How to Start a Private Label Product from China: Step by Step

Last fact-checked: November 9, 2026.

A typical case

2,000 storage bins, the factory's existing mold, your wordmark on the lid and on the carton. FOB Ningbo. One LCL shipment to a warehouse you control, not to a marketplace yet. The unit price on the chat looks finished. It is not. The chat does not say which version of the logo, which color chip, who owns the print screen, or what happens if the lid gap is wider than the sample.

Private label from China means you sell their product under your brand. The moment you change the product, you have left this path. That fork is the point of ODM, OEM, and private label. This page is the order of work when you stay on the brand-and-pack side.

Search the mark before anyone cuts a screen

The factory will print what you send. They will not search the register in the country where you sell. A mark that is free to use on a Ningbo sign can still be taken in the United States or the European Union.

Start with the office that covers the sale, not with a supplier slide. The USPTO basics page separates trademark, patent, and copyright. EUIPO is the EU trade mark office. If you want one filing to reach several countries, read the Madrid System and WIPO's trademark introduction. A search is not a clearance opinion. It is the minimum before you pay for tooling that only your logo can use.

Write down the exact word, the exact logo file, and the product class you searched. When the art changes, search again. Version 3 of a wordmark is a different file.

Freeze their product, then your pack

Ask for the specification they already use: material, dimensions, color, what they test, what they do not test. Attach your changes as a short list. For the bins that list is the logo position, the color chip, the carton print, and the insert. It is not a new lid hinge.

If a buyer later asks for a tighter lid, stop. That is a product change. It needs a drawing and it needs the OEM conversation. Keeping the private-label name on a changed product is how the inspection arrives with nothing to measure.

One sample becomes the reference

Buy a counter sample of their current bin before you talk about art. You need to know the gap, the smell, and the wall thickness you are about to put your name on. Then buy the development piece with your logo. The piece you sign is the pre-production sample: same material, same print process, same carton you intend to ship.

Sign a note, not a feeling. The note lists color, logo version, pack version, and the defects you will not accept. You keep one sealed bin. They keep one. The inspector later uses those, not the photo in the chat. The rounds and the cost lines are in product samples from China. You can also start that file from the sample order page.

Quantity and defects in the same order

Their MOQ is often the quantity that fills the print setup or the carton they already run. A lower number is a negotiation, not a right. Ask what the number pays for, and do not trade away the defect list to get it. That trade is the whole point of negotiating MOQ without losing the spec.

The CISG, in UNCITRAL's description, expects the goods to match the quantity and quality in the contract. Write both. "About 2,000, good quality" is neither.

For a lot this size, name the sampling plan before production, not after the cartons are closed. How to hire the person who pulls the sample is in third-party inspection in China. The balance payment is a commercial term. The International Trade Administration's payment page is the official tour of the methods. Pick one, and do not release the balance because a forwarder said the warehouse is full.

Release bulk only after the note is signed

The sequence that keeps the bins boring, which is what you want:

1. Search the mark where you will sell.
2. Accept their product spec, and list only the brand and pack changes.
3. Approve one pre-production sample and store it.
4. Put quantity, delivery, and defect classes on the order.
5. Inspect the packed lot against that sample.
6. Pay the balance against the result you agreed, not against a loading photo.

What goes wrong on a first private label

• The logo is tooled, then a distributor in your own country already owns the word. The screen is scrap. The register was public the whole time.
• The carton says "food safe" or "unbreakable" because the designer liked the phrase. You now have a claim. Take it off unless you have the support.
• The factory substitutes a cheaper lid resin after the sample, same color, different gap. Without a signed sample and a material note, you will argue from a photograph.
• You inspect friendly cartons by the door. The lot is 2,000. The sample has to come from the lot. That rule of sampling is why the inspection page points at ISO 2859-1 instead of a percentage you invent.

If you want this run handled as a branded order rather than a one-off chat, the service page is private label. The brief is the RFQ.

Questions before the first deposit

Do I need a trademark registration before the sample?

You need the search before the screen. Registration takes longer than a sample. Do not wait for a certificate to order a counter sample of their current bin. Do not cut a logo tool for a word you have not searched.

Can I switch factories on order two and keep the product?

You can keep your art. You cannot take their mold. If the bin shape is what your customers reorder, order two is a new factory's bin unless you paid for a tool and the contract says you can move it.

Is a marketplace barcode the same as private label?

No. A barcode identifies a listing. Private label is the brand on their product. If the goods will go to Amazon, the sticker rules are a different article: shipping from China to Amazon FBA.

The production file next to this one is an NNN agreement versus an NDA, the purchase contract, tooling and mold ownership, and trademarks before production.

Official sources

• USPTO trademark, patent, and copyright basics.
• EUIPO trade marks.
• WIPO Madrid System.
• UNCITRAL on the CISG.
• International Trade Administration, methods of payment.