Sister Lin, who runs a Meike Duo business in Shenzhen, has been feeling quite torn lately. She used to handle her own shipping, which offered decent profit margins, but delivery times were slow and the return rate was high. The platform has been pushing her to join the FBM official warehouse, claiming it could boost her traffic by 20 percent, but after calculating the warehousing fees and shipping costs, she’s hesitant to make the switch.

When it comes to Meitodo logistics, should you choose self-fulfillment or the official warehouse? There’s no one-size-fits-all answer—it all depends on your products, capital, and stage of operations.

01

Pros and Cons of Self-Shipping

"Self-shipping" refers to the seller arranging their own logistics to ship goods from China directly to buyers in Latin America. Common options include postal small packages, dedicated logistics services, and commercial express delivery.

The advantages include low startup costs and no need to stock inventory overseas, making it suitable for sellers testing new products and those with a large number of SKUs. The disadvantages include slow delivery times—typically 18 to 35 days—an inconsistent delivery success rate, cumbersome return processing, and limited traffic support from the platform.

According to feedback from some sellers, the return rate for self-fulfilled orders can be as high as 15% to 18%, with a significant portion of these returns resulting from buyers canceling orders or refusing delivery due to shipping delays.

02

Pros and Cons of the Official Warehouse (FBM)

FBM is Mercado Libre's official logistics service. Sellers first ship their inventory to Mercado Libre's overseas warehouses, and once an order is placed, the warehouse handles delivery. It primarily covers markets such as Mexico, Brazil, Chile, and Colombia.

The advantages include fast delivery—with 48-hour delivery available within Mexico City—and significant traffic support; some sellers have reported that their product visibility increased by more than 20% after their inventory was placed in the warehouse. The platform also handles returns, which improves the customer experience.

The downside is that it requires stocking up in advance, which ties up a significant amount of capital; the combined costs of initial shipping, warehousing, and handling make this model less favorable for products with low average order values; it also demands highly accurate inventory forecasting, as slow-moving inventory can eat into profits.

03

How to Compare Costs

Take, for example, a product with an average order value of $25 and a weight of 500 grams.

Ship-from-our-warehouse: Logistics costs are approximately $8 to $12, accounting for 32% to 48% of the selling price; when factoring in losses from returns, the actual logistics-related costs may exceed 40%.

FBM: The initial leg of ocean freight costs approximately $2 to $3 per item; warehousing fees are calculated based on volume and storage duration; and the final leg of delivery costs approximately $3 to $5. The total logistics cost is approximately 25% to 35%, but inventory must be stockpiled in advance.

Therefore, FBM typically has lower per-unit logistics costs but a higher capital barrier. Self-fulfillment has a lower capital barrier but higher per-item costs and a poorer customer experience.

04

How to Choose

Product Testing for Beginners: Use self-fulfillment to quickly validate products and market demand.

Consistently Popular Products: Switch to FBM to take advantage of traffic support and fast shipping, and boost repeat purchases and ratings.

High average order value and low return and exchange rates: better suited for FBM.

Low average order value, high SKU variety: Fulfilling orders in-house offers greater flexibility, but you need to manage returns and logistics complaints.

Experienced sellers typically use a combination of strategies: they list their main SKUs through FBM and use self-fulfillment for long-tail SKUs and new product tests.

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