The price per kilo is the number every supplier quotes and the number that decides the least. By the time a container reaches your warehouse, freight, clearance, duty and unloading have reshaped it, and two offers that looked ten cents apart can end up level or reversed. This guide breaks landed cost into the parts you can ask about before committing, and covers the paperwork that stops more shipments than any pricing mistake.
The short version
| Factor | What to know |
|---|---|
| What to compare | Landed cost per kilo received, never the bale price alone |
| Biggest hidden cost | Unloading and re-sorting labour, which follow from the packing method |
| Key documents | Bill of Lading, commercial invoice, packing list |
| Most common dispute | Difference between declared and delivered net weight |
| Where delays start | An error on the Bill of Lading, found at destination instead of at issue |
Why the bale price misleads
A supplier quotes per kilo because that is the unit they control. Everything after the warehouse door belongs to you: haulage to the port, ocean or road freight, clearance, duty where it applies, delivery, and the labour to unload. Buyers who compare offers on the quoted line alone regularly choose the more expensive one and discover it when the forwarder's invoice arrives.
The correction is arithmetic rather than negotiation. Build one figure per offer: everything you will pay, divided by the net weight that actually arrives. Compare only those figures, and only against the same written grade definition. Two suppliers can both sell A-grade and mean different things, which makes any price comparison meaningless before the specification is agreed.
Distance changes the shape of the cost rather than only its size. Within Europe, road freight is a modest share of the total and arrives in days. Across the Atlantic, ocean freight becomes a large share and transit stretches to weeks. That does not make distant supply wrong; it makes it a different decision, one that pays only when the goods are something local supply cannot produce, or when the volume spreads the freight thinly enough.
What landed cost is made of
Ask the supplier and the forwarder to name each of these before the first order, and write the answers down.
| Component | Who quotes it | What buyers get wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Goods per kilo | Supplier | Comparing it without a written grade specification |
| Inland haulage at origin | Supplier or forwarder | Assuming it is included in an EXW price |
| Main freight | Forwarder or carrier | Missing fuel and currency surcharges |
| Port and terminal charges | Forwarder | Forgetting the destination side entirely |
| Customs clearance | Broker | Confusing the broker's fee with the duty itself |
| Duty where applicable | Customs | Assuming worn clothing carries no heading of its own |
| Delivery to your warehouse | Forwarder | Access restrictions that require a smaller vehicle |
| Unloading and re-sorting | Nobody | Not counting your own hours as a cost |
Divide the total by the net weight received, not the weight on the order. The gap between those two is the most common and most quietly expensive discrepancy in this trade, and it belongs in the written order along with the agreed remedy.
A worked example, line by line
Take a European road shipment: a full load of A-grade at 3 EUR/kg, 22 tonnes, bought EXW from a sorting plant.
Goods are 66 000 EUR. Inland haulage and main freight together typically add somewhere in the region of 8 to 15 percent on a European route, which is where most of the variation between quotes sits. Clearance and duty depend on the destination and the trade agreement in force. Delivery, unloading and the labour to work through the load add several percent more, and that last item is the one nobody invoices.
Run the same calculation twice, once for each supplier you are comparing, and the ranking often changes. A plant 400 km away at 3.20 EUR/kg regularly lands cheaper than one 1 800 km away at 2.90, and the offer sheet will never tell you that.
Then go one step further and divide by garments rather than kilograms. Landed cost per kilo is comparable between suppliers; landed cost per sellable garment is what your margin is actually made of. If one supplier's A-grade yields 70 percent sellable and another's yields 50, the second is 40 percent more expensive per garment at the same landed price per kilo.
Packing and container choices
Bales or sacks. Pressed bales load densely and stack well, which puts more weight in the same container and lowers freight per kilogram. Loose sacks are faster to unload and easier to handle without equipment, but they waste cubic space. On a full container the density difference is worth real money; on a part load it rarely is.
Twenty or forty feet. A 20 ft unit holds roughly 10 to 12 tonnes of pressed textiles, a 40 ft unit around 24 to 26. Textiles usually hit the weight limit before the volume limit, which is why the larger box is not automatically twice the value. Ask the forwarder which limit binds on your specific goods before choosing.
Unloading capacity. Decide this before the container sails, not when it arrives. Demurrage and storage charges start on a schedule that does not care whether you have staff available, and a container standing full is the fastest way to turn a good purchase into an average one.
Choosing a freight forwarder
Container freight companies quote in different formats, which makes comparison harder than it should be. Some quote all-in to your door, others quote port to port and leave you to discover the rest. The cost container shipping adds to a purchase is rarely one number from one party.
Ask every forwarder for the same three things: the all-in figure to your warehouse, an itemised breakdown behind it, and what is explicitly excluded. The third question is the one that separates quotes, because container freight prices are rarely wrong so much as incomplete, and the true cost container movement adds only appears once every exclusion is named.
Check who handles clearance. A forwarder who does it in house has one point of accountability; one who subcontracts adds a party to any dispute. On used textiles this matters more than on general cargo, since the goods travel under their own tariff heading and destination requirements vary.
And ask what they do when something goes wrong: a delayed sailing, a customs hold, a weight discrepancy. Container freight shipping runs smoothly most of the time, and the value of a forwarder shows on the days it does not.
What is Bill of Lading and how does it work
The Bill of Lading is the document that stops more shipments than any other, and most buyers meet it for the first time when there is already a problem. It is worth understanding before that.
