Container Direct Order Guideline

Container Direct Order Guideline

Container Direct is a great way to improve your profitability. As the products will be shipped directly from our factory in China to your warehouse, it eliminates Summerset Casual’s handling, warehousing, and reshipping them. In general, you can expect to save 30% or more compared to ordering from our US warehouse. All this savings will be shown as your additional profit.

How it works: you give us a container PO, that’s calculated to be able to fill in a full container or a multiple of containers. We’ll check with our factory’s manufacturing schedule and come back with an estimated ETD (Estimated Time of Departure) and confirm your order. You then pay us 30% down payment upon which, we start the process. When the order is ready to ship, we’ll seek the best shipping option and pass on the information. Once you approve the shipping method, we’ll book the container and arrange shipping. When the product is delivered to your warehouse, we’ll send you a final invoice with the PO amount + freight + tariff - deposit. You’re expected to pay the balance within 48 hours on receiving the invoice.

Note: the current importing duty is 25% for furniture and 14.5% for covers. We’ll clear your custom for you and, in most cases, we will subsidize this duty due to the Chinse government’s partial reimbursement at our factory. Our subsidization will make this cost 30-50% lower than if you’re to import yourself.

Selection: You can order any (including Container Direct items or non-container direct items) of our products for Container Direct order, except for cushions.

Cushion: The Sunbrella factory in Suzhou, China, has a very limited fabric selection and starting in 2021, they announced 6 months+ lead time for delivery. This makes it an unrealistic option for most of our customers. Therefore, we have arranged to manufacture your cushions in our US facility and ship them separately to you. If you could find other cushion manufacturer at better prices, you’re welcome to go to them for your cushion needs.

In addtion to Sunbrella, we are offering Tempotest, an Italian outdoor fabric brand, with a comparable quality as well as Sunbrella brand for your cushion fabric choice. We intend to stock the following ten fabrics at our US cushion manufacturing facility at all times.

  1. Tempotest - Crackle Granite – 51791/3
  2. Tempotest - Desert Sand – 106
  3. Tempotest - Ocean Blue – 10
  4. Tempotest - Carbone – 986-2
  5. Tempotest - Desert Stripe
  6. Tempotest - Navy – 75
  7. Tempotest - Carbone Stripe – 51352-6
  8. Tempotest - Burgundy – 73/15
  9. Sunbrella – Jockey Red – 5403 0000
  10. Sunbrella – Terra Cotta – 5440 - 0000

Pricing: Frames will be FOB China at 22% MSRP. Cushion will be made and shipped from our US warehouse in Ontario, California, priced at 30% MSRP. Additionally, you’re responsible for all the freight & tariff costs incurred.

Minimum Ordering Quantity (MOQ): for most patio future frames, our factory requires an MOQ of 10 cartons per SKU. For large tables, MOQ can drop to 5 cartons. Please find detail in our CBM Calculator.

Container Size: in general, a container direct order should be able to fill at least one container. You can refer to the following chart for container capacity. Please use our CBM Calculator to quickly find if you have maximized the container capacity.

Container Type

CBM Capacity

40’ HC

62-65 CBM

If you order can’t fill a container, contact our sales rep to see if we can help you. In general, one of the following scenarios could happen:

  1. We can add our stocking products to fill up your container and ship the container to our warehouse in Ontario, California. Once the products are delivered to our warehouse, we’ll separate your order and ship them to your destination. Ocean freight will be split based on CBMs and domestic shipping will be added onto your final invoice.
  2. You can do a LCL (less-than a container load) shipping, in which case your order will be shipped with other goods determined by the shipper. When the vessel hit the port, the shipper will separate the goods by customers and then deliver them separately. This is similar to the above option, but the Summerset is replaced by the shipper. Due to the extra work by the shipper, LCL tends to be a lot more expensive than a full container on a unit-basis. However as long as your CBM is not too low, most times it still makes sense to do this.
  3. We will evaluate the options above and provide a rough quotation (the quotation will expire at the time of shipping and needs to requote on shipping). If none seems reasonable, then we can’t do it.

Lead Time: In general, the lead time for container direct order is 90 days from deposit to delivery. However it may change with season, for example, around Chinese New Year, lead time could be longer than that and in low seasons like September to November, lead time can be shorter. We’ll provide you an estimated ETD/ETA on each container order.

Payment: all container direct order requires a 30% deposit on the PO, with the balance due on delivery.

Putting Order in: Due to the complex nature contact, we ask you to contact your Sales Rep rather than putting in the order on the website yourself. Please have your container order filled in the CBM Calculator when you contact your Rep. Then your Rep will check your order with related parties and come back with an estimated freight costs and ETD. Once you acknowledge it, the order becomes effective.