China Furniture Sourcing
Factories, Materials, Costs
Furniture is the hardest category to buy from China and the easiest to get wrong, because volume, weight and finish all move against you at the same time. This guide covers where each type of furniture is actually made, what each material costs and where it fails, the container maths that decides your landed price, and the compliance stack for the US, EU and UK. It is written from the buying desk, not from a supplier directory.
Why furniture, and why China
still wins on the maths.
Not because labour is cheap — that gap has been closing for a decade — but because the supply chain is dense.
In Foshan, hardware, foam, fabric, glass and stone tops are bought inside roughly a 50 km radius, which is what keeps a production cycle at 30–45 days instead of stretching while a factory waits on parts. It also means a well-planned day in Shunde or Nankang covers five or six factory audits; the same shortlist spread across provinces would take a week of travel.
Density is also what makes mixed containers work. A 40ft high-cube holds about 65–68 m³ and a packed guest-room set runs 3–5 m³, so one container usually carries goods from three or four factories — but only when those factories are close enough to truck to one loading point cheaply. That single constraint shapes every sourcing decision below.
The trade-off is that density hides variation. Two workshops on the same street can differ enormously in finishing quality, and the gap does not show up in a quotation. It shows up in a container, which is why inspection before the balance payment matters more here than in almost any other category.
Six clusters.
Each makes something different.
A factory that is excellent at upholstery will still accept your office chair order and subcontract it. Start from the cluster that makes your product, not from whoever replied fastest.
Shunde · Lecong · LongjiangCasegoods, upholstery, beds, mattresses, custom fixed furnitureShenzhen / Guangzhou
~120 kmHotels, apartments, mixed FF&E packages
JiangxiSolid wood: beds, tables, chairs, wardrobesGanzhou inland port
onward to ShenzhenResorts, schools, restaurants, solid-timber specs
GuangdongHigh-end casegoods, office systems, contract seatingShenzhen
~60 kmOffices, branded hotels, strict-spec FF&E
ZhejiangOffice chairs, task and conference seatingShanghai
~200 kmOffice fit-outs, schools, call centres
HebeiMetal, glass, MDF, banquet and event seatingTianjin
~100 kmBudget programmes, banquet and event furniture
SichuanPanel furniture, wardrobes, bedroom setsInland
China–Europe railWestern China programmes, rail destinations
The working rule is one primary cluster plus at most one satellite. Add a second cluster when a category is worth a container of its own, or when the primary cluster genuinely does not make it well — solid wood volume points to Nankang, task seating volume points to Anji. Spreading a mid-size order across four regions because each line looked marginally cheaper adds an inspection trip, a trucking leg and a coordination failure point per region, and on a two or three container project those costs eat whatever the line items saved.
Six material families.
And how each one fails.
Every line below is a specification that has to be written down before production. If it is only in an email, it is not in the order.
Solid wood
Specify · Species, moisture content, kiln-drying record, grade
Colour drift across one container, and timber that moves after it reaches a drier climate. Rubberwood, ash, oak and pine are the volume species; anything rarer needs the origin declared.
Engineered board & veneer
Specify · Board grade, formaldehyde class, veneer thickness, edge banding
The single most common place to quietly cut cost. Swelling at unsealed edges, delamination, and veneer that is too thin to sand back.
Metal
Specify · Gauge and wall thickness, weld finish, coating system
Thin-wall tube dents in transit, and powder coat flakes first at the welds. Ask for wall thickness in millimetres, not a photograph.
Rattan & cane
Specify · Natural or PE, weave density, frame material, grade consistency
Natural material needs consistent grading or the colour drifts piece to piece — the defect that shows up in one container, not one sample.
Upholstery
Specify · Foam density and ILD, fabric weight in gsm, rub count, leather cut
Foam density is the spec most often downgraded: 25D becomes 18D and the sofa feels different after ninety days. Put density, ILD and gsm in the spec sheet, not in an email.
Stone & glass
Specify · Thickness, edge finish, tempering, sealing
Untempered glass and unsealed stone top the damage list. Both are cheap to specify correctly and expensive to replace after arrival.
Six lines.
Only one is the unit price.
Comparing two quotations on unit price alone is the most common and most expensive mistake in this category.
A worked example that gets cited across the industry: a mid-range fabric sofa, 50 units, full container to the US West Coast. Bought direct, the unit price is around $180 FOB with the container filled to roughly 48 m³, which puts freight and surcharges near $88 per unit. Managed for packing and consolidation, the same sofa lands at about $166 with 65.5 m³ filled and freight near $58 per unit. The unit price moved 8%; the landed cost moved far more, and almost all of it came from volume.
MOQ, samples
and realistic lead times.
These three numbers decide whether a project is viable long before price does.
Minimum order quantity
Set by the factory, not by us. Stocked items can ship from one carton. Custom upholstery usually starts at one 20GP or five to ten pieces per colour. Solid wood typically runs twenty to fifty pieces. We confirm the real figure with each factory before you commit.
Sampling
A real upholstered sofa prototype runs $300–900 and takes 15–25 days. Chairs and flat-pack pieces are $80–200. Budget two rounds: a prototype and a corrected pre-production sample. Keep a sealed approved sample as the reference production must match.
Lead time
30–45 days when components come from inside the cluster, 45–60 days when the spec needs custom veneer or imported timber. Add 7–20 days for sampling before that, and 3–7 days for consolidation, loading and export.
Container maths.
Where margin actually hides.
Freight is charged on volume. Packing is therefore a cost line, not an afterthought.
