No Hidden Charges: How Your Final Invoice Is Built
Open prices, a published exchange-rate formula, and freight billed on actual weight. Three components — all three verifiable.
In China sourcing, money isn’t lost on the price of the goods. It is lost in the places nobody warns you about: the conversion rate, the wire transfer fee, domestic Chinese delivery, and freight that gets estimated loosely and invoiced precisely.
So we take the invoice apart and show you every component. Not because it looks good, but because a buyer who miscalculates their landed cost loses money once — and loses the supplier who gave them the wrong inputs forever.
Below is every point where money enters your purchase, and exactly what happens at each of them with us.
The goods: both prices open before you order
Every item carries two published prices — per unit and per carton. Both are visible without registration, without an enquiry form and without talking to a sales manager. The per-unit price is the carton price divided by the carton quantity; no third number appears at checkout.
That price already covers everything that happens between the factory and our Guangzhou warehouse: buying from the producer, domestic Chinese logistics, intake and inspection of the consignment. Only three things are added on top — conversion, your bank’s transfer fee and freight — and all three are set out below.
We charge no transaction commission, no sourcing fee and no “handling” invoice. Your bill has exactly as many lines as the table at the end of this page.
The exchange rate: a formula you can check yourself
Official People’s Bank of China (PBOC) rate + 5%.
That’s it. That is our entire margin, and there is only one of it.
What the 5% covers: cross-border payments in yuan to dozens of separate factories, the Guangzhou consolidation warehouse, visual inspection at intake, and platform operations. It is not a bank spread and not a “floating internal rate” — it is a fixed, published delta.
How to verify. Open the PBOC site, take today’s rate, add five percent. That is exactly the figure your order is calculated at. Not approximately — exactly.
When it’s fixed. The rate is taken on the day payment is actually made. If a week passes between placing and paying and the rate moves, your order is calculated on the payment date.
Compare that with any other intermediary, where “what rate do you use?” is answered with “our internal one.”
A worked example
Say the PBOC rate on your payment date is 7.10 yuan to the dollar.
Your rate: 7.10 × 1.05 = 7.455.
A carton priced at 300 yuan costs you 300 ÷ 7.455 = $40.24.
The rate in this example is illustrative — check the day’s rate. The mechanics are real.
Wire transfer fees: global practice, stated up front
Bank charges on an international payment sit with the sender. In SWIFT terms that is the OUR charge type: the sender covers all costs and the beneficiary receives the full invoice amount.
In practice. The exact invoice amount must land in our account. If a correspondent bank takes thirty dollars along the way, that difference has to be topped up — otherwise the order counts as partially paid.
This isn’t our rule and it isn’t a revenue line. It’s the standard of international settlement, and the only useful thing we can do about it is tell you before your payment arrives short rather than after.
Tip. Confirm the charge type with your bank before sending and select OUR. It costs a little more at the transfer stage and saves a great deal at the reconciliation stage.
Domestic Chinese logistics: zero
Delivery from the factory gate — in Shantou, Chenghai or any other manufacturing hub — to our consolidation warehouse in Guangzhou costs you nothing.
Why. We give factories continuous order volume, so they deliver to our hub at their own expense. A one-off buyer doesn’t get that: domestic delivery appears as a separate line on their invoice, and it’s one of the costs people discover last.
You pay nothing to move cartons around China, however many factories are involved in your order.
Payment: two stages, and freight is never estimated
Stage one — the goods. 100% prepayment for the cartons themselves. Factories do not release stock from their warehouse without it; that is their condition, not ours.
Stage two — freight, separately and only on fact. Once every carton from every factory has arrived at the Guangzhou warehouse, the consignment is inspected, weighed and measured. Volumetric weight is calculated as length × width × height ÷ 6000, the greater of actual and volumetric is taken, and only then is your final DDP freight invoice issued. Once freight is paid, the shipment departs.
Why this matters more than it looks. An intermediary who takes freight money up front is estimating it — and the difference always lands in their favour. We physically cannot name the exact figure before the consignment is assembled: until the cartons are on the scale, nobody on earth knows what they weigh or how much space they take. So we don’t name it.
Your invoice, component by component
| Component | Who pays | How it’s calculated |
|---|---|---|
| Goods | you | per-carton and per-unit price, both open on the page |
| Currency conversion | you | PBOC rate + 5%, fixed on payment date |
| Bank transfer fee | you | OUR charge type, depends on your bank |
| Domestic delivery to Guangzhou | the factory | zero for you |
| Intake, inspection, consolidation | inside the same 5% | no separate line |
| International freight | you | actual weight and volume, DDP, after measuring |
| Cargo insurance | your choice | 1–3% of invoice value |
There are no other lines. If a line appears in your calculation that isn’t in this table, tell us — it’s an error.
Frequently Asked Questions
What makes up the final price?
Four things: the goods at the price on the page, currency conversion at the People’s Bank of China rate plus five percent, your bank’s international transfer fee, and freight charged on actual weight and volume. There are no other lines.
Will extra charges appear after I order?
No. We charge no transaction commission, no sourcing fee and no handling invoice. The only figure calculated later is freight — and only because nobody knows it until the consignment is on the scale.
What rate is my order calculated at?
The official PBOC rate plus 5%, fixed on the day payment is actually made. If the rate moves between placing and paying, the payment date governs.
Who pays the bank transfer fee?
The sender — that’s the international standard, SWIFT charge type OUR. The full invoice amount must reach our account; if a correspondent bank deducts part of it, the difference must be topped up.
What does delivery from the factory to your Guangzhou warehouse cost?
Nothing. Factories deliver to our hub at their own expense, because of the volume we place with them.
When do I pay for shipping?
After the full consignment is assembled, weighed and measured. That’s when the exact weight and volume are known, and only then is the freight invoice issued. We don’t take freight money on an estimate.
How much prepayment is required for the goods?
100%. Factories don’t release stock without full payment for the batch — their condition, and it can’t be worked around.