There is no single number that covers a mug, a lamp and a cream. DTC here means you sell to the end buyer under your name, and you make or source the goods in China. The bill splits into four groups: product, packing, first series with import, and the sales channel. If one group is missing, paper margin is bigger than bank-account margin.
This article does not invent a euro budget. It gives lines and cash order. You get a figure when article, quantity and HS exist. Until then every “brand cost” on the internet is someone else’s series.
Cash does not follow the story
People talk: brand, site, ad, then sourcing. Money leaves in reverse.
- Deposit for sample, courier, and a tool if the product is not a finished model.
- Rest of goods and packing before shipment. The factory does not send a container on credit.
- QC before loading.
- Freight, forwarding, duty and VAT when goods arrive. That is not “small at the end”.
- Warehouse and courier in Serbia.
- Shop, if it does not exist yet.
- Ads, only when the article can sell and return.
If you pay ads before step 4, you fund traffic to goods that are not yours yet. If you order a large series before step 1, you fund a guess.
1. Product: spec, sample, tool
- Spec. Material, dimension, colour, function, what the product may and may not do.
- Sample. One or more rounds, plus air courier. A second round is cheaper than a series that does not match the approved piece.
- Tool or mould. On plastic, casting or a special housing this is a separate line, with weeks of lead. The PO says who owns the tool and what happens if you change factory. Chain: sample, tool and series.
- Supplier check. Visit or at least an address confirm.
If the product already exists as a finished model, the tool drops. Sample and QC stay. A finished model is still not your brand until you differ from ten identical listings. That difference is box, label and page, not an adjective in the title.
2. Packing, which often holds the goods date
Box, insert, label and manual are not a phase after first orders. Print has its own MOQ, often higher than the goods MOQ. A mould for a special box shape is another line.
Write box size and how it enters volume, reference colour, label language for Serbia, and whether the box is filled at the product factory or at the printer. Packaging from China.
If the box is late, goods sit. You pay storage in China or you miss the season.
3. First series and landed cost
Here the brand stops looking like no-stock shipping. You import.
Into the table:
- Goods price times quantity, plus deposit and balance.
- QC before loading.
- Freight: LCL while volume is small, FCL when you approach 20' or 40'. FCL or LCL.
- Forwarding and local port costs.
- Duty and VAT. Rate depends on HS and on a correct COO. Serbia-China FTA. Illustrative calc: duty calculator.
- Delivery from customs to your warehouse.
- Scrap you must not sell, and returns you expect in the first three months.
Divide the sum by pieces you can actually sell, not by pieces you ordered. If 8% drops to scrap and returns, those pieces still carried duty and freight.
Full frame: landed cost. Until that number exists, the site price is a wish. Incoterms change which row is yours. EXW does not include sea. A “to Serbia port” price still does not include duty and your warehouse.
Shop and ads sit after goods can sell. How to sequence the shop: online shop with goods from China. Contact with article, quantity and HS for a line-by-line cash map, not a slogan budget.
Next step
Send the request: category, quantity, and date. You get a reply within 24 hours, with an outline of the total cost to destination where we can price it.
