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How to Price an Export Order Without Losing Money or the Customer

September 23, 2026

Most pricing problems between Vietnamese factories and foreign buyers are not about the number. They are about what the number contains, which is why a correct price is regularly rejected and a lower one that was clearer wins.

Build the price in layers, quote it in one

Internally, price in layers so you know where the money is:

Material. Including scrap rate and the minimum lot you must buy. If your lot minimum forces you to carry surplus, that cost is real and belongs somewhere.

Bought-in components. At the actual quoted price from your supplier, not last year’s, with their lead time noted.

Process time. Machine time, labour, setup and changeover. Setup divided by the order quantity is where small orders get expensive, and it is the line buyers most often do not understand.

Rework allowance. A realistic percentage based on your own defect records. Factories that price zero rework absorb it as lost margin every time.

Packaging. Inner, carton and pallet. On light products this is a larger share than most factories assume.

Local logistics and export costs. Trucking to port, terminal handling, export documentation.

Margin. Set deliberately rather than as whatever is left.

Then present a single unit price with the assumptions stated. Buyers do not need your layers. They need to know what the price covers.

What belongs on its own line

Three things should never be buried in the unit price:

Tooling. Separate line, with cavity count, expected tool life and the ownership position. Folding tooling into the unit price makes you look expensive against a factory that separated it, and it hides what the buyer would own.

Sampling costs. If pre-production samples carry real cost, say so and say how many rounds are included. Most buyers accept a sampling charge on a first project. What they resent is discovering it after approval.

Certification and testing. If the buyer’s market needs lab testing, that is a cost with a lead time and it is not yours to absorb silently.

The costs factories forget

From quotations we see, these are the most commonly missed:

• Material lot surplus. Buying 300 metres to make 180 units of product.
• Changeovers on variants. Four colours at the same total quantity is not the same job as one colour.
• Artwork and proofing loops. Printed packaging with two or three proof rounds consumes real time.
• Payment and bank charges. Intermediary bank fees on international transfers, which quietly reduce what you receive.
• Currency movement. On a project running six months, quoted in a currency you do not hold.
• The buyer’s inspection. Time spent hosting an inspector, and the sorting or rework a failed lot triggers.

None of these need to be itemised for the buyer. All of them need to be inside your number.

Quote the quantity they asked for, plus one

Give the price at the requested quantity and at one step above. It costs you nothing and it does two useful things: it shows the buyer where the price breaks are, and it often moves the order up.

If the requested quantity is below your economic minimum, do not quote a punitive price without explanation. Say what the minimum is, say why in one line, and price both. A buyer who understands that the constraint is a fabric lot rather than a policy will often adjust the order.

Validity, currency and terms

Four lines that prevent most later disputes:

• Price valid for a stated period, commonly thirty days.
• Currency named, and the currency you expect to be paid in.
• Payment terms: the deposit and balance structure, and what triggers the balance.
• Lead time split by phase, with what you are assuming about approvals.

A quotation with these reads as a company that has exported before. One without them reads as a company that has not, whatever its history.

Do not win on price alone

A factory that wins on price wins the orders that leave when a cheaper factory appears, and those buyers arrive with the tightest specifications and the least patience.

The alternative is not charging more for the same thing. It is being clearly easier to work with: comparable quotations, honest lead times, problems raised early, tooling terms in writing. Buyers pay a premium for that without ever describing it as a premium, because what they are actually buying is a lower chance of the project going wrong.

When a price is genuinely too high for the buyer, the useful response is to ask what would have to change. Often something in the specification is expensive and unnecessary, and finding it makes you the factory that solved the problem rather than the one that lost on price.

Price breaks and where to put them

A price that only exists at one quantity tells the buyer nothing about your economics and gives them nothing to work with.

Publish two or three break points that reflect real changes on your side: where a material lot is fully used, where a changeover is avoided, where a second cavity or a larger batch becomes efficient. When the break points map to something real, you can explain them, and an explained break moves orders upward far more effectively than a discount.

Avoid the arbitrary ladder where every extra thousand units takes five cents off. Buyers recognise it as a negotiating structure rather than a cost structure, and it invites them to push on every step.

What to do when the buyer says the price is too high

Three responses, in order of usefulness.

Ask what it is being compared to. Often the answer reveals a different scope, a different quantity or a different Incoterm, and the gap is not real.

Offer the same product priced differently. Bulk packed instead of retail, a standard material instead of the named one, a different quantity. This gives the buyer a decision instead of a refusal.

Find the expensive requirement. Go back to the drawing and name the feature that is driving cost. A buyer who learns that one tolerance accounts for a meaningful share of the price will usually change the tolerance.

The response that costs you most is a straight discount with no change in scope. It tells the buyer the first price was not real, and every later price will be tested the same way.

Protecting the margin you quoted

A correct quotation still loses money if what happens afterwards is not controlled.

State a price validity period and hold to it. Confirm the specification in writing before production, including anything agreed verbally. Quote changes as changes, with their own price and lead time, rather than absorbing them to keep the relationship warm. And invoice the currency you quoted.

Factories that absorb small changes to appear accommodating end up with a job that is unprofitable and a buyer who expects the same next time. Pricing a change politely and promptly is normal commercial behaviour, and buyers accustomed to Western suppliers expect it.

We show manufacturers an anonymous preview of each project, with quantity, scope and market stated, so you can price real work rather than guessing at enquiries. Join the network, and see how to answer an RFQ properly for the process around the number.

Frequently asked questions

Keep reading

• How to Answer a Foreign Buyer's RFQ So You Stay on the Shortlist
• The Things a Factory Needs Before It Can Take Export Orders Well