A supplier sends you a quote. You open it and see a table with product names, unit prices, and a few terms you half-recognize. Most first-time buyers focus on the price column and nothing else. That's the mistake. The price column is the least interesting part of a Chinese supplier quote.
The Line Items That Actually Matter
Trade Terms (Incoterms): This tells you where the supplier's responsibility ends and yours begins. "FOB Guangzhou" means the supplier delivers goods to the port in Guangzhou and loads them onto the vessel — after that, you pay for everything. "EXW" (Ex Works) means the price only covers the goods leaving the factory door. You pay inland freight, export customs, and everything else. "CIF" means the supplier arranges shipping and insurance to your destination port — but their freight rate is usually marked up, and you still pay import duties on arrival.
Most quotes from Canton Fair suppliers default to FOB. If the quote just says a price with no trade term listed, ask immediately. The difference between FOB and EXW on a shipment can be $300 to $800.
MOQ (Minimum Order Quantity): This is the minimum the supplier will sell per order, not per SKU. If the MOQ is 500 units and you want 3 color variants, that might mean 500 total or 500 per color. Clarify before you get attached to a price.
Lead Time: Usually listed as "X working days after deposit received." Note the word "working" — it excludes weekends and Chinese public holidays. A 30-day lead time quoted in late January means your goods won't ship until after Chinese New Year ends, which could add 2 to 3 weeks to the timeline. Always ask what the lead time is from "deposit received" versus "order confirmed."
Payment Terms: The most common structure is 30% deposit upfront, 70% before shipment. Some suppliers ask for 50/50. A few established factories with known buyers will do 30/70 with the balance due after inspection. If a supplier asks for 100% upfront on a first order, that's a flag worth pausing on.
What's Usually Missing
Chinese supplier quotes almost never include packaging cost unless you ask. If your product requires custom boxes, color printing, or special labeling for your market (FCC marks, CE marks, barcodes), those are separate line items that need to be negotiated and added.
Certification costs are also absent by default. If you need a CE test report or an FCC ID for electronics, that can run $500 to $3,000 depending on the product. The supplier may already have existing certificates — ask for copies before assuming you need to pay for new ones.
Tooling or mold fees appear when you want custom shapes, custom logos, or product modifications. These are one-time costs, usually $500 to $5,000, and are sometimes waived after a certain order volume. Always ask if tooling costs are refundable or offset against future orders.
How to Compare Quotes from Multiple Suppliers
If you've sent the same spec sheet to five suppliers, you'll get five quotes that are structured differently. Some will give FOB prices, some EXW, some might include shipping estimates. Before comparing prices, normalize everything to a single trade term — usually FOB or landed cost — so you're comparing apples to apples.
Build a simple spreadsheet: unit price, MOQ, trade term, lead time, payment terms, and any additional costs (packaging, tooling, certification). The supplier with the lowest unit price is almost never the obvious winner once you factor everything in.
One Question Worth Asking Every Supplier
"Is this your best price for this quantity, or is there room to move if I adjust the order terms?"
It's a simple, direct question. It doesn't threaten the relationship and it doesn't anchor you to a counter-offer you're not ready to make. A supplier who has margin to work with will tell you what levers exist — order quantity, payment terms, packaging simplification. A supplier who is already at their floor will tell you that too, and that's also useful information.
Reading a quote properly takes about ten minutes of attention. Most buyers skip that step and either overpay or get surprised by costs later. Ten minutes now is worth several hundred dollars at the invoice stage.
If you're comparing quotes from Canton Fair suppliers and want a second opinion on what you're looking at, chinasourcingadvisor.com — describe your product and situation, and get a personalized sourcing assessment within the hour.