Sep 14, 2026Business Solutions
Landed Cost vs Unit Price: What a Quote Should Show
Two suppliers can quote the same unit price and land your order at different costs. The six lines a delivered-cost quote should itemize, and the terms to name.
A landed cost is the total you pay to get iPhone and Galaxy cases from the factory to your own warehouse, duty and inland legs included. Compare suppliers on unit price alone and you are comparing incomplete numbers. Ask for the delivered breakdown instead, in writing, with the trade terms named.
Last updated: September 14, 2026.
Why a Unit Price Cannot Be Compared
An iPhone case unit price tells you what one case costs at the factory gate, and nothing about what it costs on your shelf.
Two suppliers can quote the same unit price and land your order at different total costs, because the parts of the bill that move are not the case itself. Carton volume, port choice, duty rate, and the distance from your port to your warehouse all shift the total, and none of them appear on a unit-price line. Buyers who compare only that line are choosing between two unknown totals and calling the smaller one cheaper.
A landed cost is a different figure, and it is the one your margin is actually calculated on.
EXW, FOB, and DDP: Who Carries What
Trade terms decide where a supplier's responsibility ends, and that boundary is what you are really comparing.
EXW, or ex works, means the goods are yours at the factory. You arrange collection, export clearance, freight, and import. FOB, or free on board, means the supplier delivers to the named port of departure and loads; from that point the ocean leg and everything after it are yours. DDP, or delivered duty paid, means the supplier handles the whole journey including duty, and you receive the goods at an agreed destination.
None of these terms is better in the abstract. EXW gives you control and usually a lower quoted figure; DDP gives you one number and less work. The mistake is comparing a DDP quote from one supplier against an EXW quote from another, which is not a comparison at all.
The Lines a Delivered Quote Should Show
A complete quote itemizes the journey, and asking for the itemization is a reasonable request rather than a difficult one.
The first line is the case price at origin, stated with the finish, the print method, and the packaging level. Each of those changes the price, and a figure quoted without them is not yet a price. The second line is packaging, kept separate from the case, because retail-ready packaging is a production step rather than a free addition. The third is inland transport to the port of departure. The fourth is the freight itself, which belongs with the carton plan described below. The fifth is duty, clearance, and any import fees for your destination country, which vary widely by market and cannot be read off a unit price. The sixth is the final leg to your warehouse.
A supplier who can itemize those six lines is telling you something about how they work. A supplier who can only give one figure is asking you to take the breakdown on trust.
Why Carton Dimensions and Gross Weight Belong in the Quote
Freight on a light, bulky product is billed on volume rather than weight, so a quote without carton dimensions is half a quote.
Cases fill a carton by volume long before they reach its weight limit, which means the chargeable figure is driven by how tightly a supplier packs. A slim build and a rugged build of the same phone land in different cartons: compare our clear MagSafe case for iPhone 18 Pro Max with our slide camera-cover armor case, and the packed volume per unit is not the same figure. Add a thicker profile such as our RFID card-holder case and the carton changes again.
Ask each supplier for pieces per carton, carton dimensions, and gross weight. With those three figures you can work out the chargeable weight yourself and compare suppliers on one basis. We have written before about how volume weight is calculated and how compact packing lowers it, because packing is one of the few freight costs a factory can genuinely influence.
Where Buyers Get Burned on Terms
Three patterns account for most of the surprises.
The first is comparing quotes in different terms. An EXW figure will usually look lower than a DDP figure, and the gap is the freight and duty you would pay anyway. The second is accepting a duty estimate from a supplier who is not clearing your goods. Duty depends on your country's tariff treatment of the product and on your importer status, and a factory guessing that number is not the same as a broker confirming it. The third is forgetting that packaging choices are quoted rather than assumed, so moving from a plain polybag to a printed retail box changes both the case price and the carton fill.
The discipline that avoids all three is the same one: ask for the itemized delivered cost, in writing, with the terms named.
Common Questions From Buyers
Should I compare suppliers on EXW or DDP?
Compare them in the same terms, whichever you choose. If you have import experience and your own forwarder, EXW or FOB gives you control and often a lower total. If you would rather have one number and one party responsible to your door, ask for DDP and compare DDP to DDP. Mixing the two is where the comparison breaks.
What if a supplier will not quote DDP?
A supplier declining DDP is common and not automatically a warning. Many factories sell ex works and leave freight to your forwarder. If you want DDP and the supplier cannot offer it, ask your own forwarder to quote the missing legs, so you still end up with a delivered figure before you commit to anything.
How do I check a carton plan before ordering?
Ask for pieces per carton, carton dimensions, and gross weight for your exact models and finish, then check them against the volume your own warehouse or marketplace charges you on. Those three figures turn a vague quote into something you can verify. A sample shipment is the cheapest way to confirm the plan before a full order.
What to Do Next
We quote our cases with the itemization above, and we can produce it in EXW or DDP terms so you are comparing like with like. We do not publish a freight rate here, because the same order lands at different costs depending on lane, season, and carton plan, and a rate quoted without your destination is a guess rather than a price.
Tell us your models, finishes, target quantity, and the city your goods must reach, and we will return a delivered-cost breakdown with the carton plan attached.
Send us your destination and models and we will return an itemized delivered-cost quote with the carton plan.
Apple, iPhone, Samsung, and Galaxy are trademarks of their respective owners, used solely to indicate compatibility. iFunSmart is an independent manufacturer of phone cases and accessories.
