DI (Direct Import)

Amazon & D2C glossary · Harpy Media

DI (Direct Import) is shipping inventory from an overseas manufacturer straight to Amazon’s network, bypassing domestic warehouses and intermediaries. In certain vendor programs, Amazon acts as the importer of record entirely; for sellers, DI often means factory-to-FC flows with your own customs arrangements.

What is DI?

DI (Direct Import) is shipping inventory from an overseas manufacturer straight to Amazon’s network, bypassing domestic warehouses and intermediaries. In certain vendor programs, Amazon acts as the importer of record entirely; for sellers, DI often means factory-to-FC flows with your own customs arrangements.

The appeal is arithmetic: cutting the domestic warehouse layer removes handling, storage, and double-shipping from every unit — meaningful landed-cost savings at container scale. The cost is time: ocean transit plus customs plus inbound puts weeks and months between payment and availability, turning every DI decision into a forecast bet with cash locked on the water.

Building the true DI landed cost

The DI math: FOB price, freight (allocated per unit — container cost ÷ units), duties and tariffs, insurance, customs brokerage, port/terminal/drayage, and last-mile into Amazon’s network — versus the same stack through a domestic warehouse (which adds receiving, storage months, and outbound-to-FC freight). At container volumes the savings routinely run meaningful per unit; at LCL (less-than-container) the freight penalty can erase them. Two structural questions decide more than the rate card: who is the importer of record (with its customs and compliance obligations — Amazon itself in some vendor DI programs), and how real is the duty number after current tariff regimes. Model per SKU; the answer changes by product.

Managing the capital clock

DI’s real risk isn’t freight cost; it’s the calendar. Money leaves at production; goods arrive 60–120 days later — so DI multiplies the cost of a bad forecast. The professional controls: pre-negotiated production slots and staged orders (first container early, follow-on tranches against sell-through), honest safety stock inside the delay window, and demand sensing during transit (if velocity drops, the second container can sometimes be redirected or deferred before it ships). Sellers scaling DI typically keep a working-capital buffer sized to one cycle — the warehouse-delete savings are real, but only if the business can survive holding the goods while they float.

In practice

A brand compares the two routes for its hero SKU: domestic warehouse lands at $8.14/unit; DI lands at $7.31 — an 83-cent saving on 48,000 annual units. They start with one container against a staged plan, instrument velocity weekly during transit, and keep a cash buffer for the second shipment. Year one: $40k saved, one forecast miss absorbed by deferring tranche two. Year two: three containers, savings now funding the brand’s first DSP pilot.

How Harpy Media helps

DI modeling — true landed stacks, cash-lock math, staged order plans — is core supply-chain work on our bigger accounts. We do the arithmetic before the container does.

DI FAQ

What is Direct Import?

Shipping inventory from an overseas manufacturer directly toward Amazon’s network — bypassing domestic warehouses; in some vendor programs Amazon is the importer of record.

Does DI always save money?

At container scale it usually reduces landed cost; at LCL or with tariff changes it can erode. Model per SKU against the full domestic-warehouse stack.

What’s the biggest DI risk?

The capital clock — 60–120 days between payment and availability makes forecast errors expensive. Stage orders and hold a one-cycle cash buffer.