Your First 500 Units: A Complete Walkthrough for New Importers

Most guides to importing are written by people who have never had to explain to a
customer why their stock is three weeks late. This one is written from the supplier side
of the same orders, and it is deliberately unglamorous.

Assume you are a boutique or a young brand placing a first order of around 500 units
across a few styles. Here is the whole sequence.

Week 0 — Before you contact anyone

Decide three things, because a supplier cannot do it for you.

Your retail price. Work backwards. If you want to sell at €89 and you
need a 2.5x markup on landed cost, your landed cost ceiling is around €35 — and landed
cost includes freight, duty, and clearance, not just the bag. That tells you what unit
price you can afford at the factory gate. Do this before you fall in love with a product
you cannot make money on.

Your delivery date. Not “spring.” An actual date you need goods in
hand, with the season you are buying for. Count backwards ten to twelve weeks for a first
order, longer if it is custom.

Your real budget. Including freight and duty, which will typically add
meaningfully to your goods value. If your entire budget is your goods value, you have not
finished budgeting.

Week 1 — Enquiry

Send a supplier the things that let them answer properly: the styles you are interested
in, approximate quantities per style, your destination country, your target delivery date,
and whether you need any customisation.

An enquiry that says “please send price list” gets a price list. An enquiry with those
five facts gets a real quotation.

You should receive back a quotation stating the Incoterm, the unit price at your
quantity, the lead time, and payment terms. If any of those is missing, ask. Our
Incoterms guide
explains why the term matters more than the price.

Weeks 2–4 — Samples

Order samples. Always. On a 500-unit first order the sample cost is trivial against the
risk, and this is the only point at which changing your mind is free.

When they arrive, do not just look at them. Load one with what a customer will actually
carry — three kilos of shopping — and walk with it. Check the handle attachment under
load, the base seams, and whether the strap length works on a real shoulder over a coat.

Write down every change you want, with measurements. “Slightly longer handle” is not a
specification. “Handle drop 25 cm, currently 21 cm” is.

Our sample
round guide goes deeper on this.

Week 5 — Purchase order and deposit

Your PO should state, for each style: quantity, colour, dimensions with tolerance,
material, any customisation, packing requirements, the Incoterm and named place, the
agreed price, and the delivery date.

Standard terms in this trade are a deposit against production with the balance before
shipment. Expect to pay something up front — a supplier committing artisan capacity and
buying materials for your order is taking real risk on an unknown customer.

On payment: for a first order, use a method that gives you a paper trail. Bank transfer
is normal in B2B. Never pay to a personal account, and never pay to bank details that
arrive in an email that “updates” details you were given earlier — that is the single most
common fraud in this industry. Call and confirm.

Weeks 5–10 — Production

Ask for a photo update at the midpoint. Any serious supplier will send one.

This is also when you should be arranging your side: appoint a freight forwarder if you
are buying FOB or EXW, confirm your customs broker, and if you are importing to the US,
tell your broker you will be claiming preference under the
US–Morocco
FTA. Do not leave this to the week the goods ship.

Week 10 — Inspection and balance payment

Before the balance is paid, you should receive photographs of finished goods and the
packing list. Check the packing list against your PO line by line.

On a first order with a new supplier, a third-party inspection is a reasonable expense.
It costs a few hundred euros and an inspector will check dimensions, workmanship, quantity
and packing against your specification. Many buyers skip it and most get away with it —
but it is cheap insurance on a relationship with no track record.

Weeks 11–12 — Freight and clearance

Goods ship. You will need the commercial invoice, packing list, and transport document.
Your broker clears the goods, duty is assessed, and delivery is arranged.

Expect the timeline to slip a few days here. Ports, customs and weather are outside
everyone’s control. Build slack into your plan rather than promising your own customers a
date that assumes nothing goes wrong.

Arrival — What to do in the first 48 hours

• Count the cartons against the packing list before you sign for delivery.
• Photograph any damaged carton before opening it. Photographs taken after
  opening are worth much less to an insurer.
• Open and check a sample of cartons across the shipment, not just the top one.
• Report any discrepancy in writing within days, not weeks. Claims windows are short.

The five mistakes that cost the most

1. Skipping samples to save two weeks, then discovering the handle drop
   is wrong on 500 units.
2. Budgeting goods value only and being surprised by freight and duty.
3. Vague specifications — every ambiguity gets resolved by the supplier,
   in the supplier’s favour, without malice.
4. Planning to the production lead time and forgetting sampling,
   approval, freight and clearance.
5. Paying against changed bank details. Always verify by phone.

Starting

Browse the wholesale catalogue to see what is available at what
minimums, or send your styles, quantities, destination and date through the
contact page and we will come back with a quotation you can
actually plan against.