What fits
- A 40ft high-cube holds about 65–68 m³ usable
- A packed guest-room FF&E set runs 3–5 m³
- One container usually carries three or four factories
- Assembled furniture roughly doubles the shipped volume
- Flat-pack halves freight and moves risk to the last mile
What it costs
- Damage claims on poorly packed furniture run 3–8% of value
- On a $40,000 shipment that is $2,000 — more than haggling 3% off the unit price saves
- Corner protection and crates are cheap; a replacement is not
- E-commerce parcels need ISTA-tested packaging, not export cartons
- Loading should be supervised and photographed, every time
Not one rule.
A stack, by destination.
This is where importers get hurt, because the requirement depends on the product and the market, not on the factory.
Build the checklist per SKU and get the test reports before production starts. Retrofitting compliance onto a finished container is not a thing — and a missing label can get goods refused even when the product itself passes every test.
Three routes.
Different risk, not different price.
All three can be correct. The question is which risks you want to carry yourself.
Factory direct
You hold the relationship, the verification and the risk
- Best unit price on one high-volume item
- You check the licence, capacity and export rights yourself
- You arrange inspection, consolidation and the document set
- Works well when you already know the factory and reorder the same SKU
Trading company
One counterparty, less visibility
- Bundles several SKUs into one container and handles paperwork
- Often cheaper to deal with than five separate factories
- You may not learn which factory actually made your goods
- Harder to hold quality accountable when something goes wrong
Buying agent — OZ
You keep the factory relationship, we carry the work
- Three or more factories quoted on identical terms
- Licences, capacity and export rights checked before quoting
- Balance released only after a photo-backed AQL inspection
- Everything consolidated into one container and one document set
Eight things.
None of them optional.
You do not need every answer to start. You do need the ones that change which factory we approach.
Six categories.
One buying desk.
Each category page carries its own sub-categories, materials and failure points, indicative MOQ and lead times, and the packaging and compliance notes specific to that product.
Furniture & interiors
Sofas, casegoods, storage, bedroom sets and contract seating
Open the category page ↗Kitchenware & tableware
Dinnerware, glassware, cookware, cutlery and kitchen tools
Open the category page ↗Not sure which route fits? Personal shopping handles one-off buys from Taobao, 1688 and Tmall. B2B buying handles BOQs, factory shortlists and container consolidation. Both start the same way — with a conversation.
Before the first order.
Answered plainly.
These are the questions buyers ask us before they send a furniture brief.
What is a realistic MOQ for custom furniture from China?
Minimums are set by the factory, not by us. Stocked items can often ship from a single carton. Custom upholstery usually starts at one 20GP container or five to ten pieces per colour, because the cutting and fabric setup costs the same whether five or fifty are made. Solid wood runs higher, often twenty to fifty pieces. We confirm the real figure with each factory before you commit.
How long does a first furniture order take end to end?
Production runs 30–45 days when the factory can draw components from inside its own cluster, and 45–60 days when the specification needs custom veneer or imported timber. Add 7–20 days for sampling before that, and 3–7 days for consolidation, loading and export. Sea transit then depends on the lane: roughly 15–25 days to the US West Coast and 25–40 days to northern Europe.
Can I mix furniture from several factories in one container?
Yes, and for most project orders it is the only way the maths works. A 40ft high-cube holds about 65–68 m³, and a packed guest-room FF&E set runs 3–5 m³, so one container typically carries output from three or four factories. The catch is distance: factories far apart add a trucking leg and a separate inspection each. Consolidation is cheap inside one cluster and expensive across provinces.
Should I buy flat-pack or assembled?
Assembled furniture is safer to receive and roughly doubles the volume you pay to ship. Flat-pack halves the freight but moves the risk to the last mile, so it needs ISTA-tested packaging and clear assembly instructions. The usual split: assembled for hotel and project handover, flat-pack for e-commerce and anything a customer assembles at home.
Which Incoterm should a first order use?
FOB is the sensible default for container orders — we deliver to the port and load the vessel, and you control the ocean leg with your own forwarder. EXW looks cheaper but leaves you managing inland trucking and export declaration from abroad. CIF and DDP make sense once you want fewer moving parts and are happy with a longer quoting cycle.
How do you check that a factory is legitimate?
We check the business licence and its registered scope, confirm export rights, review the certifications your market needs, and visit or video-audit the production line. We report what we found including the weaknesses, because a factory that is excellent at upholstery is often quietly subcontracting your office chairs to somebody else.
Do I need my own inspector, or is yours enough?
Ours is enough for most orders. We run a mid-production check and a pre-shipment inspection against AQL 2.5, with AQL 4.0 accepted on some categories and tighter levels where your market requires it, and we send the photo report before you release the balance. If you have your own inspector we will coordinate with them rather than replace them.
Which certifications do I need for the US and the EU?
For the US: composite wood must meet CARB Phase 2 and TSCA Title VI, upholstery sold in California must meet TB 117-2013, office seating is usually specified to ANSI/BIFMA X5.1, and mattresses fall under 16 CFR 1632 and 1633. For the EU: the Deforestation Regulation requires geolocation due diligence on timber, and the General Product Safety Regulation requires traceability and an EU-based responsible person. Build the checklist per SKU and get test reports before production — retrofitting compliance onto a finished container is not possible.
Have a furniture brief?
Let’s go through it.
Send drawings, a reference photo or a BOQ. We will tell you which cluster should make it, what it will realistically cost landed, and where the risks sit before any money moves.