How to buy clothing from China? Where to buy?

China have the full range and entire clothing industry supply chain, so many overseas clothing brands are importing wholesale clothing from China. In this article, i will guide you step by step on how to buy clothing from China, you can find the best way for you.

Step 1. Choose the right buying channel according to the budget

As we all know, China know as the world’s factory. China is the largest producer of various products in the world, we have the most complete industrial chain in the world. Purchasing from china is easy, you can buy anything from China. Textiles and apparels have a big percentage on exports, you can buy cheap wholesale clothing from China. Almost every small company or big company buyer will import from China to get the maximum profit margin. But considering the budget and quantity, need to choose a suitable business mode to start.

There are different channels for the small business and heavy customers

Quantity less than MOQ.

For customized order, usually there will be a minimum order quantity (MOQ), for clothing, very few supplier will require 100 pcs per color each design, mostly will ask 300 pcs per design. To those looking for quantity less than 100 pcs it’s better to buy from local wholesale suppliers or online wholesale markets.

Where to buy? In small quantity and budget can buy from online shopping market place: Aliexpress, Dhgate, Made in China ect.

The Advantages:

• Can take 1 or 2 pieces each size per design, very low inventory.
• Many designs and colors option, easy match can increase sells.
• Small amount, low budget, good for start ups and boutique.
• Free return, any quality issue can refund.

The disadvantages:

• The fitting size will be different due to different country, need to choose the right size from supplier.
•  The same design, in different batch, color and quality may different, will have more complains.
•  Not good to have your own fans, the clients are to widely, not good to set up your brand and long time business.
•  No brand value, can find same designs in other shops, not have the unique selling point.
• Less shipping options, usually takes long time, they are sending by postal packet.

Quantity above MOQ

As previous mention, MOQ usually 300 pcs, if you have more quantity on that, i will highly recommend to customized your clothing line. Imily clothing have help hundreds of companies to launch their own brand, for some designs we offer a MOQ low to 100 pcs to help you to start.

The advantage:

•  Unique styles custom for your fans, more fan interaction, enhance the competitiveness of products.
•  Your own brand, put your private label,print, embroidery, expand your brand and for long term business.
•  Good for marketing and increase sales.
•  Right size measurement, the right size for your local clients.

The disadvantage:

•  More budget, more inventory of each clothing style.
•  Need to spend more time on design, extensive research and market analysis to find products that meet product positioning and fans’ favorites.
•  Difficult on product diversification.

Step 2. Analyze the cost according to the business model

No matter which way you buy, it’s important to know the cost breakdown, with a sufficient cost analysis we can maximize profits and margin. If buy from online wholesalers source like Aliexpress, Amazon, Ebay, Wish, DHgate, you can source the similar items to double check the price. If you are looking for customized wholesale supplier and manufacturer, it’s a good place to search from Google and Alibaba. There are wide collection of tank tops and other categories.

Please note that many new buyers use the price of inventory to measure the customized designs,That is not right. Because custom designs are much higher than stock items, custom designs have R&D cost, need to purchase customized fabrics, accessories and follow up size measurement and quality standards as requirements.

In addition to the cost of the product, freight on shipping and tariffs are also an important part of the overall product cost. Different country and items the cost are totally different. Need to know which is the best way to take those goods to you.

Step 3. Terms of International Trade

“Incoterms” are usually used on international trade, see below if you know any one of them.

EXW: Ex Works

According to this EXW, the supplier is only responsible for the production and delivery at the location, such as the factory or warehouse, and the importer bears the transportation and custom costs from the factory/warehouse to the destination. Supplier also no need any paper work, buyer need import licenses to handle with local customs. If no, need to obtain import licenses. If you do not know importation rules you can hire local brokers to handle, all risks are on importer. This way is not recommended for international trade, pay exercise caution because there are many uncertain costs and risks.

FOB：Free On Board

The wholesale supplier is responsible for delivering the goods to the port and loading on vessel, also need to arrange export declaration and documents. The rest are on importers.

DDP&DDU

DDU means “Delivered Duty Unpaid”, the supplier need to delivery to the destination address as require with all cost and risk(not include tax and duty), free shipping, wait for the goods delivery to your address.

DDP means“Delivered Duty Paid”, supplier bear all cost and risk to delivery to the destination address. Buyers no need to do anything else and no extra cost on shipping and tax. This may be the best way for the small business and first time to buy wholesale apparel from China.

CIF means Cost Insurance and Freight

CIF cost usually means = FOB + Freight cost + Insurance cost, suppliers need to pay for the standard shipping cost and insurance. The destination cost will paid by importers.

