Custom Bag Order Process: Five Stages From Quote to Shipment

The Five Stages and Their Gates

Creators tend to think of a bag order as one long wait between placing it and receiving it. In practice it is five stages with four decision points in between, and the waiting almost never happens in the middle of production. It happens at the gates, while someone is deciding whether a shade is approved or waiting for artwork in the right file format.

Naming the stages helps because it makes the delays visible and assignable. When a creator asks why the order is three weeks late, the answer is nearly always that a gate took eleven days rather than that the sewing took too long. Once you can see which gate, you can do something about it.

Read the third column as the list of things only you can do. Every gate closes on a decision or a payment that sits with the creator, which is why the calendar is mostly in your hands even though the production is not. A creator who approves a sample the day it arrives and sends the deposit the same week will hit the dates. A creator who takes nine days over the sample approval will not, and no amount of efficiency downstream recovers that.

There is also a useful asymmetry to understand. The stages at the start are short and cheap, and they are the ones where changes cost almost nothing. The stages at the end are long and expensive, and they are the ones where changes cost a great deal. All of the flexibility in a bag order lives in the first two stages, and every week you spend there saves roughly three weeks later.

Our Low MOQ Bag Production for Creators page places this process in the context of a 500-piece entry order, and Custom Bags for Crowdfunding: Mockup to Production Timeline shows the same sequence drawn against a campaign calendar.

Stage 1: The Enquiry and the Quote

The first stage is where most of the avoidable time is either saved or lost, and it has nothing to do with how fast anyone replies to an email. It is about whether the enquiry contained enough for a quotation to be prepared without a round of questions.

An enquiry that says please quote a custom backpack for 500 units will generate a reply asking for the dimensions, the materials, the features, the decoration, the quantity per colour and the target price. That exchange costs two or three days each way, and it often repeats twice. An enquiry that arrives with all of it attached can be quoted directly, and the answer will be a number you can use.

What a quotation should contain when it comes back is worth knowing, because it protects you later. A usable quote names the unit price at a stated quantity, states the MOQ it is based on, which is 500 pcs per style and per colourway, lists the materials and components by specification, states the sampling and bulk lead times, states the payment terms, which are T/T 30/70, states the trade terms, which are FOB Xiamen, and states the inspection standard, which is AQL 2.5 to ISO 2859-1.

If any of those seven items are missing, ask before you accept. A price without a specification attached is not a quotation, it is an estimate, and the gap between the two is where disputes come from. The same applies to lead times given as a single number rather than a range. Sampling is 6 to 10 working days and bulk is 35 to 50 days because the variables genuinely move them, and a fixed number means someone has picked the optimistic end.

The first stage is also the right moment to ask the questions that are awkward later. What happens if my sample needs a second round. What is the price at 1,000 pcs. Which of my features are the expensive ones. Can you hold a slot for a re-order. These are easy to answer before an order exists and awkward after one does, and the answers tell you a good deal about how the relationship will work.

Our Crowdfunding Bag Sourcing: 7 Questions to Ask First page covers the due-diligence side of this stage, including the questions that reveal how a programme handles problems.

What a Complete Enquiry Contains

This is the most practical section in the article, and it is worth treating as a checklist to attach to your next email. Ten items, and an enquiry containing all ten can be quoted immediately.

1. Product type and dimensions in centimetres, with a tolerance, plus the capacity you intend to claim.
2. Quantity per style and per colourway, not a single total, because the minimum applies per colourway.
3. Shell, lining and base materials by denier and coating, or a description of the hand feel you want if you do not know the specification yet.
4. Hardware and closures, meaning zipper types, buckles, sliders and any moulded parts.
5. Features and pockets, listed individually, so each can be priced and each can be removed if the total is too high.
6. Decoration, meaning the method, the position, the size in centimetres, and the number of positions, with artwork attached.
7. Colours, as Pantone TCX references, with a note on which are essential and which are negotiable.
8. Target price or target budget, which lets the recommendations be built around a number rather than guessed.
9. Destination and delivery window, because the freight leg and the customs requirements shape the packing and the documentation.
10. Compliance requirements for the market you are selling into, such as children's product rules or labelling requirements.

