How to Import Shoes from China: A Step-by-Step Guide for Buyers

1. Decide what kind of supplier you actually need

The first decision is not which supplier, but which type of supplier. A factory makes what it makes. A trading company develops styles and places production across a group of factories. Both are legitimate; they solve different problems.

If you need one simple style in large volume and you already have the pattern, a factory is usually cheaper. If you need a range — twenty styles across flats, sandals and boots, in your materials and your packaging — a single factory will rarely cover it, because no factory runs every construction well. This is the case where a trading company earns its margin: you deal with one contact, one quotation and one set of export documents instead of five suppliers.

Be suspicious of any supplier who will not tell you plainly which one they are. The answer changes how you should verify them, and a supplier who is vague about it at the quotation stage will be vague about a quality problem later.

2. Write a brief before you contact anyone

A supplier cannot quote sensibly without five things: category, target retail price, quantity, delivery date and destination market. If you send only a photo and ask for the price, you will get a number that means nothing — usually the cheapest possible construction, quoted to start a conversation.

The category matters more than most buyers expect. A ballet flat, an espadrille and a block-heel sandal use different lasts, different constructions and different material costs. Prices quoted across categories are not comparable, so decide the category first and keep every quotation inside it.

The destination market is not a formality either. Labelling rules, restricted substances and packaging expectations differ between the EU, the UK, the US and the Gulf, and they change what a supplier has to put into the product to make it sellable there. Say where the goods are going in your first message.

3. Ask for a quotation you can actually compare

Three suppliers send three prices and the cheapest one wins — this is the most expensive habit in the trade. A price is only meaningful next to the specification it was quoted against.

Ask every supplier to quote the same written spec: upper material and thickness, lining, outsole material, heel height, size range, packaging, and the Incoterm. Then the numbers line up and the differences mean something. If one quote comes back 30% below the others, the gap is almost always in the material or the outsole — not in the supplier's efficiency.

Ask explicitly what the price does not include. Mould or last charges, logo tooling, testing, retail packaging and export documentation are the usual exclusions, and they are the reason two quotes that looked identical arrive at different final invoices.

4. Sample before you commit, and sign the sample

A sample is the cheapest place in the entire project to change your mind. Once bulk production starts, every change costs a re-run.

When the sample arrives, do not just look at it. Wear it. Check the fit against your size range, flex the sole, look at the stitching density at the toe, pull the lining, and compare the colour under daylight rather than office lighting. Photograph anything you want changed and describe it in words as well — photos alone leave too much interpretation.

Then sign and keep the approved sample, and ask the supplier to keep an identical sealed copy. This single habit prevents most quality disputes, because "as approved" stops being an opinion and becomes a physical object both sides hold.

5. Get the specification in writing

Before the deposit goes out, the spec should exist as a document: materials with thickness and colour reference, outsole compound, construction method, size grading, packaging, labelling and barcode requirements. A tech pack is the professional version of this; a signed sample plus a written spec is the minimum acceptable version.

This is also where you agree tolerances. Colour variation between dye lots, a two-millimetre difference in heel height, a slight difference in lining shade — these are normal in footwear manufacturing. What is not normal is discovering them at the port with no agreed standard to point to.

6. Plan production and inspection on a calendar

Work backwards from your in-store or on-sale date, not forwards from the order date. A realistic sequence for women's footwear is: sampling and revision, then bulk production, then inspection, then shipping, then clearance and inland delivery.

Ask for the production schedule in writing and diarise two checkpoints: one when materials are in-house and cutting begins, and one before packing. A supplier who cannot give you those two dates is not scheduling your order — they are hoping.

For inspection, agree the sampling plan before production, not after. A standard AQL inspection on a defined lot size, with a written list of critical, major and minor defects, gives you an objective pass or fail. "We checked everything, it is fine" is not an inspection.

7. Understand what shipping actually involves

Footwear is bulky relative to its value, which makes volumetric weight the number that decides your freight cost, not the actual weight. A carton of ballet flats and a carton of knee-high boots can weigh the same and occupy wildly different space.

Sea freight is the default for volume, air freight is for urgent top-ups and small trial orders, and rail sits between them for some European destinations. The right choice depends on your sell-through date and how much of your margin freight will eat — which is the next step.

Decide the Incoterm deliberately. FOB means your supplier's responsibility ends when the goods are on board at the Chinese port; you control the freight and see the real cost. CIF is simpler to administer but hides the freight inside a single number, which makes it harder to renegotiate later. Neither is wrong; not knowing which one you agreed to is.

8. Calculate the landed cost, not the FOB price

The FOB price is the number on the quotation. The landed cost is the number that decides whether the order makes money, and it is always higher.

Add, in this order: freight and insurance, import duty, value-added tax or sales tax, port and clearance charges, inland delivery, and your own handling. Duty rates vary by material and by country and are revised periodically, so confirm the current rate for your specific commodity code with a customs broker rather than relying on a figure from an article — including this one.

Then convert it into a per-pair number and compare it to your planned selling price. This is the moment most buyers discover that the style they loved does not work at their price point. Better to discover it before the deposit than after the container arrives.

9. The mistakes that cost the most

Comparing incomparable quotes. Covered above, and still the most common. Fix it by writing the spec first.

Skipping the sealed sample. Without it, every quality conversation becomes a negotiation about memory.

Ordering the full range in the first order. A first order is a test of the supplier as much as of the market. Start narrower than you want to.

Paying the full amount up front. Whatever the payment terms, the balance should be tied to something you have seen — an inspection report, a loading photo, a bill of lading.

Assuming the supplier knows your market. They know how to make shoes. They do not know what sells in your city at your price. That judgement is yours, and it should be in the brief.

10. Where to start if you already have a range in mind

If you already know the categories and the price points, the fastest path is to work from styles that already exist rather than commissioning development from zero. Development is worth paying for when you have a specific design idea; it is wasted money when what you actually need is a credible range on a deadline.

Our style library holds more than 1,500 styles across every season, already patterned and already sampled. You pick the ones that fit your market, and we adjust materials, colours, sizing and packaging to your specification. That is the difference between a three-month development cycle and a three-week selection cycle.

If you would rather see the categories first, start with ballet flats, boots or sandals, or read our guide to what MOQ really means before you fix your quantities. When you are ready, send us the brief — category, quantity, target price and delivery date — and we will tell you honestly what is possible.