# Giga Sourcing — full text
> Giga Sourcing is a Dhaka buying house that develops, sources, inspects and ships knit, woven, denim and sweater programmes for brands worldwide.

## Pricing method
FOB price bands are published only when at least three written factory quotes back them. None are published yet; the pricing guide explains the method and the price drivers: https://gigasourcingbd.com/pricing-guide/
Bands are FOB Chattogram, USD per piece, for a stated baseline specification at 500 / 1,000 / 3,000 / 10,000 pieces per style. Each band shows its "updated" date; bands older than 90 days are flagged and older than 180 days are hidden. A band is an indication, not an offer: the quote depends on fabric, trims, wash, quantity and timing. Our service fee is shown separately from the factory band.

## Order process
A first order takes about 14–18 weeks for a first order.
### 1. Brief (Day 1)
- You: Send a tech pack, a reference garment or a sketch, with quantities and your target market.
- Giga Sourcing: Reply in your language within one business day and flag anything missing.
- You receive: Confirmation of what we understood, and any open questions.
### 2. Feasibility & costing (Within 3 business days)
- You: Confirm the spec, quantity and the Incoterm you want priced.
- Giga Sourcing: Check MOQ, fabric and lead-time feasibility and collect written costings from vetted factories.
- Factory: Quotes fabric, cut-make-trim, trims, washes and packing against your spec.
- You receive: A line-by-line cost sheet.
### 3. Quote (Issued with the costing)
- Giga Sourcing: Issue the written quote or costing estimate: price, MOQ, lead time and payment terms.
- You: Review it, ask questions and decide when you are ready.
- You receive: A written quote with price, MOQ, lead time and payment terms.
### 4. Sampling (proto → fit → PP sample) (2–4 weeks)
- Factory: Makes the proto in about 10–14 days on stock fabric, then fit and PP samples in 1–2 week cycles.
- Giga Sourcing: Checks measurements, writes up fit comments and couriers each sample to you.
- You: Approve each sample or send comments. The PP sample becomes the reference for the bulk.
- You receive: Proto, fit and PP samples, with a comment log and a written PP approval.
### 5. Order confirmation & deposit (On PP approval)
- You: Confirm the order and pay the deposit.
- Giga Sourcing: Issue the purchase order to the factory with the approved PP sample and dates, and set the time-and-action calendar.
- Factory: Confirms capacity and delivery dates.
- You receive: Order confirmation and a time-and-action (T&A) calendar.
### 6. Fabric & trims booking (About 3 weeks, overlapping the start of production)
- Giga Sourcing: Books fabric, trims and packaging, tracks their arrival and checks them against the approved swatch.
- Factory: Receives the materials and starts cutting only when they pass.
- You: Approve lab dips and trims before bulk dyeing and printing.
- You receive: Booking confirmation and an incoming-fabric check.
### 7. Production with inline QC (6–9 weeks)
- Factory: Cuts, sews, finishes and packs the lot.
- Giga Sourcing: Runs inline checks against the PP sample and updates the T&A calendar.
- You: Follow milestones in the buyer portal and answer questions quickly.
- You receive: Milestone updates and inline-check notes with dated photos.
### 8. Final inspection (third-party, AQL 2.5) (Before shipment, before the balance is due)
- Inspector: An independent third party samples the lot at AQL 2.5 against the PP sample.
- Giga Sourcing: Books the inspection, shares the report and manages corrective action and re-inspection if the lot fails.
- You: Review the report. The balance is due after the lot has passed.
- You receive: An inspection report with photos and defect counts.
### 9. Shipping & documents (3–6 weeks)
- Giga Sourcing: Books the freight (FOB Chattogram, CIF or DDP), prepares the documents and tracks the shipment.
- Factory: Hands the packed cartons to the forwarder.
- You: Pay the balance against the shipping documents and receive the goods.
- You receive: Commercial invoice, packing list, bill of lading and origin documents, plus tracking.

## Payment terms in brief
Typical terms. Your quote states the exact figures.
- Deposit: Typically 30–50% on order confirmation, after the PP sample is approved.
- Balance: Against shipping documents, after the third-party final inspection has passed.
- Alternative: A letter of credit (LC), a bank guarantee to pay against compliant shipping documents, is common for first orders.

## Glossary
- FOB (Free On Board): An Incoterms rule under which the seller delivers goods on board the vessel named by the buyer at the port of shipment, and the buyer bears cost and risk from that point.
- CIF (Cost, Insurance and Freight): An Incoterms rule under which the seller pays freight and minimum marine insurance to the destination port, while risk passes to the buyer once goods are on board at the port of shipment.
- DDP (Delivered Duty Paid): An Incoterms rule under which the seller delivers goods cleared for import, with duty and taxes paid, to the named place in the buyer’s country.
