Poly9 AI · Guide for export makers

Quote FOB from your own cost rules

Your FOB quote tells the buyer what you will make the product for, loaded at your port, built to the specification they asked for. If the material, finish or quantity is not in your book yet, say price on request. Never invent freight or duty as a certified number.

Published 18 September 2026

An FOB quote is the price of the product packed for export and loaded on the ship at your named port, priced from your own cost recipe in your own currency. Quote it from rules you have approved. When a material, finish, quantity or Incoterm is not in those rules, return price on request rather than a guess.

Answer, configure, price: in that order.

A buyer asks: "Can you do this credenza in walnut, 180 cm, with soft-close drawers, FOB Mumbai?" First, you answer the feasibility: yes, or custom only. Then you configure what is being quoted: walnut grade A, the dimensions, soft-close runners, your standard crate. Then you price from your approved recipe: material cost per square metre, labour hours, hardware, packaging, markup, FOB port.

If any variable is missing or uncertain, you have not priced walnut grade A yet, or 180 cm is outside your jig, you return price on request and explain what you need to lock the number.

That is Poly9 AI's pricing rule: a certified price from your loaded rules, or POR with a reason. No guessed freight. No invented duty percentage. The trust you build with a buyer comes from saying "I don't have that finish loaded yet; give me until tomorrow", not from returning a number you cannot fulfil.

The checklist

What to load before you quote FOB

Build your cost recipe once. Quote a thousand variations from that recipe. Add rules as you price new materials, not as you guess.

Ten lines of the cost recipe

  • Base material costs. Brass per kg, oak per cubic metre, fabric per yard, whatever your suppliers invoice you in, with a tolerance band for fluctuation.
  • Finish recipes. Labour hours or outsource cost per finish type. Powder coat, hand-rubbed oil and electroplating each cost something different. If you offer a finish, load the delta.
  • Hardware and fittings. Drawer runners, hinges, legs, glass shelves: any component the buyer can add or swap. Unit cost plus the labour to fit it where that applies.
  • Size or dimensional logic. Linear pricing for cabinetry, square metres for upholstery fabric, diameter bands for lighting. If your cost scales with dimension, encode that rule.
  • MOQ thresholds. Cost per unit at each MOQ tier. Buyers ask "what if I double the order?", and you should know before they ask.
  • Packaging and crate cost. Standard carton, wooden crate, foam inserts, export-grade packaging. It is a real line of the recipe; do not bury it in markup guesswork.
  • FOB port and loading cost. Which port (Mumbai, Nhava Sheva, Shenzhen), and what it costs you to get the crated product onto the ship. Inland transport to port goes here.
  • Markup band. Your target markup as a percentage or a fixed amount. A recipe with markup built in means you can adjust it for negotiation without breaking the quote.
  • Currency rules. If you cost in INR and quote in USD or EUR, load exchange-rate bands or a manual override with its last-update date. Buyers trust a rate with a date over a mystery number.
  • What triggers POR. Document for your team when you do not quote a number: custom engineering, unpriced materials, below-MOQ requests, DDP terms you do not model.

Quote only the Incoterms you can fulfil.

FOB (Free on Board)

Your product, packaged for export, loaded on the ship at your named port. The buyer arranges and pays for ocean freight, insurance and customs. This is the cleanest quote for most makers because you control everything up to the ship. State the port: "FOB Mumbai" or "FOB Shenzhen".

CIF (Cost, Insurance, Freight)

You pay for ocean freight and insurance to the buyer's destination port, but the buyer still handles customs and import duty. Only quote CIF if you have reliable freight and insurance contracts and can update the quote when rates change.

DDP (Delivered Duty Paid)

You pay everything: freight, insurance, customs, duty and delivery to the buyer's door. This is the most risk for the maker because you own the import variables (tariff codes, duty rates, customs delays). Only quote DDP if a freight partner gives you locked rates and handles the customs paperwork.

Poly9 AI default

FOB your port, with an optional indicative freight line labelled "estimated, not binding" if the buyer asks. If they want DDP and you do not have the rules loaded, return POR and offer to coordinate a binding DDP quote with your freight partner.

Price on request builds trust.

You are at a trade show. A buyer asks for a custom size you have never made, in a finish you just launched and have not costed yet. You have two paths.

