The cheaper quote is not always the cheaper factory.
Two factories quote the same product. One FOB price is lower, so the PO goes there — and the decision was made on one line out of seven. Tooling bills differ. Freight from each port differs. Duty differs by country of origin, and in 2026 it differs a lot. The only number that can pick a factory is landed cost per unit, at the same quantity, on the same sheet.
A worked example, 1,000 units
The sample bottle from the worksheet. Factory A has the lower unit price — and loses.
The higher factory price buys cheaper tooling, cheaper freight, and a lower duty rate by origin. Across 1,000 units, that is $1,271.81 on this PO. An estimate, as always — duty rates are whatever you paste.
Normalize before you compare
A quote comparison is only honest when every line answers the same question. Before you put two quotes side by side:
- Same quantity. Price breaks differ by factory; compare at the run you will actually order.
- Same incoterm. An FOB quote against a CIF quote hides freight inside one column. Ask both factories for the same terms.
- Tooling stated separately. “Free mold” usually means the mold is inside the unit price — or the factory owns your mold. Get the number on its own line.
- Freight from each origin. A quote from Ningbo and a quote from Haiphong do not share a freight number.
- Duty by country of origin. Look up the stacked rate for each origin and paste each one — the same product can carry very different totals depending on where it ships from.
- Same margin targets. Back retail and wholesale out of each landed cost with the same margins, so the compare ends in prices, not just costs.
Do it on one sheet
The worksheet holds both quotes on the same SKU — same quantity, same margins, different everything else — and shows both landed costs and the per-unit gap. The sample bottle above is preloaded.