The Schedule for Payment of a Wholesale Furniture Purchase Order from Overseas
By: Julia Aidan
Submitted: 2010-06-03 03:47:02 | Word Count: 477
With the international furniture market moved overseas over the last ten years, many furniture stores have had to learn how to find, order and pay for furniture that has been manufactured overseas. While we have written before about where and how to find overseas furniture manufacturers we have not discussed much about the intricacies of when you need to schedule payments for a wholesale furniture order from outside of your native country. While the location of the wholesale furniture has changed, the methodology of transferring money and banking have not changed much for international commerce over the last century.
Once you have determined where you are going to purchase your furniture from, the first question the manufacturer will ask you is the quantity of each item you are going to purchase. This is important for the manufacturer as they have to plan production times and schedule the time on their machinery to complete your order. Sometimes their manufacturing capacity might be purchased out one year or more so scheduling is the key. Also, once the wholesale furniture manufacturer knows what you are going to purchase in what color, they can pre purchase materials for your order. This is where your first payment is requested usually, 30% down.
[ advertisement ]
Once your order has been completed and your quality control team has inspected your merchandise, the furniture manufacturer will typically load your wholesale furniture into a shipping container and drive your container to the shipping dock. At that point the furniture manufacturer will request the second payment for the balance of the order. If you are late on that order, the manufacturer will hold your container and not ship your merchandise, so please plan ahead. Once payment is verified, the manufacturer will release your bill of lading and allow your container to be loaded on to a shipping vessel.
Arranging payment schedules can be tricky and one miss of a payment can mean a delayed order. Please work closely with your manufacturer to preset a payment schedule if at all possible. Also keep in mind that your original payment may be made up to 300 days before the manufacturing process even begins, so plan your budgeting and your credit lines accordingly. Be aware that if you are working with less than reputable manufacturing facilities you run the risk of the facility running off with your wholesale furniture without providing you anything. The best way to protect your investments and deposits is to have local feet on the street to check to see if the facility is still open. If you do not have a local staff, periodically send an email or make a phone call to the facility to see if they are still in business.
