How to Read a Bottle Quotation: What Is Included and What Is Not

A quotation that says "$0.42 per bottle, MOQ 10,000" is not a quotation. It is a starting position. By the time the order lands, the number that matters is the landed cost per finished, decorated, packed bottle on your warehouse floor — and that number is assembled from about eleven separate lines.

The Eleven Lines a Quotation Should Have

Why the Cheaper Quote Usually Is Not

Take two quotes for a 500 ml HDPE shampoo bottle with a pump and one-colour screen print, 20,000 units:

Quote A is 9% more expensive once the missing lines are priced in, and it still leaves you responsible for sourcing pallets. This is not usually dishonesty — suppliers quote what they habitually quote — but it means unit price alone tells you almost nothing.

The Six Omissions That Cost the Most

• Closures quoted separately. A bottle price with no pump, cap or insert is not comparable to one with them. Price the closure at the volume you will actually buy, not at sample quantity.
• "FOB" without a port. FOB Shanghai and FOB Shantou are different freight costs. Without a named port the term means nothing.
• No exchange rate clause. If you are quoted in USD and pay in RMB, a 4% currency move is 4% of your margin. Ask which rate and which date the price is based on.
• One-way resin adjustment. Some suppliers reserve the right to raise the price if resin rises, without lowering it if resin falls. A symmetric clause is fair; a one-sided one is not.
• Packing not specified. "Standard export packing" can mean anything from 50 to 200 units per carton, which changes both freight volume and the damage rate.
• Inspection excluded. Who pays for third-party inspection, and is a failed inspection grounds for rework at the supplier's cost?

How to Normalise Two Quotes

1. Convert both to the same trade term. Add freight and insurance to EXW prices so everything is compared at CIF or DDP.
2. Add the closure to any quote that excludes it, at your real volume.
3. Add decoration and one-off charges amortised over your actual order quantity.
4. Add packing and palletisation where they are excluded.
5. Divide by the number of good bottles, not the number ordered — a 2% breakage difference is a 2% price difference.

What to Put in the Purchase Order

• The agreed price basis, currency and exchange rate date.
• The named port or delivery point.
• Packing specification with carton quantities and pallet configuration.
• Payment terms with the trigger for each instalment.
• Lead time, and what event starts the clock — deposit received, or sample approved.
• The acceptance criteria and the remedy if they are not met.

The Short Version

Read a quotation by rebuilding it. Bottle, closure, decoration, packing, tooling, freight, currency — seven components that add up to one landed cost. The supplier who shows you all seven is not necessarily cheaper, but they are the one whose number will still be the same at the end of the order.