Shipping terms decide where risk transfers and who pays for what, and they are the part of a quotation most often skimmed. For lash orders the amounts involved are small enough that the terms rarely cause a dispute on the first shipment — and large enough that they cause one on a bad one.
EXW: you own it at their door
Under EXW the buyer takes responsibility as soon as the goods are made available at the seller premises. Freight, export clearance and insurance are yours. On paper this looks cheapest because the quoted price excludes everything else; in practice it means you are arranging international freight from a country you may not have a forwarder in.
For a first lash order, EXW puts the most work on the buyer and the least protection around transit damage.
FOB: risk transfers at the port
Under FOB the seller handles export clearance and delivery to the named port, and risk transfers when the goods are loaded. The buyer arranges main carriage. This is the most common structure in commodity sourcing and it splits responsibility at a point both sides can verify.
For lash trays, FOB is a reasonable default for a first volume order: the seller is responsible for getting the goods out of the country correctly, and the buyer controls the freight forwarder.
DDP: delivered with duties paid
Under DDP the seller delivers to your door with import duties paid. It is the simplest term for a buyer and the most expensive to quote, because the seller is absorbing unknown duty and clearance risk. Some suppliers will not offer DDP to every destination, and those that do build a margin for the risk.
For small sample shipments DDP is often worth the premium simply because it removes a customs step you would otherwise manage for a low-value parcel.
What to confirm in the quotation
- The named port or address. FOB and EXW are meaningless without a location.
- Who arranges and pays for insurance. Often the party not holding risk, which is worth checking.
- Who pays duty and VAT at destination. Not always obvious under DDP variations.
- What happens if the shipment is damaged in transit. Who inspects, who claims, on what timeline.
- Whether the quoted price covers packaging. Boxes and labels are sometimes quoted separately.
The practical rule
Choose the term that matches who can actually manage the risk. A buyer with no freight forwarder is better served by DDP at a higher price than by EXW at a lower one that leaves a shipment sitting in customs. A buyer ordering regularly will usually find FOB plus their own forwarder cheaper once volume justifies the admin.
Whichever term applies, confirm it in the quotation or proforma invoice alongside the product record — SKU, specification, quantity unit and price. A shipping term without a product description is a container of an agreed something.