Items eight and nine are the two most often omitted and the two that most change the answer. A brief with a target price attached gets a design that was engineered to hit it, while a brief without one gets a technically correct bag at whatever it happens to cost. A brief with a destination gets a packing and documentation plan, while a brief without one gets a default export carton that may not suit your fulfilment.

Item seven is worth one more note, because it is the one that saves the most money. Marking two colours as essential and one as negotiable tells a production team where it has room to substitute a near-stock shade and save a dye lot. Marking all three as essential takes that room away, and it usually costs money the creator did not need to spend.

There is one thing not to include, which is a request for a price for every possible quantity. An enquiry asking for prices at 500, 1,000, 2,000, 5,000 and 10,000 pcs is asking for five quotations, only one of which will be used. Ask for the quantity you will actually order and one other, typically the next stage up, and keep the exchange short.

Stage 2: Sampling and Approval

Sampling is the stage creators most want to rush and least should. It is short, it is cheap, and it is the only point in the whole process where you can change the product without consequence. Everything after it is expensive to alter.

A standard build samples in 6 to 10 working days, and a complex one in 12 to 15 working days. Those ranges cover the physical making of the sample and the internal checks that go with it, not the courier time to you and not your own review time. When you are planning a campaign around a sample, budget the courier leg and your own decision time separately, because together they usually exceed the making time.

What arrives should be a sample made to the agreed specification, in the agreed materials, with the agreed decoration. If it arrives in a substitute fabric because the specified one was unavailable, that should have been communicated before it was made, and you should ask. A sample that silently substitutes a material has told you nothing about how your product will look.

How to review it is a discipline in itself. Handle the bag the way a backer will, which means filling it, carrying it loaded, cycling every zipper ten times, and pulling the straps. Look at the things that photographs hide: the stiffness of the base, the balance when it is worn, whether the lining is generous enough, whether the pocket openings are big enough for a hand. The complaints you receive in month three are generated by exactly these things, and this is the only cheap moment to find them.

Then there is the question of revisions. A second sample round is normal and should be expected on anything but the simplest product. What costs time is a second round that changes five things, because each change has to be interpreted, made and re-checked. The efficient approach is to consolidate your observations into one marked-up list, to separate essential changes from preferences, and to send it as a single communication. Our Kickstarter Backpack Sampling: 3 Rounds to Get It Right page sets out how to use the rounds deliberately.

One caution that saves real money. Do not approve a sample you have not held. Approval given from photographs or a video call, on a product you have never touched, is approval given without the two senses that matter most, which are feel and weight. If the timing genuinely will not allow it, say so and accept the risk deliberately rather than by accident.

The Approval Gate: What You Are Signing

The approval gate is the most consequential moment in the whole order, and it is worth being explicit about what an approval means, because creators and production teams sometimes mean different things by it.

When you approve a sample, you are approving four things at once. First, the construction, meaning the pattern, the proportions and the assembly. Second, the materials, meaning the shell, lining, hardware and trim as specified. Third, the appearance, meaning the colours, the finish and the decoration. Fourth, the standard, meaning that bulk will be judged against this sample. That fourth one is the one with teeth, because the approved sample becomes the reference for the bulk inspection.

This is why an approval should be given in writing and should reference the specification that accompanies it. A message saying looks great, ship it approves an object, and if the bulk then arrives with a different lining the conversation is difficult. A message saying sample approved against specification revision 2, with the measurements attached, approves a document, and the same conversation is straightforward.

There is a related discipline about tolerances. Every measurement on a sewn product varies, and the approval should say how much. A sample approved at 45 cm tall implies bulk at 45 cm plus or minus a tolerance, and the usual convention for soft goods is around 1 cm on a main dimension, with smaller tolerances on trim and print placement. If your approval does not mention a tolerance, one will be assumed, and you may not agree with the assumption.

