What Importers Should Consider When Comparing Supplier Quotations

Compare answers to the same question

A lower number is not a better quotation if it describes different goods, a different place of delivery, or a different set of documents. Before you compare, check that each supplier was given the same specification, quantity, destination, and requested commercial term. If one supplier changed the brief, put that change in the comparison instead of ignoring it.

Read the price basis

Note the currency, the Incoterms® rule and named place, the validity date, and what packing is included. A price that stops at the factory gate and a price that includes carriage to your port are not alternatives until you add the missing pieces yourself — and even then, the risk transfer is different.

Ask whether the price is for the exact quantity you named. Per-unit prices sometimes depend on a higher quantity than the one in the email.

Look for the costs that are not in the unit price

Samples, tooling, inspections, laboratory tests, export packing, certificates, and amendments to documents are often outside the unit price. Duties, taxes, and brokerage in the destination usually are too, unless the commercial term and the quotation clearly say otherwise. Get those items into a column of their own rather than discovering them after you have told a customer a landed cost.

Documents and lead time are part of the offer

A quotation that cannot say which documents will be provided is incomplete for many products. So is a lead time that starts from an undefined event. Ask what starts the clock: deposit, artwork approval, sample sign-off, or receipt of a license. A number of days with no starting point is not a schedule.

The seller’s identity is a term

Check who would invoice you and who would be paid. A quotation from a trader, a factory, and a marketplace store can all look similar in a spreadsheet. They are not the same contract. If a trading company such as Meridian is only introducing the discussion, its message is not the supplier’s quotation unless it says it is.