It does three jobs at once. It is a receipt from the carrier confirming the goods were loaded. It is evidence of the contract of carriage. And, in its negotiable form, it is a document of title, which means whoever legally holds it can claim the cargo. That third function is why an original Bill of Lading is treated like a valuable object rather than paperwork.
Bill of Lading explained, step by step. The carrier issues it once the goods are loaded. The shipper then sends it to the consignee, who presents it at destination to take delivery. A straight or express release version names the consignee and cannot be transferred, which is faster and common on established relationships. The negotiable version can be endorsed to another party and is used when payment terms require control of the goods.
How to check Bill of Lading documents. Read the paperwork the day it is issued, not the day the container arrives. Four fields cause almost every problem:
The consignee name must match your registered company exactly, including legal form. The description of goods must match the commercial invoice and the customs classification. The declared weight must match the packing list, because customs compares them. And the number of packages must be right, since a discrepancy of one bale is enough to trigger an inspection. On a Bill of Lading container entry, that count is exactly what an inspector opens the doors to verify.
Corrections at origin take hours. The same corrections after arrival take weeks and cost storage every day. Bill of Lading UK, Bill of Lading USA and Bill of Lading Canada routes all work on the same principle, though destination requirements around origin and treatment documentation differ, so confirm yours with your broker rather than assuming. Bill of Lading shipping practice is standardised; what each customs authority asks for alongside it is not.
Most carriers now issue an electronic Bill of Lading online alongside or instead of paper. It removes the courier delay that used to hold up releases, but the checking discipline is identical: same four fields, same day it is issued.
Customs clearance and the rest of the paperwork
Three documents travel with almost every shipment: the Bill of Lading, the commercial invoice and the packing list. They must agree with each other. Where they disagree, the shipment waits.
Worn clothing carries its own tariff heading, and destination countries increasingly ask for documentation on origin and treatment beyond the standard set. Some markets require evidence of disinfection or fumigation; some require certificates that must be issued before departure and cannot be obtained retroactively. This is the single most important question to ask your broker before the goods ship, because the answer differs by country and changes over time.
A customs clearance warehouse or bonded facility gives you somewhere to hold goods while paperwork is resolved, and knowing whether your forwarder has access to one is a question to ask before you need it. Storage in bond costs money, but less than a container standing at a terminal accruing demurrage.
For EU buyers sourcing from the UK, formalities now apply that did not exist before Brexit. The goods and grading are unchanged; the paperwork is not, and its cost belongs in the landed cost calculation before you conclude which origin is cheaper.
Timing and stock cover
Lead time is part of cost, because stock that arrives late is stock sold at a discount. Within Europe, three to six weeks from confirmed order to delivery is normal. Transatlantic routes run five to eight weeks in total, of which two to four is sea transit.
Order against your selling season rather than against the offer. Winter goods are pressed and sold while shops are still selling summer, and buyers who order in season pay more for what is left. A standing monthly order for mixed A-grade covers the gap between planned purchases and also buys you priority, because plants allocate their better output to buyers who take goods every month.
Keep enough cover that a delayed container does not empty your rails. One late shipment with no buffer costs more in lost sales than the freight saving that tempted you into the bigger, slower order.
The same arithmetic decides whether a container from Canada pays for itself, and it is the only honest way to value a marketplace returns pallet.
When the numbers say no
Walk away when the landed cost per sellable garment does not clear your selling price with room for the work in between. That is the whole test, and it is unsentimental about how attractive the per-kilo figure looked.
Specific signals worth acting on: a supplier who will not state the grade composition in writing, a forwarder who will not itemise, a route where freight exceeds the value of what it carries, and any offer where the numbers only work if the delivered weight matches the declared weight exactly.
Before committing to a container, read our guide to vetting a supplier before the first order, and check the categories and grades each verified plant handles in the GSS Forum supplier directory. The glossary of sorting grades covers the specification vocabulary you will need to fix in writing.
Questions buyers ask before the first container
What is landed cost in the secondhand clothing trade?
Everything you pay to get goods onto your floor, divided by the net weight that arrives: the goods, haulage, freight, port charges, clearance, duty, delivery and unloading. It is the only figure on which two offers can be compared honestly.
Why should I not compare offers on the price per kilo?
Because it excludes most of what you will spend and all of what you will earn. A nearer plant at a higher quoted price frequently lands cheaper, and a grade with a better sellable share beats a cheaper grade at the same landed cost.
What is Bill of Lading in simple terms?
A receipt from the carrier, evidence of the carriage contract, and in its negotiable form a document of title to the goods. Whoever holds an original negotiable Bill of Lading can claim the cargo, which is why it is handled carefully and checked on the day it is issued. How does Bill of Lading work in a dispute? Possession decides who the carrier releases the goods to.
How to check Bill of Lading paperwork?
Verify four fields against your other documents: consignee name exactly as registered, goods description matching invoice and customs classification, declared weight matching the packing list, and the correct number of packages. Fix errors at origin, where they take hours instead of weeks.
Which documents should I ask for before the container ships?
Bill of Lading, commercial invoice and packing list as the minimum, plus the tariff classification and any origin or treatment documentation your destination requires. Confirm the last item with your own broker, since requirements differ by country.
What should I do if the delivered weight is short?
Weigh on arrival, photograph the scales with the bale numbers visible, and raise it the same day against the packing list and Bill of Lading figures. Agree the remedy in the written order before shipping; a discrepancy reported three weeks later is difficult to pursue.