line is causing problems. The single biggest lever is yours: email your customers while the parcel is moving. A customer who knows where their order is rarely opens a dispute.

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My tracking has not updated. Is my parcel lost?

Usually not. Tracking only updates when the parcel reaches the next scan point, so quiet periods are normal. To our main markets it rarely goes quiet for more than 5 to 7 days. Once tracking has not updated for 15 days we treat it as lost and reship at no cost to you.

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Can I see how your carriers actually perform?

Yes. We publish what every line actually does, per country, measured from our own delivered parcels and updated automatically. It is at software.commercive-app.co/shipping-status. You do not have to take our word for a delivery estimate, you can check the real number for your market before you choose a line.

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Can custom orders be returned or refunded?

No. Custom and made-to-order production cannot be returned or refunded, and timelines on custom work are estimates rather than guarantees. We only move to mass production once you have approved the sample, which is why the sample step matters.

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Can you shoot product photos for me?

Yes. We can shoot custom product photography for you, charged per photo. Ask your agent for current pricing.

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How do I tell you what quality I expect?

Tell us in detail at the start, because quality means different things to different people and we cannot guess yours. Higher quality can cost more per unit, take longer, and sometimes carries a minimum order quantity. A lower price always means something gives, whether that is the materials, the finish or the packaging. Most complaints start here and they are the easiest to avoid.

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What should I expect in my first week?

The first week is setup. We agree how your orders are handled, load your SKUs, set your shipping rules and fix whatever does not fit. Expect a few small problems in that week. That is normal and it settles down quickly once the rules are right.

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Are there payment terms available?

We do not offer credit or payment terms to new clients directly. Once we have worked together for a while we look at what we can offer you. We also work with a finance partner that provides 60 day terms at 0% interest with no fees, so you are not paying for stock before you have sold it. Ask your agent for the details.