Suppliers, Samples, and the Freight Decision

The factory relationship is where a spreadsheet becomes a physical product, and where most first-order disasters are either prevented or scheduled.

Shortlist like a scout

Search Alibaba for your product's core term and build a shortlist of three to five factories, not one. Prioritize suppliers with years in operation, strong transaction histories, and trade assurance; a listing created last month with three sales is a coin flip. Skip the factory's marketing and read what they actually make: a specialist in your product category beats a generalist who makes everything.

Message them all with the same short note, because how they answer is the first test:

Hello, I am launching a private label brand in the US and evaluating suppliers for my first order of [product].

Could you send:

1. Your price per unit at 300, 500, and 1,000 units
2. Minimum order quantity for a first order
3. Lead time from deposit to ready-to-ship
4. Sample price with express shipping to [your ZIP]
5. Whether you support custom packaging and my logo

If the sample checks out, I plan to order within [timeframe] and reorder quarterly if sales perform.

Reply speed, directness, and willingness to send real numbers do most of the shortlisting for you.

Samples are the cheapest research you will ever buy

Order samples from two or three finalists, express shipped, and pay with a method that protects you. When they arrive, use the product like a hostile customer. Drop it. Overload it. Run it through the dishwasher if it claims to be dishwasher safe. Compare finalists side by side, because "good" is relative and you are calibrating against what page one sells. A product that arrives wrong as a thirty-dollar sample is a two-thousand-dollar mistake avoided.

The order: deposits, inspection, balance

The standard structure protects both sides. You pay a deposit, typically around thirty percent, production runs two to six weeks, then an inspection happens before the balance is paid. Third-party inspection in China costs on the order of one hundred to three hundred dollars per visit, operators report; skipping inspection to save that money on your first orders is a false economy sellers warn about constantly. Use Alibaba's Trade Assurance or equivalent protections for at least your first few orders with any new factory.

Freight: buying your clock

You are choosing between speed and cost, with numbers you already met in "The Cash-Conversion Cycle." Air freight door to door runs five to fifteen days and costs three to five times ocean. Ocean freight runs about forty days plus port handling, priced by volume, and for a first order that fits in less than a container load, an LCL shipment via a freight forwarder is the standard play.

On a lean budget, sea wins almost always: the difference funds your launch ads. Air earns its premium when you are restocking a proven seller into a stockout, where every dark day costs rank.

Give the forwarder your product's HS code and ask for the landed duty quote in writing. Since de minimis ended in May 2025, even small shipments carry duty, and rates have moved violently year to year. The written quote is your tariff line in the calculator from "Vetting the Numbers Before You Spend."

Prep the shipment properly

Amazon has physical requirements and rejects sloppy inbound freight. Your supplier needs to apply FNSKU labels to every unit, follow carton weight and labeling rules, and flag products that require suffocation warnings on poly bags. Send your supplier Amazon's prep requirements in writing and confirm them before the balance is paid. Factories do this daily; they just need you to be specific.

The setup work you can do during those freight weeks, and the rulebook that suspends sellers who skim it, come next.