Path 1, the guessed price

You scale your standard unit price by a factor that feels right and say a number. Weeks later, after costing with your supplier, the real number is higher. You tell the buyer the price went up. They walk. You lose the order and the relationship.

Path 2, price on request

You say: "That is a custom size and the new bronze finish; let me confirm the cost with my supplier and my jig setup. I will have a locked FOB number for you by tomorrow morning." You send the quote with the full specification. The buyer knows it is real. They negotiate at a higher MOQ. You close.

Experienced buyers respect POR. What they do not respect is a quote that changes after they have presented it to their client. Price on request means: I am getting you the right number, not a fast guess.

Setup in Poly9 AI

Load FOB rules once, quote from anywhere.

Poly9 AI does not ask you to price every SKU by hand. You load your cost recipes, material plus labour plus finish plus packaging plus markup plus port, as rules. When a buyer asks for a walnut credenza, 180 cm, soft-close, FOB Mumbai, Poly9 AI runs the recipe: walnut by the area, the soft-close hardware line, the standard crate, your markup, inland transport to Mumbai. The answer is a certified FOB number because every input was in your book.

If the buyer then asks for teak instead of walnut, and you have not loaded teak yet, Poly9 AI returns POR and tells you: "Teak not in material book." You add the teak cost, regenerate, and send the updated quote, all tracked on the same link.

  1. 01

    Upload your catalog or product line

    SKUs, dimensions, materials, finishes, standard configurations.
  2. 02

    Define cost recipes for each product family

    Poly9 AI asks for material inputs, labour rates, hardware options, packaging type and FOB port. You fill those in once per family: all credenzas, all dining tables.
  3. 03

    Set your markup and currency rules

    Default markup, the exchange rate if you quote in USD or EUR from an INR cost base, and MOQ pricing bands where they apply.
  4. 04

    Mark what triggers POR

    Tell Poly9 AI: a dimension outside your range returns POR. A finish that is not loaded returns POR. A quantity below MOQ that the buyer has not agreed returns POR.
  5. 05

    Test with a sample buyer question

    Ask the question you get at every show: "What is your FOB for this dining table, 240 cm, walnut?" Verify the math. Adjust the recipe if needed. Now it is live.
  6. 06

    Quote from anywhere

    The buyer asks on WhatsApp, at the booth, in an email. You or your sales team ask Poly9 AI, it runs the recipe, returns the FOB or POR, you send. The quote is logged, tracked and revisable.

When your brass supplier raises prices, you update one line in the material book and every brass product recalculates. That is the power of rules over pricing SKUs one at a time.

FOB quoting questions answered

What if my freight cost changes weekly?
State the FOB port and let the buyer source freight, or quote indicative freight with its last-update date and a disclaimer. Never present estimated freight as a locked certified price. If a buyer needs a binding freight line, return price on request and get a rate from your forwarder.
Can I quote in several currencies for the same product?
Yes. Poly9 AI supports multi-currency rules, so you can show FOB Mumbai in USD for US buyers and in EUR for European buyers, each calculated from your base cost currency and the exchange-rate band you loaded, with the date of the rate visible.
When should I use price on request instead of an FOB number?
Use POR whenever the material or finish requested is not in your cost book yet, the quantity is below your normal MOQ and you need to negotiate, the customisation needs engineering review, or the buyer asks for DDP terms you have not modelled. POR is trust, not a failure.
Do buyers expect FOB or landed cost in the first quote?
Experienced import buyers expect FOB from makers. State your FOB port. DDP and CIF quotes require you to own the freight, insurance and customs variables, so only quote them if you have reliable rules for those costs and a partner who honours them.
How detailed should my cost recipe be?
Your cost recipe is internal; the buyer sees the FOB quote, not the breakdown. Build it detailed enough to adjust when material costs shift: brass per kg, finish labour hours, packaging per unit, a markup band. Then one material price update recalculates every brass SKU.
What if the buyer negotiates after seeing the FOB?
Negotiation is normal, and your approved rules are the starting point. If the buyer wants a lower number, you decide: adjust the markup within your band, remove a finish option to simplify, or agree a higher MOQ to reduce unit cost. Never call the original quote a guess afterwards.

Load your FOB rules once.

Create your account, upload your catalog, define your cost recipes, and quote from your rules, or say price on request when the rule is missing. 250 sales actions free for 30 days, no card, and the account stays yours.

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