Five quotes, none alike
You are sourcing a new product. You send the specification to five factories. One quotes FOB in dollars with an MOQ per colour. One quotes ex-works with a lower price but a longer lead time. One suggests a cheaper material. One quotes in their own currency. The last one sends a price with no MOQ at all, then mentions it later.
Your buyer builds a spreadsheet, converts currencies, guesses at freight for the ex-works quote, and tries to work out which is actually cheapest once it lands. The spec change from the third factory is easy to miss.
Why quotations do not line up
Each factory quotes in its own way, under different trade terms, and interprets the specification slightly differently. The request is often an email with attachments, and the answers are too. So comparing like with like means normalising price, terms, currency, MOQ, lead time and spec by hand.
| Difference | What it hides |
|---|---|
| Trade terms | Who pays freight and local charges |
| Currency | Exchange rate exposure |
| MOQ | How much you must buy |
| Lead time | When stock arrives |
| Spec deviations | Whether it is the same product |
What messy comparisons cost
The cheapest-looking quote can be the most expensive once freight, MOQ and delays are counted. Spec deviations slip through and show up in samples or, worse, production. Sourcing takes longer. And past quotes are not kept, so the next sourcing exercise starts from zero.
Currency adds a quieter problem. A quote in a factory's own currency looks cheaper or dearer depending on the rate on the day it is compared, and that rate may be nothing like the one you pay when the balance falls due months later. Comparing on a single day's rate without saying so makes a close decision look clearer than it is.
There is also the question of what each factory actually quoted for. Packaging, labelling and testing are often left out or assumed, and those can change the comparison more than the unit price does.
The RFQ tracker we build
- A structured request is created from your specification: materials, dimensions, packaging, quantities at several levels, target terms and required certificates.
- The request goes to chosen factories with a reply form, or they can reply with their own quote, which an extraction step reads.
- Each quote is mapped to the same layout: price at each quantity, terms, currency, MOQ, lead time, packing data and any spec deviations.
- Prices are converted to your currency and to a common basis, with an estimated freight and landed cost per unit using your own landed cost rules.
- Deviations from the specification are highlighted so they are not missed.
- The comparison is kept with the product record, and the chosen factory's quote feeds sampling and the first purchase order.
Currency rates and freight figures in the comparison are estimates for comparing options. Final costs come from the actual order and shipment.
After the next sourcing round
The buyer compares factories on landed cost, MOQ and lead time side by side, with deviations visible. Choosing takes less time and is easier to explain. And the quotes are kept, so next time you know what a fair price looked like and which factories responded well.
Is this how you source?
- Factory quotes are compared in a spreadsheet by hand.
- Quotes arrive under different trade terms and currencies.
- Spec deviations are spotted late.
- MOQs and lead times are not compared with price.
- Past quotations are hard to find.