How Is a Bulk Knitwear Order Packed and Shipped?

A bulk knitwear order is packed in three layers, and each layer is fixed by a different decision: the polybag by your retail requirement, the inner grouping by colour and size, and the carton by a ratio both sides sign off. None of it belongs to the last day, because the ratio and the shipping mark both feed the export documents.

What are the three packing layers, and who fixes each one?

Packing is three instructions, not one, and each is owned at a different point in the order. The inner layer answers a retail question, the middle one a stockroom question, the outer one a freight question. Settle all three before cutting and the finishing line has nothing left to invent.

Packing element	What it fixes	Confirmed by
Inner polybag	Single-piece protection, open end or self-seal, printed or plain	Your retail requirement, written into the packing spec
Size sticker and hangtag	Where the size reads from and what the tag carries	The approved sample and the trims list
Carton ratio	How many pieces of each size and colour go in one carton	The size breakdown, agreed before cutting
Carton marks	What the outside of the carton says and where	The shipping mark artwork, signed before printing
Carton grade	Board strength and dimensions for the packed weight	The packed weight and the transit method
Loading	How cartons are stacked, counted and closed into the container	The loading plan, confirmed with the forwarder

The third column decides whether any of this holds. An element with no named owner gets decided at the table, and that decision repeats on every carton. Who writes the spec follows the tech pack split: on OEM you write it, on ODM we draft and you approve. The OEM and ODM comparison sets that line.

Why is the carton ratio a division problem rather than a preference?

Carton ratio is how many pieces of each size and colour go into one master carton. Three patterns cover most orders: solid size, one size per carton; solid colour, one colour across a spread of sizes; assorted, a set ratio — 6 pieces across the size range — packed for a retail floor that receives by carton.

The pattern is a choice; the arithmetic is not. If the ratio does not divide the quantity, the remainder becomes an odd carton — four pieces where the receiver expects ten, counted wrong or missed at goods-in. Build the ratio from the actual size breakdown, and state the odd-carton rule in the packing list: the balance sits in the last carton of each colour, or is spread across the final cartons.

Pieces per carton also fixes how many cartons exist. An order of 100 pcs per style, per colour at 10 pieces per carton is 10 cartons; the same order at 8 pieces is 12 full cartons and a 13th holding 4 pieces. Only one is on the document you approved, and how a 100-piece order runs shows those quantities.

What actually belongs on a shipping mark?

A shipping mark is the printed block outside the carton that identifies it without opening. The main mark carries consignee and destination; the side mark carries order data. Fields that earn their space: destination port or country, purchase order or style number, colour, size range, carton number as a fraction of the total, gross and net weight, carton dimensions.

Two rules make a mark usable. The carton number must be a fraction — carton 3 of 12 — because a bare 3 cannot be checked against a packing list at a glance. And the mark goes on before the cartons close: printed or stencilled, not a label applied in the container. A mark that first appears on the packing list arrives after sealing.

How do the invoice, the packing list and the carton numbers line up?

Three documents describe one shipment at three levels. The commercial invoice states what was sold and on which terms; the packing list states what sits in each carton; the marks state what the outside says. Customs reads them against each other, so a mismatch is a documentation fault, not a quality one: it delays clearance rather than triggering a claim.

Align on three fields. The style or purchase order number must match across all three. The carton count on the packing list must equal the highest number printed on the marks. The gross weight total must equal the sum of the per-carton weights. Approve the draft list before sealing: correcting a spreadsheet costs a message, correcting forty stencilled cartons costs a day.

Where does responsibility end under EXW, FOB and DDP?

The incoterm marks where cost and risk pass from seller to buyer, and it decides who books the space and who attends the loading. It says nothing about packing quality.

Under EXW the boundary is our premises. The goods are made available, packed and marked, and your forwarder collects; booking, export clearance, loading and the risk from the trailer onward are yours.

Under FOB Shenzhen or Yantian the boundary is the ship’s rail at the named port. We deliver to the cut-off your booking sets and the goods are loaded on board; origin charges and loading sit with us, the ocean leg, insurance and destination charges with you. The booking is yours, so the cut-off has to reach us early.