- EXW (Ex Works): An Incoterms rule under which the seller makes goods available at its own premises and the buyer bears all costs and risks from there, including export clearance.
- FCA (Free Carrier): An Incoterms rule under which the seller delivers goods, cleared for export, to the carrier or other party nominated by the buyer at a named place.
- Incoterms (International Commercial Terms): Standard three-letter trade terms published by the International Chamber of Commerce that allocate costs, risk and clearance duties between buyer and seller.
- CMT (Cut, Make, Trim): The factory’s charge for turning fabric into a garment: cutting, sewing and finishing, usually with the trims supplied or added.
- SAM (Standard Allowed Minute): The time an average trained operator needs to complete a sewing operation or an entire garment at a standard pace, including allowances.
- Landed cost: The total cost per piece of getting a garment to the buyer’s warehouse: FOB price plus freight, insurance, duty, import taxes, clearance and delivery.
- MFN duty (Most Favoured Nation duty): The standard customs duty rate a country applies to imports from other World Trade Organization members when no preference or trade agreement applies.
- AQL (Acceptable Quality Limit): The worst average defect rate a buyer will accept in a lot, used in sampling plans (ISO 2859-1) that tell an inspector how many pieces to check and how many defects are allowed.
- Inline inspection: A quality check carried out during production, while the garments are still being sewn, so that defects can be fixed before the lot is finished.
- Third-party inspection: A quality inspection carried out by an independent company, not the factory or the buyer, who checks the goods against the specification and reports pass or fail.
- Proto sample: The first sample of a style, made to check the pattern, shape and construction, often in a substitute fabric.
- Fit sample: A sample made in the correct fabric or a close match, used to check how the garment fits on a model or form against the measurement chart.
- Size set: A set of samples across the size range, usually the base size plus the smallest and largest, made to check that grading holds up.
- PP sample (Pre-production sample): A sample made in the actual bulk fabric and trims, approved by the buyer before cutting starts, and kept as the reference the bulk order is inspected against.
- TOP sample (Top of production sample): A sample taken from the first pieces off the production line and sent to the buyer to confirm that bulk production matches the approved PP sample.
- Tech pack (Technical package): The specification document for a garment: flat sketches, bill of materials, measurements, construction, colours, artwork, labels and packaging.
- BOM (Bill of Materials): The list of every material in a garment, with specification, supplier, consumption and cost: fabric, thread, trims, labels and packaging.
- POM (Point of Measure): A defined location on a garment where a dimension is measured, such as chest width or sleeve length, together with the method and tolerance.
- Grading: The process of scaling a base-size pattern up and down to produce the other sizes in a range according to set increments.
- Colourway: One colour combination of a style, specifying the shade of each component such as body, trim, thread and print.
- Trims: Every component of a garment other than the main fabric: thread, buttons, zips, labels, drawcords, elastic, interlining and packaging.
- Fabric consumption: The amount of fabric needed to make one garment, including the allowance for cutting waste and end-of-roll loss.
- MOQ (Minimum Order Quantity): The smallest quantity a factory will accept for a style, usually counted per style and per colour.
- Lead time: The time from order confirmation, or from approval of the pre-production sample, to the goods being ready to ship or delivered.
- T&A calendar (Time and Action calendar): A dated plan of every milestone in an order, from fabric booking and sample approvals to inspection and shipment, with planned and actual dates.
- GSM (Grams per Square Metre): A measure of fabric weight: the mass in grams of one square metre of fabric.
- Yarn count: A number that expresses the fineness of a yarn; in cotton’s English count (Ne), a higher number means a finer yarn.
- Ring-spun yarn: Yarn made on a ring-spinning frame, which twists the fibres into a finer, stronger and softer yarn than open-end spinning produces.
- Combed cotton: Cotton that has been combed to remove short fibres before spinning, giving a smoother, stronger and less pill-prone yarn than carded cotton.
- Single jersey: The basic weft-knitted fabric with a smooth face and a looped back, used for most T-shirts.
- French terry: A knitted fabric with a smooth face and loops on the back, used for lightweight sweatshirts and joggers.
- Fleece: A knitted fabric with the back brushed to raise a soft insulating pile, used for hoodies and sweatpants.
- Piqué: A knitted or woven fabric with a small raised texture, usually honeycomb-like, used for polo shirts.
- Selvedge: The self-finished edge of a woven fabric that stops it from fraying, and by extension denim woven on narrow shuttle looms with a visible edge.
- Pantone TCX: A textile colour reference system from Pantone, used to specify a colour for dyeing; TCX refers to the cotton swatch version of the Fashion, Home + Interiors range.
- Lab dip: A small swatch of fabric dyed in a laboratory to match a target colour, submitted for buyer approval before bulk dyeing.
- Strike-off: A small sample of a print or embroidery on the actual fabric, made to check colour, scale and placement before bulk production.
