Importing from China feels complicated because many small decisions happen at once. Broken into stages, it becomes a predictable project. This roadmap is the one our team follows for every order.
1. Define the product
Write down what the product must do, the materials you expect, size and color options, packaging, certifications for your market and your target landed price. A one-page brief saves weeks of back-and-forth later.
2. Find and compare suppliers
Search the industrial cluster that specializes in your product, request quotes from several factories and compare them on the same specification. Price is only one column: MOQ, lead time, communication and export experience matter as much.
3. Verify before you commit
Check the business license, export history and — for larger orders — the factory itself. Most supplier problems are visible before the first payment.
4. Samples and approval
Order samples from the two or three best candidates, test them in real use and approve one as the “golden sample” that production will be measured against.
5. Contract and deposit
Put specifications, quantities, price, lead time, packaging, inspection rights and payment milestones in a written purchase order before paying the deposit.
6. Production follow-up
Check progress at fixed points: materials in, first pieces off the line, mid-production and packing. Early problems are cheap to fix.
7. Inspection
A pre-shipment inspection with AQL sampling confirms the goods match the golden sample before you release the balance.
8. Shipping and delivery
Choose express, air or sea freight, prepare the export and import documents, and track the shipment to your door.
Typical timeline
- Quotes: 3–7 days
- Samples: 1–3 weeks
- Production: 3–8 weeks
- Sea freight to the US: 3–6 weeks door to door
Planning 3–4 months for a first order is realistic. Repeat orders are much faster because stages 1–4 are already done.
Who does what at each stage
A sourcing project goes smoothly when every decision has an owner. As the buyer you own the product definition, the target price, the choice of supplier and every approval: the golden sample, the inspection result and the release of payments. The sourcing team owns the legwork — searching, verifying, negotiating, chasing, checking and documenting. The factory owns production to the agreed specification and schedule.
Problems usually start where ownership is unclear: a packaging change “someone” approved by chat, a color nobody confirmed in writing, a ship date that moved without anyone deciding to accept it. Writing down who approves what — and recording every decision in a daily work log — removes most of those surprises.
Budgeting a first order
Beyond the factory price, plan for these costs before you start:
- Samples and courier — typically US$50–300 per supplier, often credited back on the first order.
- Tooling — only for custom parts; from a few hundred dollars for a simple mold insert to US$10,000+ for multi-cavity steel molds.
- Inspection — around US$249–349 per man-day for a pre-shipment inspection.
- Freight, duties and customs — often 15–40% of the factory price for sea freight to the US, depending on product and tariff rates.
- Sourcing fee — commonly 5–10% of goods value for full service.
Adding these up gives your landed cost — the only number that tells you whether the product is profitable.
Where first orders usually go wrong
- Skipping verification because the price looked good.
- Approving production from photos instead of a physical sample.
- Paying the balance before an independent inspection.
- Forgetting that Chinese New Year stops most factories for three to five weeks.
- Choosing a shipping method only after goods are ready, when space is tight and rates are high.
How we run this roadmap for you
With full-service sourcing we handle every stage above and send you a daily log of what was done, when and why. You make the decisions; every cost we pass on comes with an official invoice.
