Operator glossary
Overseas warehouse (US 3PL)
Your own (or 3PL) US warehouse — the buffer between the container and FBA, the FBM fallback when FBA breaks, and the one-piece-dropship engine of the China-seller playbook.
An overseas warehouse is US-side third-party storage outside Amazon: container quantities land there, then feed FBA in right-sized replenishments (dodging capacity limits, placement games, and Q4 storage rates), fulfill FBM orders when FBA stock or account access fails, ship MCF-style for other channels, and handle returns inspection or relabeling that FBA cannot.
It competes with AWD on the same buffer job, with a different trade: AWD is cheaper per pallet and auto-replenishes but is Amazon-only and Amazon-controlled; a 3PL overseas warehouse costs more and does everything — multichannel, returns work, relabeling, kitting, and the strategic independence of stock Amazon cannot touch. Mature China-origin operations commonly run both: AWD for the FBA feed, 3PL for flexibility and insurance.
The numbers
- Jobs: FBA replenishment buffer, FBM fallback, multichannel fulfillment, returns inspection/relabel/kitting.
- Vs AWD: AWD cheaper + auto-replenishing but Amazon-only; 3PL costs more, does everything, and Amazon cannot freeze it.