The gate is also the point at which colours are fixed. Dye lots for bulk are ordered from the approved reference, which is why an approval given on the basis of a Pantone chip on a screen is risky. Approve the physical material. If the physical material is half a shade off what you imagined, decide now, because after the dye lot is ordered the same decision costs weeks and possibly the whole colourway.

Finally, the approval gate is the right moment to confirm the re-order. The pattern, the sample and the materials are all in place, and booking the next slot costs nothing at this point while it may cost a month later. Our MOQ for Custom Bags on Kickstarter: 500 Pcs, Data-Backed page explains why the entry quantity is the natural one to book twice.

Stage 3: Deposit and Production Slot

The third stage is administratively small and strategically important, because it converts an intention into a booking. It has two parts, the deposit and the slot, and both are worth understanding.

The deposit is 30% of the order value under the T/T 30/70 structure, with the remaining 70% payable before shipment. Its practical function is to release the materials purchasing, since fabric, trim and hardware have to be bought and delivered before cutting can start. A deposit that arrives late delays the material delivery, and the material delivery is the first thing the bulk window depends on.

The slot is the second part, and it is the one that protects your delivery date. Production capacity is scheduled, and a run has to be placed into that schedule. Confirming the slot means your order has a position in the calendar, with material deliveries and labour planned around it. Skipping the slot conversation and simply waiting for the deposit to arrive is how orders quietly lose two weeks.

Timing matters here more than most creators realise. The 35 to 50 days bulk window starts when materials are in and the slot opens, not when you send the deposit. An order confirmed in the week before a major production peak can wait for a slot even with everything else ready. Asking when the next available slot is, before you commit, is a reasonable and useful question.

This stage is also where you should settle the documentation. Carton marks, barcodes if you need them, packing lists, and any compliance labelling for your destination market all have to be agreed before packing, not after. Retail and fulfilment channels have specific requirements, and discovering them after the cartons are sealed is an expensive way to learn.

And this is the natural moment to plan the second production round if your campaign will need one. Booking a follow-up slot with a quantity band and a trigger date costs nothing now and protects you when the re-order becomes real. Our Bag Re-orders: How Stretch Goals Change Your MOQ article covers the timing.

Stage 4: Bulk Production and the Checks Inside It

Bulk is the long stage, and it is also the one creators understand least, because it happens somewhere else. It is not a single activity. It is a sequence of operations with checks between them, and knowing the sequence tells you what is happening in week four.

1. Material receipt and check. Fabric, trim and hardware arrive and are checked against the approved references before they reach the floor.
2. Cutting. Layers are spread and cut to the marker, and the cut pieces are bundled by size and colourway.
3. Printing and embroidery, if the design requires it, which happens on cut panels before assembly.
4. First-piece assembly and check. The first unit off the line is assembled and measured before the run continues.
5. Sewing. The run is assembled, with the stress operations such as strap attachment and binding receiving the closest attention.
6. Trimming and turning. Loose threads are removed, the bags are turned right side out and shaped.
7. Final inspection to AQL 2.5 to ISO 2859-1, with functional checks on a small number of units.
8. Packing. Units are bagged, cartoned and marked, and the carton count is recorded.

Of those eight steps, two are the ones a creator should care about most, and they are the ones nobody watches. The first-piece check is the control that prevents a systematic error, because the first unit is the only one that can be corrected before 499 more are made the same way. Ask whether it happened and what it found. The material receipt check is the control that prevents a shade or a hand feel from changing between the sample and the bulk, which is one of the most common complaints in sewn goods.

Changes during bulk are possible in principle and rarely wise in practice. A change requested in week three of a 500-piece run means re-instructing stations, possibly re-cutting, and almost certainly moving the completion date. There is one class of change that is worth it, which is a change that prevents a defect from reaching every unit. Everything else should wait for the next order.

Communication during this stage is worth agreeing up front. A creator who hears nothing for six weeks will worry, and a creator who receives a short weekly note with a percentage complete will not. It costs a production coordinator a few minutes and it removes a great deal of anxiety, so ask for it at the deposit stage rather than in week five.

If you want to see how this stage sits inside a whole campaign calendar, our Kickstarter Bag Project Timeline: Sampling to Delivery page draws it out with the buffers included.

