What should you agree before your first jewelry order goes into production?
Almost every dispute on a first jewelry order traces back to something that was never written down. None of the items below costs anything to agree in advance, and each of them is expensive to argue about once a container has shipped.
Specification
| Item | Wrong | Right |
|---|---|---|
| Alloy | "Stainless steel" | 316L to ASTM A276, mill certificate for the batch |
| Brass grade | "Brass" | C2600, lead-free — explicitly not C3604 |
| Plating thickness | "18k gold plated" | Gold, 1.0 µm, over a nickel-free barrier |
| Barrier layer | Unstated | Palladium or copper strike for EU / pierced-ear items |
| Finish | "Polished" | Mirror / satin / bead-blast, against an approved sample |
| Dimensions | "Same as the sample" | Dimensioned drawing with tolerances |
| Sizing | Total quantity only | Distribution by size, stated explicitly |
| Weight | Unstated | Target weight with tolerance — it sets the metal cost |
Plating thickness is the specification most often quietly reduced to hit a target price, and the one a buyer cannot detect on arrival without XRF measurement.
Commercial terms
| Item | Why it causes disputes | What to write |
|---|---|---|
| MOQ basis | Per style or per colour is a large difference | X pcs per style, per plating colour |
| Tooling cost | Amortised tooling makes reorders inexplicably expensive | Quoted as a separate one-off line |
| Tooling ownership | Determines whether you can move supplier | Buyer owns it; no second charge on reorder |
| Design ownership | Especially for ODM work | Buyer owns; exclusivity term stated |
| Incoterm | Ex-works and delivered prices differ substantially | Named incoterm in the quotation |
| Payment schedule | Assumed rather than agreed | Written stages tied to milestones |
| Lead time basis | Whether tooling time is included | Tooling, sampling and production stated separately |
Quality and compliance
| Item | Default if unstated | What to write |
|---|---|---|
| AQL | Undefined — "strict QC" | AQL 2.5 major / 4.0 minor, ISO 2859-1 level II |
| Defect classes | Argued after arrival | Written definitions of critical, major and minor |
| Inspection report | May not be produced | Report travels with the shipment |
| Remedy on failure | Negotiated under pressure | Affected quantity remade at supplier cost, freight included |
| Compliance standards | Assumed | Named standards for the destination market |
| Testing scope | Body only | Body, coatings and all bought-in findings |
| Batch coverage | One report reused | Which batches are tested, and who pays |
Findings — clasps, posts, jump rings, extenders — are where compliant-looking pieces most often fail testing, because they are frequently bought in from a different sub-supplier.
The order to do it in
Sequence matters, because several of these decisions constrain the ones after them.
- Destination market first. It sets the compliance route, which constrains the material and the plating barrier.
- Material second. It constrains the forming process — 316L cannot be cast finely, zinc cannot take PVD.
- Process third. It sets the tooling cost and the minimum viable quantity.
- Quantity and finish count fourth. Colour count multiplies batches faster than style count multiplies tooling.
- Then quote, sample and inspect.
Working in the other direction — picking a design, then a quantity, then discovering the material cannot meet the destination market's nickel limit — is how first orders get remade.
Questions on this
Each answer stands alone and can be read without the rest of the article.
What is the most commonly forgotten item on a first jewelry order?
Plating thickness in microns. Buyers specify the colour and the karat appearance and leave the thickness to the supplier, which means it becomes the variable used to hit a target price. A 0.1 µm and a 1.0 µm piece are visually identical on arrival and diverge completely after a month of wear, and only XRF measurement tells them apart.
Should I agree the AQL before or after sampling?
Before — ideally in the purchase order alongside the price. AQL sets the acceptance criteria for the whole lot, and agreeing it after production has run means negotiating a standard while one party already holds the goods. The defect class definitions matter as much as the AQL number, because most disputes are about whether something is major or minor.
Who should pay for compliance testing?
It is negotiable and should be settled at quotation stage rather than assumed. What matters more than who pays is which batches are covered — a single report from a first order is evidence of capability, not proof of compliance for later runs, because plating chemistry and layer thickness vary between batches.
How much should I budget beyond the unit price?
Tooling ($30–2,500 depending on mold type), sampling, compliance testing where the market requires it, packaging, freight, insurance and import duty. On a small first order these can approach or exceed the value of the goods, which is why the incoterm and the tooling line need to be explicit before you compare two suppliers on unit price alone.
What should I do if the sample is right but the production run is not?
Hold the lot against the agreed AQL and defect definitions, and invoke the remedy that was written into the purchase order — normally the affected quantity remade at supplier cost including freight. This only works if the standard and the definitions were agreed in advance, which is the entire argument for writing them down.
Not answered here? All buyer questions →
Sources
Where the standards and legal limits quoted above are published, so a reader can check them at the issuer rather than taking this article's word.
| Designation | Published by | What it specifies |
|---|---|---|
| ISO 2859-1 | ISO | Sampling plans indexed by acceptance quality limit (AQL) for lot-by-lot inspection |
| ASTM A276 | ASTM International | Stainless steel bars and shapes — the 316L composition limits |
Every figure on this page traceable to one of these can be checked against the published standard rather than taken on our word.
Put this into a quotation
Send the design, the material and the quantity. You get an itemised price with the tooling separated out, the plating specified in microns, and the compliance route for your market.
- 01Reply within one working day, Guangdong business hours.
- 02Itemised cost sheet — mold quoted separately, not folded into the unit price.
- 03NDA on request before any file is shared.