Step 4. 6 ways to evaluate the supplier is worth to set up long time business or not, Buy clothing from China easy.

History of the company

It’s better to know well about the supplier, what are their main products? How many workers they have? Their products structure, the quality level and standards.  If a company has been established for a long time and is focused on producing a certain type of products, the business is running stable and going bigger, it’s worth to work together.

Business market

The target market of the clothing manufacturer, who they work with?  Are they familiar with the requirements in your market? They can give you suggestions on the hot sell styles, colors and match. They know the size measurement well and have good size fitting. Imily clothing has over 10 years experiences on United State, Australia, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabic market, from the fabric source to delivery have full supply chain, For importers it can avoid a lot of unnecessary troubles.

Easy communication

Easy contact and understand your needs, different company and people are not at the same level, some people are very easy to deal with. You can choose the one you feel comfortable to work with.

Stable quality

There is a saying: you will lose clients of price, but never lose clients of quality.

The most important thing for brand is quality. Only high-quality products can bring continuous impetus to the growth of your brand and bring long-term profits to your business. Suppliers should have a complete quality control system to ensure quality. Usually checking: size measurement, dirty inks, broken stitching, stitching line, labels and stickers ect.

Delivery time control

On-time delivery is an important factor reflect on your sales. If on peak season not have enough goods, after season you may not sell. Clothing in high season products, need to get on the trends, or it may be the left stock items.

If you are selling online, once the product is out of stock, it will affect the ranking of the product, especially for Amazon online sellers; if you are selling through an agent, the delay may cause the agent cancel the orders.

After sales service

It’s not the end after send the goods.There is still long time on selling to clients and get feedback. If there is problem will be too costly to return goods, need the supplier and clients to finger out the best solution. Any issue, the supplier are willing to find the solution.

Step 5. Confirm the details before bulk production

It’s important to confirm details, because it may cause delay while in production.

Workmanship of the clothing

Clothing is very subjective,Different designers may have different comments for the same piece of clothing, so need to confirm all the modification details and seal the board before production. When entering the production process, factory will follow up the final confirm sample to make, any modification after confirm sample will cause a lot of difficulties and confusion in the production.

Confirm the position and stitching way of Neck label, size label and care label.

The composition for different fabric and washing instruction is different, need to pay more attention to that. Which way of packing? Use PP bag, PE bag, paper bag,need logo and warming or not, zip open or stick open? And bag size, need paper cardboard on back or not? Shipping packing use carton or others.

Choose the best way to ship, and confirm the final price.

Confirm the final size, color and quantity and the way to send to get the final price. There will be some changes on the first quote so price may have some changes, it’s necessary to confirm with supplier the final price. There are many shipping options choose the one fit for you.

 Payment terms

Mostly of the Chinese suppliers, they would like to have 30-50% of the advance deposit to start, and rest balance need to pay while goods ready or have the copy of B/L. Usually the price is base on US dollars, and most use for transfer is telegrahic bank transfer(T/T). For the countries not use US dollars need to change to US dollars then can transfer.

Delivery time

For any business, adequate inventory is essential. For your end sales, whether the supplier can complete the production on the agreed lead time is particularly important.

For custom clothing, suppliers usually do not have inventory. In most cases, it will take around 30 days to delivery, if the fabric or accessary need to order, it will takes more time like 45-60 days.And need to count the time on shipping,

At Imily clothing, in most cases we require 30 days, but in fact we often can delivery around 20 days.

Step 6. Quality inspection

It is important to control the defective rate of products. If the defective product rate is too high, you may receive many bad reviews from customers, which is not good for your brand, and will also lead to an increase in the return rate. Therefore, it is very important to check the goods before the garment leaves the factory.

About Quality inspection:

Factory inspection

Clothing manufacturers has the quality inspectors in different position, fabric quality check, middle quality check and final quality check. In this way, they can minimize the defective rate. Imilyclothing requires quality inspectors to conduct random checks on each batch of clothes, and the normal condition is not less than 60%, and the shipment is registered. If a quality problem is found, 100% inspection is required, and do the best possible.

Agent inspection

If the importer has an agent in China, he can also ask the agent to inspect the goods at the factory, and the agent will not charge additional inspection fees.

Third-party inspection(agency inspection)

You can also hire a third-party inspection company. The cost is usually $200-$300 per person per day. However, they will send you an inspection report and will not solve the problem. Still need you to deal with the supplier to find a solution.

If all those are good then can send the goods, you can sell in the market.

The End

If you have any questions please feel free to contact with us, anything about clothing we can share the designs and idea.