Sampling
A sample is the cheapest part of an import order and the only part that can be checked before money changes hands. Most buyers spend more on the flight to Guangzhou than on the three samples that would have prevented the mistake.
Contents
A stock sample is a unit pulled from existing production, usually the same thing that sits on the booth shelf. It arrives quickly and it tells you what the line actually makes, including the shortcuts.
A customised sample carries your logo, colour, packaging or a modified dimension. It is made for you, often by hand, and it is usually better finished than the production run will be. The gap between a hand-built sample and a production unit is one of the standard reasons a first container disappoints.
A pre-production sample is the compromise: made on the line, with the actual tooling, from the actual material, and approved in writing before the run starts. For anything above a trial order, this is the sample that matters. It is also the one buyers most often skip because the deposit is already paid and everyone is in a hurry.
Sample charges vary with the product and the supplier's policy. Stock samples are frequently free and you pay the courier. Customised samples carry a fee that covers materials and the time of whoever builds them, and many suppliers credit that fee against the first order.
Ask two questions when a sample fee appears: is it credited against the order, and is the courier cost on your account. Suppliers who credit the fee usually say so without being pushed, because it is a selling point.
Treat a refused sample fee as information. A supplier who will not produce a sample without a deposit on the full order is asking you to fund a product you have not seen.
Budget the sample round as a cost of the project, not of the order. Three suppliers, three samples, three courier bills is a normal first pass, and it is still cheaper than one container of the wrong specification.
Stock samples leave in a few days. A customised sample takes roughly five to ten days to produce, plus export handling and air transit. Add a week if the product needs a new mould or a printed carton.
Plan the sample round around the phase you attended. A sample requested on the last day of Phase 1 arrives while you are still travelling, and a second round requested after you get home adds two weeks to a decision you wanted to take in November.
If timing is tight, ask for a stock sample first and a pre-production sample after the deposit. The stock unit answers the question you need answered before ordering.
A test report from a Chinese laboratory is useful evidence and a weak guarantee. Accredited labs in China produce genuine results, but the acceptance test for your market is usually performed in your market, against your regulator's method, and buyers who rely on the supplier's report discover this at the border.
The safe structure is two layers. The supplier provides the test report they already hold, which tells you whether the product was designed for your market at all. You commission one independent test on the sample you received, covering the failure mode that matters for your category: flammability, food contact, electrical safety, phthalates, battery transport.
One test on one sample is cheaper than a border rejection and it is the only evidence that describes the goods you actually hold rather than the goods the factory sent to a lab in March.
When you approve a sample, seal it, label it with the date and the specification, and keep it. That sealed unit is the reference for the inspection that happens before shipment, and it is the only argument you have if the goods arrive wrong.
Order two. One is for testing and handling; it will be opened, dropped and marked. The other stays sealed in a bag with your specification sheet, and nobody touches it until there is a dispute.
A golden sample without a written specification is half an argument. Photograph it, note the weight, the dimensions and the finish, and attach that to the purchase order so the reference exists in a document as well as on a shelf.
Most damage in transit happens to the packaging, and the sample you approved arrived in a courier box rather than the export carton. Ask for one unit in its production carton, then do what a container does to it: stack weight on top, drop it from waist height on a corner, and leave it somewhere damp for a week.
Check the carton markings while you are there. Shipping marks, side marks, the carton count and the gross weight need to be printed, not handwritten on the first ten boxes. A warehouse that has to relabel a shipment charges for the privilege.
Inner packaging is where retail-ready products fail. A display box that arrives crushed is unsellable even when the product inside is perfect.
A trial order is one carton, or the smallest quantity the factory will run, ordered at the real price with the real packaging and shipped through the real channel. It costs more per unit than the container price and it answers questions a sample cannot: how the factory handles documents, whether the carton count matches the packing list, whether the goods clear customs.
Ask for trial pricing explicitly. Many suppliers have a small-order price band above their MOQ, and the difference is usually a fixed setup charge rather than a higher unit cost.
Ship the trial the way the real order will ship, even if it is more expensive for one carton. A trial sent by express proves nothing about a sea shipment.
Decide in advance what result makes the trial a pass. Ten units, all matching the sealed sample, cartons intact, paperwork correct, goods cleared without a question. Write those conditions down before the order ships, because after arrival everything looks acceptable next to the alternative of having wasted a month.
If the trial fails on packaging rather than product, ask for a second carton rather than cancelling. Packaging is the most common thing to get wrong and the cheapest thing to fix, and a factory that fixes it quickly is telling you something worth knowing.
Samples travel by express because they are small and urgent, and that is the right answer up to roughly 30 kg. Above that, air consolidation on a real air waybill is cheaper per kilo, and it needs a commercial invoice and packing list like any other shipment.
Declare the sample honestly. A sample described as a gift with no value is the fastest way to teach your customs broker that your paperwork cannot be trusted, and the consignment can be held while the value is questioned.
Keep the sample invoice with the test report and the sealed unit. When the production order ships, the paperwork trail from sample to container is what an inspection brief is built from.
Q Do I have to pay for samples at the Canton Fair?
Often not for stock items, though you pay the courier. Customised samples usually carry a fee covering materials and labour, and many suppliers credit it against the first order. Ask both questions before agreeing.
Q How long does a customised sample take?
Roughly five to ten days for production, plus export handling and air transit. Add about a week if a new mould or a printed carton is involved.
Q Can I trust a test report from a Chinese laboratory?
As evidence that the product was designed to a standard, yes. As proof it will pass your market's acceptance test, no. Commission one independent test on the sample you received for the failure mode that matters in your category.
Q What is a pre-production sample?
A unit made on the production line with the real tooling and material, approved in writing before the full run starts. It is the sample that decides whether the container matches the sample, and the one buyers most often skip.
Q How big should a trial order be?
One carton, or the smallest quantity the factory will run. The point is to test the paperwork, the carton count and the shipping route, not to make money on the batch.
Q How should samples be shipped?
Express under about 30 kg, air consolidation above that. Declare a real value on the invoice. A sample described as a zero-value gift creates a customs question that costs more than the duty.
Related pages
Tell us the weight and carton size of what you are sampling and we will tell you whether express, air consolidation or a small LCL shipment is the cheaper way to see it.
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