EXW, FOB or DDP? Incoterms, Payments & Landed Cost Explained for Handmade Glass Importers

Most first conversations with a new wholesale buyer include a version of the same question: "Is that price EXW or delivered?" It is the right question to ask. Two suppliers can quote the same unit price and still leave you with landed costs that differ by 30% or more, depending on the incoterm behind the number, the payment structure, and what happens between our furnace in Cairo and your warehouse shelf. After 15 years of exporting hand-blown glass to more than 30 countries, we have learned that importers who understand three things — incoterms, payment terms, and landed cost — negotiate better, plan better, and reorder sooner. This guide walks through all three.

Incoterms in Plain Language: Who Pays for What, and Where Risk Transfers

Incoterms are simply an agreement about two things: which costs each party pays, and the exact point at which responsibility for the goods passes from us to you. For handmade glass shipped from Egypt, three terms cover almost every order we see.

EXW (Ex Works, Cairo). You take over at our workshop door. The unit price is lowest, but you (or your freight forwarder) arrange export clearance, trucking to port or airport, freight, insurance, and everything after. EXW suits experienced importers with their own forwarder and consolidated shipments from several Egyptian suppliers.

FOB (Free On Board, Alexandria or Cairo Airport). We handle export customs and deliver the goods cleared and loaded; you control the international leg. This is the most popular choice among our wholesale buyers because it keeps freight competitive — your forwarder quotes the ocean or air leg — while leaving Egyptian-side paperwork with the people who do it every week.

DDP or door-to-door courier. For smaller consignments and repeat orders, express courier with duties handled is often the calmest option: one invoice, one tracking number, goods at your door. It is exactly how our $169 Sample Box travels — DHL Express, worldwide, in 3–5 days.

Whichever term you choose, insist that it appears on the proforma invoice together with the named place: "FOB Alexandria" means something; "FOB" alone is an argument waiting to happen.

Payment Terms That Protect Both Sides

Handmade production is made-to-order — your 100 candle holders in amber and smoke grey do not exist until our glassblowers gather the first ball of molten glass. Because of that, the standard structure in this trade is a deposit against order confirmation and the balance against shipping documents. Our arrangement is a 30% bank wire deposit to enter the production queue (our lead time is 15–25 days) and the remaining 70% when goods are packed, inspected, and ready to ship, before the bill of lading or air waybill is released. Orders under $2,000 can also be paid in full by card or PayPal.

Bank transfer (SWIFT) remains the workhorse of this trade. Whatever you agree, get it in writing on the proforma invoice alongside the incoterm, the production time, and the packing specification. A supplier who is precise on paper before your deposit tends to be precise with your glass afterwards. And remember that payment terms are also a risk conversation: our own policy is that any transit breakage is replaced or credited, which removes the most common source of post-shipment disputes in glassware. Full details are on our payment methods page.

Landed Cost: The Only Number That Matters

Your retail customers never see the FOB price. They see the shelf price, and your margin lives in the gap between that and the landed cost — everything it took to get one piece onto your shelf. Before you commit to any glassware order, build the calculation piece by piece:

1. Unit price at your quantity tier. Our wholesale pricing steps down as volume rises: −12% at 100–499 pieces, −20% at 500–4,999, and contract pricing above 5,000. Mixed colours within a model carry no surcharge, so you can hit a higher tier across one shape without betting on a single colour.
2. Freight. Ocean for pallets and stock programmes; air or express for launches and replenishment. Hand-blown glass is light for its volume, so dimensional weight — not kilograms — usually drives the airfreight bill.
3. Insurance. Marine cargo cover typically costs a fraction of one percent of shipment value. With breakage already replaced or credited by us, insurance is protecting against loss and damage of the shipment as a whole.
4. Duties and import VAT. Ask your broker for the rate on your HS code for glassware in your market before you order, not after arrival.
5. Local delivery and handling. Port fees, customs brokerage, and the truck to your warehouse — small lines that are real money on small shipments.

Run that arithmetic on a full carton quantity of a specific model — a votive candle holder for volume programmes, or a gilded perfume bottle for higher-value niches — and you will know your true margin before a single piece is gathered from the furnace.

A Worked Habit, Not a Worked Example

Numbers change with lanes, seasons, and fuel surcharges, which is why we resist publishing a single "typical" landed-cost example. The habit is what transfers: quote at your tier, choose the incoterm that matches your experience, fix payment milestones on paper, and price duties before you commit. Importers who follow that sequence are rarely surprised — and rarely disappointed. Full terms, tiers, and lead times are laid out on our wholesale page, and if you are developing your own shapes or branding, the same logic applies to custom OEM/ODM projects, where tooling and sampling simply become one more line in the calculation.

Start With the Numbers in Your Hands

The fastest way to test every figure in this article is to hold the glass itself. Our Sample Box brings eight best-selling Egyptian glass pieces to your door for $169 by DHL Express in 3–5 days — and the shipping cost is credited back on your first bulk order. Prefer to talk through an incoterm or a freight quote first? Message us on WhatsApp (+20 115 174 5462) or email grandbazaaregypt@gmail.com, and we will put a real proforma — incoterm, milestones, and all — in front of you within a day.