How long does a first order from China take?

A repeat order on existing tooling is faster than a first order, because a first order carries a tooling and sample step that a repeat does not. We deliberately publish no single lead-time figure, because one number would be wrong for one of the two cases. The timeline page in this column breaks down where the time goes.

What payment terms are normal?

The common default is a deposit with the balance due before shipment or against a bill of lading copy — but the terms that govern your order are the ones written into your contract, not the ones that are common. Any term on this site is a description of what is usual, not a substitute for the paperwork you sign.

Do I pay for samples?

Usually yes, and the sample is the cheapest place in the whole order to discover a mistake. Treat the sample cost as the price of finding out whether the specification was written well enough, rather than as an overhead to negotiate away.

Can I stop after the sample?

Yes, and this is the design of the process rather than a concession. Steps one to four are reversible; the commitment starts with the deposit. If a factory will not let you stop, that is information about the factory.

Who owns the tooling?

It has to be agreed in writing before the deposit, because it decides whether you can move the programme to another factory later. A stock mould belongs to whoever paid for it; an existing mould usually belongs to the factory. Ask the question at the quotation stage, not at the end.

What if I have never imported before?

The parts that surprise first-time buyers are rarely the product. They are the price basis (FOB or EXW), the fact that a quotation without a stated basis is not comparable with any other, and the documents that have to travel with the shipment. The compliance page covers what has to be true per market before the shipment clears.

A First Order From China, Step by Step

The eight steps, and which ones you can still walk away from

#	Step	Output	Reversible?
1	Specification	A field-by-field sheet	Yes — nothing is committed
2	Factory matching	Named factories that can actually make it	Yes
3	Written quotation	Price basis, MOQ, lead time, tooling, validity	Yes
4	Sample	A physical unit against your specification	Yes
5	Sample approval	A signed-off standard	No — this is the commitment point
6	Deposit and tooling	Tooling starts, capacity is booked	No
7	Production with checkpoints	Progress against the approved sample	No
8	Pre-shipment inspection, then balance	Inspection result, then documents	No

Steps one to four cost nothing except the sample. That is not a sales line; it is how the process is built, and it is why the How It Works page puts the commitment at step five.

Step 1: the specification

This is the step where first orders are won or lost, and it is entirely in the buyer's hands. A photograph states none of the fields a factory needs.

Use the specification builder to turn a product family into a field-by-field sheet. The fields that matter differ by type — hardness and salt loading for a soft lure, wire gauge and gap for a hook, bill geometry for a hard lure, blank and guide train for a rod.

Step 2: factory matching

The honest output of this step is a shortlist, and sometimes the honest output is that nothing fits. A factory that makes soft plastics well does not make rods well, and a directory that returns results for everything returns nothing useful.

Our own position on how a factory is checked before it appears anywhere is set out in the four verification gates, and what those gates do not prove is on the same page. Read that before you read a supplier profile.

Step 3: the written quotation

A quotation is not a price. It is a price plus four conditions, and without them it cannot be compared with anything:

Condition	Why it is not optional
The unit	Per piece, per pack, per bag. Our own sample mixes all three, and comparing across them is the most common error in this business.
The quantity	The unit price belongs to an MOQ band. A price without a quantity is a price for some other order.
The basis	FOB a named port, or EXW factory. Why two quotes differ is entirely explained by this field.
The validity	A quotation with no expiry is a quotation nobody can act on.

The comparable quote fields page carries the full list, and how to compare two factory quotations is the next page in this route.

Step 4 and 5: the sample, and the approval

The sample's job is to test the specification, not to be liked. If the sample is right and the specification was vague, you have learned nothing that will survive a repeat order.

Approve it against the written fields — color against the approved sample under a stated light, dimensions against the tolerance, hardware against the named grade. Then keep the approved sample, because step eight is measured against it.

If the sample is wrong, that is a normal outcome and not a crisis: what to do when a sample fails.

Steps 6 to 8: production, inspection, documents

Production is followed at agreed checkpoints, not by asking for updates. Pre-shipment inspection measures the delivery against the approved sample — the colorway, the hardware, the buoyancy — rather than against a description, because a description is exactly what the sample replaced.

The inspection page covers the checkpoints and the documents. The compliance page covers what has to be true per market before the shipment clears, which is a separate question from whether the goods are correct.

Where to go next

Starting a private label lure brand
How to compare two factory quotations
Where programmes go wrong — the four failure modes and the control for each
The three working models
Send a specification

A first order from China, step by step