Which freight forwarder does ChatGPT recommend for shipping from China to Malaysia?

It depends on how you ask. In our Malaysian test, ChatGPT named a big global logistics brand every time someone asked a short, generic question, often alongside a specialist. When the question sounded like a real seller, such as stock bought on 1688 and shipped to KL, it named smaller China-to-Malaysia specialists, and almost never the big brands. Reddit threads sat in its search results for every seller question, yet it never linked one.

That matters to both sides. If you import from Taobao or Alibaba, ChatGPT's shortlist depends on the detail you type. If you run a forwarding company, your own website is what ChatGPT reads to decide whether to name you.

Which freight forwarders did ChatGPT recommend for shipping from China to Malaysia?

ChatGPT recommended two different kinds of freight forwarder, depending on the question. We asked 9 chatty buyer questions twice each, in English, Malay and Chinese, plus two short versions of this article's title question twice each, and counted who it named and linked.

The English short-question answers come from our title test, which used slightly different settings (web search optional, no system prompt; see Sources). The Chinese short question was one of our 9 buyer questions. In most short-question answers, ChatGPT also named a China-to-Malaysia specialist next to the global brands.

The two exceptions were both answers to the English 1688 question, and both named the marketplace group's own shipping service alongside the specialists. Every other detailed answer named only China-to-Malaysia specialists: consolidators with a warehouse in Guangzhou or Yiwu, "ship for me" services and Klang Valley forwarders.

A detailed question reads like "I buy stock from 1688 and need it shipped to KL, which forwarder is cheap and reliable?"

Where does ChatGPT get its freight forwarder recommendations from?

ChatGPT gets them mostly from the forwarders' own websites, the same pattern IT support companies showed. What stands out for forwarders is what ChatGPT left out.

The surprise is the forums. Reddit threads, from r/taobao to r/malaysia, were in ChatGPT's search results for all 18 answers, yet it never linked one. No Facebook page turned up in its search results at all. We saw the same Reddit pattern in our clinic test.

Marketplace pages never appeared either, in its search results or its links, though the questions named Taobao, 1688 and Shopee.

What did ChatGPT say about customs, SST and door-to-door shipping?

ChatGPT covered the same few things in most answers. Our reading is that it mostly repeated what forwarders' own sites say about them. We read all 18 answers and counted by hand:

• Customs clearance came up in every answer except the two about small Taobao parcels.
• Whether tax is included, such as "all-in", DDP or tax-included (包税) quotes, came up in nearly every answer. SST was named in 9.
• A warehouse or consolidation in China, combining orders from several sellers, also came up in nearly every answer.
• Rates per kilo or per cubic metre came up in most answers. Five quoted actual ringgit rates.

Reviews hardly featured, much as with IT firms; instead, some answers pointed to the Royal Malaysian Customs Department's published lists of customs agents (forwarding agents, shipping agents and freight forwarders) as a way to check a company.

If you're the importer, treat ChatGPT's list as a shortlist. OpenAI's own help page says "Search results and citations can be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect" (OpenAI).

Does asking ChatGPT in Malay or Chinese change which forwarder it recommends?

Asking in Chinese changed the list; asking in Malay didn't. ChatGPT searched the Malay questions in English and answered in Malay, as for other trades.

For the 1688 sea-freight question in Chinese, ChatGPT wrote most of its searches in Chinese, an exception to the English-first searching in our Chinese-question test. It then named three consolidators that no English or Malay answer named. The shorter Chinese question was searched in English and drew the global brands.

Does ChatGPT recommend the same freight forwarder every time?

No, ChatGPT doesn't recommend the same freight forwarder every time: its list often changed between two runs of the same question (CSV). Only the 1688 and Taobao small-parcel questions gave identical lists twice. Two questions shared no names at all between runs.

Across all 18 answers, it named 25 different companies, and 10 of them only once. Two specialists stood out: each was named for five of the nine questions, in English, Malay and Chinese.

What can't this test tell me about ChatGPT and freight forwarders?

• How often this holds. It's one model on one day, with 22 answers in all, and answers change between runs.
• The ChatGPT app. We used OpenAI's API, which has no chat history or memory.
• Bookings. We counted names and links, not enquiries or shipments.

What should a freight forwarder publish so ChatGPT names it?

Win the detailed question. On those, ChatGPT named smaller specialists rather than the big brands.

1. Put a seller's real question to ChatGPT with us. Our free check asks things like "Ejen kargo China ke Malaysia yang dipercayai? Saya nak bawa stok dari Taobao untuk kedai online saya.", shows you which forwarders it names, and we talk the answers through on a free call.
2. Spell out your route and terms on your own site. Name your China warehouse city, sea and air options, customs clearance, door-to-door delivery areas and whether tax is included. Those were the details ChatGPT repeated. Here's how to write a page ChatGPT will quote.
3. Give each kind of shipment its own page, such as 1688 stock, Taobao parcels or a full container to Port Klang, much as ChatGPT linked trade pages for WhatsApp chatbot builders.
4. Show your licence and company details. If you're a licensed customs agent, check your entry on Customs' published lists.
5. Add a Chinese page if you serve Chinese-speaking sellers, written natively. Here's what happens when customers ask ChatGPT in Chinese.

Forwarders who want this done for them can use EasyFound's AI SEO service: we put importers' questions to six AI tools in English, Malay and Chinese and rework the pages behind the answers. The free check below comes first.