What should be on the invoice before I pay a deposit?

Product, quantity, pack format, unit price, lead time and shipping terms. Pack format is the line most often skipped and the one most likely to cause a dispute — 100pcs loose and 100pcs in a labelled retail bag are different products.

Why does the Incoterms rule matter for a small order?

It defines where the seller's responsibility ends and yours begins. The ICC first published the Incoterms rules in 1936 and Incoterms 2020 has been in force since 1 January 2020. A cheaper EXW price can land dearer than a higher DDP price once freight, clearance and duty are added, so quotes are not comparable until you know the term.

What is a deposit actually paying for?

Materials and reserved production time — and on custom work, tooling. A bespoke resin shape needs a new mould, and a flexible mould only yields roughly 25 to 100 castings before fine detail degrades, so tooling is real hardware rather than a one-off design fee.

What is the most common way importers lose money?

A payment redirected to bank details that do not match the company on the invoice. Never accept a change of banking details by email alone — confirm by voice on a number you already had.

Trade Guide

Paying a Craft Supplies Supplier: Terms, Stages and Red Flags

Updated July 2026 · by the Qula Craft Sourcing Team — the people who quote and pack these lines every week.

Short answer: a craft supply order normally moves in stages — quotation, proforma invoice, deposit, production, balance before or against shipping documents. What you pay for at each stage depends on the Incoterms rule on the invoice, not on goodwill. Get the proforma invoice right and most payment disputes never happen.

Assorted craft supply stock ready for packing and export — Every order runs through the same stages — the terms decide who carries risk at each one.

1. The proforma invoice is the contract

Before money moves, you should be holding a proforma invoice that states product, quantity, pack format, unit price, lead time and shipping terms. If any of those five is missing, that is where the argument will start later.

The most commonly skipped line is pack format. “100pcs” and “100pcs in a labelled retail bag” are different products with different costs. Craft supplies are light but bulky, so packaging drives both your freight bill and your shelf presentation — pin it down in writing.

2. Incoterms decide who pays for what

The three letters after the price are not decoration. The Incoterms® rules were first published by the International Chamber of Commerce in 1936, with Incoterms® 2020 in force since 1 January 2020, and they define exactly where the seller's responsibility ends and yours begins.

For small craft supply orders you will mostly meet these:

Term	Seller covers	You cover	When it suits you
EXW	Goods ready at the workshop	Everything from the door onward	You already have a freight forwarder in China
FOB	Goods cleared and loaded at the port of origin	Sea freight, insurance, import clearance, duty	The common default once volumes justify sea freight
DDP	Everything to your door, duties included	Nothing further	First orders and small parcels, when you want one number

A quote is not comparable across suppliers until you know the term. A cheaper EXW price can easily land dearer than a higher DDP price once freight and clearance are added — which is the whole point of working out landed cost rather than unit cost.

3. Deposit, balance, and what the deposit is really for

A deposit is not a gesture of trust; it funds materials and reserves production time. For stock items the gap between deposit and shipment can be short. For custom work it covers tooling — and tooling is a genuine cost, because a flexible mould only yields roughly 25 to 100 castings before it loses fine detail, so a bespoke shape means real hardware that wears out, not just a drawing.

Two questions worth asking before you send anything:

What exactly does the deposit release? Materials purchase, mould cutting, or line time — the answer tells you how much work is genuinely underway.
What happens to the balance if the pre-production sample is rejected? Agree this before production, not after.

4. Red flags worth walking away from

These come up repeatedly in importer forums, and they are cheap to check:

Bank details that do not match the company on the invoice. A payment redirected to a personal account or a third-country entity is the single most common loss. Confirm any change of banking details by voice, not by email.
Pressure to skip the sample. A supplier confident in the goods wants you to see them.
A price far below every other quote. On craft supplies the material cost is real; an outlier usually means a different specification, not a better deal.
Vague answers on pack format and carton dimensions. A factory that packs these lines weekly knows its carton sizes without checking.
No willingness to put the specification in writing. If it is not on the proforma invoice, it is not agreed.

5. How we handle it

We work from a proforma invoice that lists product, quantity, pack format, price, lead time and shipping terms, so both sides are agreeing to the same thing before money moves. Stock orders start at one bag, which means a first order can be small enough to verify us cheaply rather than requiring a leap of faith.

Payment methods and deposit percentages are confirmed per order — tell us your preferred method and destination market in the enquiry, and our sales team will confirm in writing what works for your bank and your order size before you commit.

The one habit that prevents most disputes: never accept a change of bank details by email alone. Confirm it by a voice call to a number you already had, before any transfer.

Get a quotation with the terms spelled out

Send product, quantity, pack format and destination. You get a written quotation with lead time, shipping terms and carton data — first reply within three working hours, full quotation typically within 12–24 hours.

Request a written quotation →

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