Stage 5: Inspection, Balance and Shipment

The final stage has three parts that arrive close together, and it is the stage where cash and logistics meet. It is also the stage where a poorly specified first order catches up with you.

Inspection comes first, once enough cartons are packed to draw a random sample from. On a 500-piece lot the AQL 2.5 sample is 50 units, with 3 major defects accepted and 4 rejected, and it is normally a day's work on the bench with functional checks on three to five units. Ask for the report with photographs rather than a pass or fail, because the photographs are what tell you what to tighten next time.

Balance is the second part. The remaining 70% is payable before shipment, and it is worth arranging the transfer a few days before it is needed rather than on the day, because international transfers are not always same-day and the truck or the container will not wait. A two-day delay in a bank transfer becomes a two-day delay in the shipment, and that is the cheapest delay in this whole article to avoid.

Shipment is the third part, and it happens on FOB Xiamen terms, which means the goods are handed over at the port and the freight, insurance, duties and final delivery are arranged from there. What this means practically is that the freight leg is yours to plan, and it is a separate project with its own lead times. Our DDP Shipping for Backers: Duties Paid, No Surprise Fees page explains the alternative arrangement and when it is worth it.

There is a lesson here that applies to every stage, which is that the cheap controls are at the beginning and the expensive ones are at the end. A problem found at the approval gate costs a sample revision. The same problem found at final inspection costs a rework, a delay and possibly a missed campaign promise. The whole purpose of the first two stages is to make the last one boring.

One final practical item. Keep the approved sample. It is the reference against which the bulk was made and, if there is ever a dispute about what was agreed, it is the only document that cannot be argued with. Label it with the specification revision and the date and put it somewhere it will not be thrown away.

Where Orders Actually Slip

Every production programme has its own version of the same list. Ours is short, and it is almost entirely about the gates rather than the machinery.

The second row is the largest and the most avoidable, and it is entirely within the creator's control. A sample that sits in a hallway for nine days while a creator decides is nine days added to a campaign timeline for no reason at all. Set a review date when the sample ships, put it in the calendar, and treat it like the production appointment it is.

The third row deserves a note because it is the one that feels like bad luck and usually is not. A specified fabric being unavailable is a supply-chain event, but discovering it at the approval stage rather than at the quotation stage is a process failure. If your design depends on a specific material, ask about its availability in the first email.

The fifth row is where discipline pays. Most changes that creators want to make during bulk are improvements, and most improvements can wait for the re-order without any real harm. The exceptions are the changes that prevent defects, and those are worth making immediately. If you can tell which is which before you send the email, you will save yourself weeks.

Your Responsibilities at Each Stage

The counterpart of the process is the list of things only the creator can do. It is short, and holding to it is most of what determines whether an order is pleasant or painful.

1. At the enquiry: supply a complete brief with dimensions, quantities per colourway, materials, features, decoration, target price and destination.
2. At the quote: read the specification attached to it and ask about anything missing before you accept. Confirm material availability if your design depends on something specific.
3. At sampling: set a review date when the sample ships, handle the bag the way a backer will, and consolidate your changes into one marked-up list.
4. At approval: approve in writing against a named specification revision, state your tolerances, and confirm the colours against physical materials.
5. At the deposit: send it promptly, confirm the production slot and the completion date, and settle carton marks and documentation.
6. During bulk: hold the specification, respond the same day to any question from the floor, and ask for the weekly note.
7. At inspection: read the report rather than the verdict, and keep the photographs for the next order.
8. At shipment: arrange the balance early, book the freight leg, and confirm the customs documentation for your destination.

None of these is difficult, and together they are the difference between an order that takes its quoted time and one that takes a third longer. The pattern across all eight is the same: answer quickly and in writing, decide against a document rather than a memory, and do not change your mind once the materials are bought.

For creators preparing a first order, our Kickstarter Creator Checklist: 25 Items Before Launch page covers the pre-launch side of the same discipline, and Small Batch Bag Manufacturing: What 500 Pcs Includes sets out what the resulting order contains.

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