Under DDP the boundary moves to the named place at destination. We carry the goods through export, freight and import clearance, and you receive at the door. It is quoted on request, because the answer depends on destination and product.

Loading attendance follows the same line: your agent under EXW, the terminal under FOB, our own arrangement under DDP, so name it in the booking. What decides between the three is who holds a freight account and who wants the customs entry in their own name; FOB keeps freight visible, DDP folds it into the unit price.

Which packing decisions have to close before bulk starts?

Four decisions sit upstream of the finishing line. The polybag: plain or printed, open end or self-seal, warning on the film or not. The hangtag and size sticker artwork, including where the sticker sits on the folded piece. The carton mark artwork, signed off before printing. The carton size and board grade, which follow from the folded piece and packed weight: a 240–550 GSM fleece at 400 gsm needs a stiffer board than a 180 gsm jersey at the same piece count.

Each one has a print run or a supplier behind it, and the line behind them turns out 150,000–200,000 pcs per month, so a late bag order waits its turn. That is why packing is not a last-day task: the goods can be finished and still waiting on a printed bag.

What goes wrong when packing is written after the goods are made?

The cartons close on a ratio nobody checked, the mark is handwritten, and the packing list is typed from what the line believes it packed. The garments are correct and the shipment is still wrong.

One test catches most of it. Open a packed carton before the run is signed off and compare it with the packing list line by line: fold, bag, sticker, tag, ratio, mark. It is the carton your receiver will open. The sample approval checklist already treats that as one of its ten points; this page adds where each point is decided.

Two more checks belong here. Sampling to AQL 2.5 draws from finished cartons, so a carton built to an unagreed ratio is the one an inspector opens; the AQL 2.5 sampling plan explains how the lot is judged. The production timeline also ends at packed goods: the 15–25 days after sample approval and deposit, on top of 3–7 working days of sampling, stop at the dock, where the quality control sequence treats a sealed carton as a check, not an afterthought.

What do buyers ask most about packing and shipping?

Can we use our own polybags and hangtags?

Yes, and it is the usual arrangement on a private label order. Send the bag specification and artwork with the purchase order: size, film thickness, open end or self-seal, and whether a warning is printed. Production packs to that specification and the first carton is checked against it. Artwork that arrives after sealing cannot be used.

Can sizes and colours be mixed in one carton?

Only when the ratio is agreed in writing before cutting. An assorted carton is normal for retail replenishment and unusual for wholesale, where solid size or solid colour is easier to receive and count. Mixed cartons also raise the odd-carton count, because a ratio rarely divides every colour evenly. State the pattern colour by colour.

How do you avoid odd cartons?

Build the ratio from the size breakdown rather than from a standard pack, then test the division colour by colour before cutting. Where a remainder is unavoidable, decide in advance whether the balance goes into one final carton per colour or is spread across the last few. Write that rule into the packing list so the receiver counts against a stated expectation.

Who provides the shipping mark?

Either side can draft it; the buyer approves it. Most buyers issue a mark with the purchase order, and printing follows that artwork; the first marked carton is checked before the run continues. If you have no standard mark, one is drafted with the fields your destination needs and you sign it off before the print run, so nothing goes on a carton unapproved.

Where is the line between EXW and FOB?

EXW ends at our premises: your forwarder collects, and export clearance, booking and loading are yours. FOB Shenzhen or Yantian ends when the goods are loaded on board at the named port, so origin charges and loading sit with us and the ocean leg is yours. The practical difference is who books and who carries risk in between.

Does packing have to be confirmed again on a repeat order?

Yes, and it is one of the details that drifts most easily between batches. The bag, the ratio, the mark and the carton size should carry forward with the pattern and the sealed sample, but only if someone still holds the packing spec from the first run. Reconfirm it in writing with each repeat, especially when quantity or size breakdown has changed.

Send the packing spec with the enquiry — bag, ratio, mark, carton — and the quotation comes back with those costs inside it rather than added at packing. The production lead time calculator shows where the 15–25 days sit; the contact page takes the draft.