Every industry protects itself with vocabulary, and garment sourcing is worse than most. Here is the whole dictionary a first-time buyer actually needs — each term in plain English, with links to our deeper guides where one exists. Bookmark it; quote it back at suppliers.
Pricing & shipping
| Term | Plain English |
|---|---|
| EXW (Ex Works) | The price at the factory gate — all transport, export paperwork, and risk from there is yours. |
| FOB (Free On Board) | Factory price plus getting the goods onto the ship at the port — the most common quote basis. For Nepal, typically FOB Kolkata. |
| CIF | FOB plus the factory arranges (and bills you for) freight and insurance to your port. |
| CMT (Cut, Make, Trim) | A price for labour only — you supply the fabric. If a quote looks impossibly low, it’s often secretly CMT. |
| Landed cost | The real number: garment price + freight + duty + fees, delivered. Compare suppliers on this, never on FOB alone. |
| LCL / FCL | Less than Container Load (you share a container) vs Full Container Load. LCL costs more per cubic metre. |
Deeper: our Incoterms guide and what a hoodie actually costs.
Production & sampling
| Term | Plain English |
|---|---|
| MOQ | Minimum Order Quantity — the smallest run a factory will produce, usually per style and colour. Ours starts at 1,000. |
| Tech pack | The document that defines your garment: measurements, fabric, construction, trims, placements. Better tech pack, better quote. |
| GSM | Grams per square metre — fabric weight. A 180 gsm tee is a standard tee; 240 gsm is heavyweight. |
| Lab dip | A small fabric sample dyed to match your colour, sent for approval before bulk dyeing. This is how your navy stays your navy. |
| Strike-off | A test print/embroidery on the actual fabric, approved before bulk decoration. |
| PP sample | Pre-production sample — the final garment you sign off before the factory cuts bulk. Nothing should change after it. |
| Dye lot | One batch of dyed fabric. Colour can shift slightly between lots — good factories manage this; reorders should reference the approved standard. |
Deeper: what a tech pack needs, GSM explained, and sample to bulk, step by step.
Quality control
| Term | Plain English |
|---|---|
| AQL | Acceptable Quality Limit — the statistical sampling standard for inspections. AQL 2.5 is the common high-street level; stricter buyers use 1.0–1.5. |
| Inline inspection | Checking garments during production, when problems are still cheap to fix. |
| Final (pre-shipment) inspection | Checking finished, packed goods against an AQL before they ship — the last gate before your money moves. |
| Third-party inspection | An independent firm inspects for you, typically a few hundred dollars a day — cheap insurance on a first order. |
Deeper: our AQL and inspection guide.
Money & paperwork
| Term | Plain English |
|---|---|
| TT | Telegraphic transfer — a bank wire. Standard structure: deposit upfront, balance against shipping documents. |
| LC (Letter of Credit) | Your bank promises payment when the factory presents correct documents — safer for both sides on larger orders. |
| B/L (Bill of Lading) | The document that controls the cargo. Whoever holds the original controls the goods — never released before payment terms are met. |
| CO (Certificate of Origin) | Proof of where the garment was made — the paper that unlocks preferential (0%) duty rates. |
| REX | The EU’s registered-exporter system: the factory self-certifies origin on its invoice for duty-free EU entry. |
| HS code | The global product classification number that decides your duty rate. Knit t-shirts are 6109; sweatshirts and hoodies 6110. |
| EORI | The registration number you need to import commercially into the UK or EU. Free, quick, one-time. |
Deeper: paying a factory safely and how origin rules work.
Vocabulary is leverage. A buyer who asks for “FOB Kolkata, AQL 2.5 final inspection, lab dips before bulk” gets treated differently by every factory on earth — because those five words say you know how this works.
Something missing from this list? Ask us — and if you’re starting from zero, begin with the first-time importer’s guide.