How to Source Bedding from China: A Buyer’s Step-by-Step Process

Most sourcing problems start before the first email. A buyer sends a photo of a duvet and asks for a price. The factory cannot see the shell, the fill, the quilting or the packing, so it guesses, and so does the price.

Buyers who get predictable results fix the specification first, then find a factory that can hold it. This is how we start with new customers in Lu’an, Anhui.

Start With a Written Specification, Not a Photo

A photo shows what a product looks like, not what it is. Two comforters can look identical on a screen and differ in shell, fill blend, quilting density and edge finish: most of the cost and all of the hand feel. Put this on one page:

• Finished dimensions, with a tolerance
• Shell: fibre content, construction, finish
• Fill type and weight per unit area, to your specification
• Quilting pattern and stitch density
• Edge treatment: piping, binding or knife edge
• Label placement and packing method

That sheet becomes your inspection document, and it makes two quotes comparable. Send it through our quote request page and the reply lists its assumptions.

How to Shortlist Bedding Factories

Ask one question early: which steps happen inside your building? The answer separates trading companies from plants and shows where the schedule risk sits.

Quilting, sewing, filling, pressing, needle detection and roll packing run in-house here, across roughly 3,000 m2. Weaving, dyeing and some finishing run through three long-term partner mills. That split is normal; what matters is that the factory names it.

Capacity is the second filter. On a standard construction we run about 12,000 pieces a month with 43 production workers, 35 sewing machines in two groups and 11 quilting machines. A single SKU needing more than that needs a plan, not a promise. The process is on our manufacturing and quality page; the range we build is under products.

Questions to Ask Before You Share a Tech Pack

A tech pack carries your pattern, artwork and tolerances. Get these in writing first:

• Who owns the pattern if we pay for development?
• What is the MOQ at our fabric and colour?
• How long is sampling, and what does a revision cost?
• What mill minimums sit behind the shell we picked?
• Is every filled unit needle-detected, with a log?

Slow written answers beat fast verbal ones.

What Sampling Looks Like

Sampling starts when spec and materials are confirmed, not when the enquiry arrives. From that point we need about 7 days for a pre-production sample.

Check the sample against the sheet, not the photo: dimensions, fill distribution after a shake, corner seams, quilting symmetry, label position, shell behaviour after one wash. Send it back marked up, with photos.

Labels and retail packing run alongside sampling under our OEM and private label program, so bulk is not the first look at your branding.

MOQ and Trial Orders

Our typical OEM MOQ is around 300 pieces, confirmed per order once material, colour, size, construction and packaging are fixed. Dye lots move that number more than sewing time does.

For a first order, keep one size, one colour, one packing format. It gives a clean read on sell-through and a clean reorder.

Quality Control and Inspections

Checks run during production: panels before filling, filled units before closing, finished pieces before packing. Two needle detection machines cover every filled unit that leaves the line.

Buyer-appointed third-party inspection and laboratory testing can be arranged. If your channel requires a test protocol, name it in the tech pack.

Shipping Terms and Packing

Settle packing before booking freight. Roll and vacuum packing change carton dimensions, and those dimensions decide container fill. Confirm the carton mark format and whether the retail carton must be shelf-ready.

Bulk runs about 30 days from signed sample, confirmed order and materials in hand. Transit is separate. Work backwards from your in-store date and keep one inspection round in reserve.

FAQ