- Dye lot: One batch of fabric dyed together in the same bath, which guarantees consistent colour within the batch but may differ slightly from other lots.
- Shrinkage: The change in a garment’s or fabric’s dimensions after washing and drying, usually expressed as a percentage of the original length and width.
- Colour fastness: The resistance of a fabric’s colour to washing, rubbing, light and perspiration, graded on a 1–5 scale in tests under the ISO 105 series.
- Pilling: The formation of small fibre balls on a fabric surface caused by abrasion in wear and washing.
- Enzyme wash: A garment wash that uses cellulase enzymes to break down protruding fibres, giving a softer handfeel and a smoother surface.
- LC (Letter of Credit): A bank’s written undertaking, issued at the buyer’s request, to pay the seller once the seller presents documents that comply with the credit’s terms.
- Back-to-back LC: A second letter of credit opened by an exporter’s bank in favour of its own suppliers, on the strength of the master LC it received from the buyer.
- BL (Bill of Lading): A document issued by the carrier that acknowledges receipt of goods for shipment, serves as the contract of carriage and, in its original form, can act as a document of title.
- Commercial invoice: The seller’s invoice for the goods, stating parties, description, quantity, unit price, currency and terms, which customs uses to value the shipment.
- Packing list: A document listing the contents of each carton or pallet in a shipment, with quantities by size and colour, and weights and dimensions.
- Certificate of origin: A document issued by an authorised body that certifies the country where goods were produced, used to claim preferential duty or to meet import rules.
- HS code (Harmonized System code): An internationally standardised numeric code for classifying traded goods, whose first six digits are common worldwide and used by customs to set duty and statistics.
- EBA (Everything But Arms): The European Union’s trade arrangement, part of its Generalised Scheme of Preferences, that gives least developed countries duty-free, quota-free access for all products except arms and ammunition.
- GSP (Generalised System of Preferences): A scheme under which developed countries give reduced or zero tariffs to goods from developing countries.
- LDC (Least Developed Country): A country the United Nations classifies as having low income and structural obstacles to sustainable development, based on income, human-assets and vulnerability criteria.
- REX (Registered Exporter system): The European Union’s system in which exporters register in a national database and then make out their own statements on origin to claim GSP preferences.
- Rules of origin: The criteria that decide whether a product counts as originating in a country for purposes of preferential duty.
- FCL / LCL (Full Container Load / Less than Container Load): FCL means a shipment fills a whole container for one buyer; LCL means the shipment shares a container with other buyers’ cargo and is charged by volume or weight.
- CBM (Cubic metre): A cubic metre of cargo volume, the unit used to measure shipments and to price LCL freight.
- Buying house: A company that sources garments for overseas buyers, handling factory selection, costing, sampling, quality control and shipping documents, usually for a commission or service fee.
- BGBA (Bangladesh Garment Buying House Association): The trade association of garment buying houses operating in Bangladesh.
- BGMEA (Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association): The main trade association of Bangladeshi garment manufacturers and exporters.
- Bonded warehouse: A customs-supervised facility that lets an export factory import raw materials such as fabric and trims without paying import duty, provided the goods are exported as finished products.
- Private label: Clothing made by a manufacturer to a brand’s specification and sold under the brand’s own label.
- OEM / ODM (Original Equipment Manufacturer / Original Design Manufacturer): In apparel, OEM means the factory makes garments to the buyer’s own design and tech pack, while ODM means the factory also supplies the design, which the buyer brands.
- RSC (RMG Sustainability Council): The Bangladeshi body that carries out fire, electrical and structural safety inspections and remediation tracking in ready-made-garment factories, continuing the work of the post-Rana Plaza Accord.
- amfori BSCI (amfori Business Social Compliance Initiative): A social compliance programme run by the trade association amfori that audits suppliers against a code of conduct on working conditions.
- WRAP (Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production): A social compliance certification programme for sewn-products factories, based on a set of twelve principles covering labour, health and safety, and environment.
- SMETA (Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audit): An ethical trade audit methodology and report format used on the Sedex platform to share supplier audit results.
- OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100: A certification that tests textile products at every stage of processing for harmful substances, classified into four product classes by skin contact.
- GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard): A certification covering the whole processing chain of textiles made from organic fibres, including environmental and social criteria.
- GRS (Global Recycled Standard): A Textile Exchange standard that verifies recycled content and chain of custody in a product, with social and environmental processing criteria.
- ZDHC (Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals): An industry programme that sets chemical-management guidelines for textile mills and wash plants, including a restricted-substances list and wastewater standards.
- Better Cotton: A cotton sustainability programme that trains farmers and tracks volumes through a mass-balance system, so garments do not necessarily contain physically traceable Better Cotton.
- UFLPA (Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act): A United States law, in force since June 2022, that presumes goods made wholly or in part in Xinjiang, or by listed entities, to be made with forced labour and bars their import unless the importer proves otherwise.