r/alibaba
Ordering samples - how do you avoid paying shipping 5 times?
A buyer asks for advice on consolidating sample shipments from multiple Alibaba suppliers to save on international shipping costs.
I am ordering from Alibaba for the first time. I want to get samples from around 5 different clothing manufacturers. The sample prices seem reasonable, but paying international shipping 5 separate times gets expensive very quickly.
How do people usually handle this? Is there a way to combine samples from different suppliers into one shipment before they are sent to Europe? I have seen people mention freight forwarders and consolidation, but I honestly have no idea how that works in practice.
Would appreciate any advice from people who have done this before :)
Maybe shop around if you have the time. Do you have any one supplier you trust? you can ask them if they will do you a solid. Or just bite the bullet and pay for separate shipping.
For samples, just pay the shipping. In my case, with custom wiring harnesses (admittedly probably more complex), the sample completion time varied by months between suppliers. I contacted all companies in mid-March. I finalized purchase of the first sample with one a few days later, remarkably quickly. I finalized conversations with others about two weeks later, on April 1. I got the first sample in mid-April. I just got the second sample a few days ago, more than a month later. I don't think the third will ever finish but they do still have a few more weeks to try.
Absolutely combine freight if you are buying multiple stock items, but don't try to coordinate samples if any customization is involved. You're paying for information and that information is worth more the faster you get it.
Thanks a lot for taking the time to write a reply, I was not even sure if anyone would respond.
My situation is maybe different? I don’t know. I am ordering clothing samples - mostly existing garments with my artwork added (DTG prints and maybe some embroidery), and most suppliers are quoting around 5-14 days production time.
If you were in my situation and planning to place around 5 sample orders worth roughly $80-150 each, would you still ship them individually?
Yeah, this subreddit is weird and it's surprising when you find humans on it!
It depends on some factors:
- How much is shipping?
- How much are you willing to let one slow sample delay the whole thing?
- Do you want to test out a relationship with a freight forwarder now?
- How long are you willing to wait for samples?
Combining shipments adds time, and potentially complexity. Do you have a freight forwarder you're ready to work with? You might want to get quotes based on expected inventory shipments rather than samples and decide from there. I got wildly differing quotes on shipping ~100kg by sea (I was mostly using Trustpilot reviews to sort through options). I'd expect that costs to ship a small quantity of samples would vary even more.
Ok, I will try to answer these for myself and maybe something will come to your mind with a bit more context :d
- Shipping is actually the main reason I started looking into this. Most of my sample orders are around $80-150, but shipping alone is often $30-50. So out of roughly $500 total, at least a third would be shipping.
- Tough question. I think I would be pretty unhappy if the whole thing ended up taking 45 days because one supplier was holding everything up. Some suppliers are already quoting things like 7 days production + 30-40 days shipping, so I am wondering how much extra time a freight forwarder would realistically add. This might actually be the deciding factor.
- Yep, I would definitely like to gain some experience with freight forwarders for the future. But maybe, as you say, this particular situation is not ideal for it, since I mainly need to evaluate suppliers relatively quickly.
- I do not have a freight forwarder yet. The idea only came to me today because I am just starting to finalize pricing with several suppliers.
I think I will also ask one of my suppliers. She seems experienced, is surprisingly helpful, and speaks good English, so maybe she will have some recommendations too.
Get logistics company in China. They consolidate all shipments, combine, possibly QC, then ship to you together
Thanks for the advice.
Hi there! I’m a streetwear apparel manufacturer based in Guangzhou, specializing in custom & stock tees, hoodies and sweatshirts.
If you place sample orders with us, we can help receive samples from your other 4 different garment suppliers at our warehouse, consolidate all goods into one single package and ship together to Europe for you. This way you only pay one international freight instead of 5 separate delivery fees, which can cut your shipping cost greatly.
Besides, hiring a local freight forwarder in China is also a classic solution: the forwarder collects all samples from various factories, combines shipments and arranges outbound delivery. Both options work well for your sample consolidation needs.
#
What you need is a China-based freight forwarder that offers consolidation services. Instead of having the 5 clothing factories ship directly to Europe, you hire an independent forwarder who gives you the address of their warehouse in China. You have all 5 suppliers ship their samples locally to that single warehouse and then the forwarder packs all 5 packages into one single box and ships it to Europe via DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) so your customs and taxes are already handled.
Ship it to my Office in China i can first open and send you a report after then if you wanted revisions you can ask the factories and if you dont want any revisions we can mark them and send it to you and its a Free Service
How much do you even expect to pay for samples? I'm thinking you might find the hardship of tracing down an extra party just to collect and ship your samples all at once might be just as much work as paying for the individual shipping. It also might be of benefit for you to know that when you ship individually then you have sufficient time to play with and study each sample while also communicating with suppliers. Remember, communication to suppliers is one of the massive road blocks more than paying money for samples
Most people I’ve worked with on Alibaba ask suppliers to send samples to a local freight forwarder in China, then they consolidate into one parcel going to Europe. You’ll need to confirm if the factory agrees and then share the forwarder address beforehand.
In case you find a trusted forwarder, please share!
Im in a similar situation, except time is not an issue and im shipping to Singapore! The shipping costs are adding up to more than 50% of my order so I have held off from ordering so far :/
what kind of product？
Mahjong and its accessories