About EXW Inquiry File & Proforma Invoice PI for Solution #5

(FSC means FreeShoppingChina.com)

If you are using our purchasing service only under EXW trade terms and use your own shipping forwarder's consolidation and shipping service(Solution #5), you will see the link of "Download Inquiry File" in the bottom of product list in the shopping cart page.

The reasons why there is such an extra step are because of the following two points:
1. There will be only one simple payment instead of two payments when you only use our purchasing service without shipping, which is different from other solutions. The PI will help you know how much you need to pay.
2. Some banks may also ask for inquiry and PI records to prove the deals are real, to meet the conditions and regulations from the Chinese government.

Important: Steps You Need to Follow

Step1. Find the products on 1688.com and add them into the FSC system's shopping cart.
This is the basic step that you find what you want to buy and add them into the FSC system's shopping cart.

Step2. Download the inquiry file and send it to FSC customer service, along with your receiver info(Company name must be included if you are going to make transfer with a company bank account)
In the bottom of product list in shopping cart page, you will need to download the inquiry file by clicking the "Download Inquiry File" link. It's a .xls excel sheet document. After that, you need to send an email to service@FreeShoppingChina.com with the following content:
1.) Your company name, your name, your address and telephone number. (If you are purchasing for a company, the company name must be the same as that in your bank account. Don't use a third party company to make the payments to avoid money laundry suspection, except it's wise.com or other professional payment company. Please contact service@freeshoppingchina.com for confirmation if you insist on using a third party company to make the payments. If you are doing personal business, you can ignore the company name.)
2.) The inquiry file you downloaded.

Step3. Receive the PI from FSC and make the payment accordingly.

After you send the inquiry email, FSC will reply to you with a proforma invoice, including the amount you need to pay and the payment methods. You can make the payment according to the PI.(Important: Please write a remark in the bank transfer transaction with this content: Payment for goods in PI No.xxxxx. "xxxx" will be replaced with the real PI No. which you can find in the PI.)

Once the payment is made, please also send the payment proof like a bank's note, or a screenshot of the transfer details to our customer service mailbox service@FreeShoppingChina.com. It's also suggested that you add a record in the "Add Fund" page in the FSC system.

Step4. Submit the orders for purchasing and track the orders' status.
After the payment is successfully received by FSC, FSC will top up the received amount to your member account balance in CNY currency. And you can then submit your orders in the shopping cart to FSC's purchasing queue. Those orders will be processed by FSC purchasers after that, and you can track the order status in the "My Orders" page. Once the orders are shipped out by the suppliers, there will be domestic shipping tracking numbers shown to you, which you can use to track the trip from suppliers to your forwarder.

Step5. Contact your forwarder for consolidation and shipping.
When all of the items are delivered to your forwarder, you can contact your forwarder to check the packages with the domestic tracking numbers and consolidate the items for shipping. This step is between you and your forwarder. FSC will not participate in it except you request FSC to as a value added service.

FAQs for EXW Inquiry File & Proforma Invoice(PI)

What is EXW?
It's a trade term: Ex-works, which is also called EXW. It defines that the items will be delivered to buyer in factories. However, here we just extend it to the items' delivery to your forwarder's warehouse to make the things more convenient. For large items, items' delivery in factories'/supplier's warehouse is also supported. For more detailed explanation of EXW, please google it to read more.

Why & When is the Inquiry File & Proforma Invoice(PI) required?
As described above, it will only be required when you only use our purchasing service under EXW trade term(Solution #5). With the inquiry file and PI, we will make a deal with only one total payment instead of 2 payments to simplify the payment jobs and save payment transaction fee cost(Banks may charge 35-50USD for each T/T transaction). And they will also be a part of the materials we need to submit to the banks for review for real deals.

How shall I send the inquiry?
Please follow the step #2 to step #4 as described above to send the inquiries to FSC customer service and make payments.

What is included in the inquiry?
You will need to send the inquiry via email with your company name, address, contact, along with the inquiry file you download from the shopping cart page. The inquiry file will include the item ID, item name, item price from supplier, quantity, color/size options, and domestic shipping fee.

What is included in the proforma invoice (PI)?
FSC will add the commission to the item price as a new price and generate a proforma invoice accordingly. The domestic shipping cost may also be changed slightly according to FSC's experience. So, the following will be included in the PI: FSC company info, your company info, PI No., item names, color/size/qty, prices, domestic shipping fees, total amount, trade term, payment methods, etc.

The item prices and domestic shipping fees in the PI are not the final accurate amounts, but the close amounts. In the purchasing process, the suppliers may have different final prices(may be higher or lower prices, which you will have a second chance to decide to purchase or give up later) and adjust the domestic shipping fees, which depends on the suppliers. So the final amounts can only be known after all the orders are placed to the suppliers. But don't worry, FSC's system will record all of the detailed expenses for you to look up any time. Everything will be clear, with no hidden expense. And the PI amounts are of above 95% accuracy for most orders.

Why are the prices in the proforma invoice(PI) different from those in the inquiry file?
The prices in the inquiry file are the original prices from suppliers, not including FSC's commission.In PI, FSC's commission will be added on top of the original prices and domestic shipping fees will also be adjusted based on FSC's experience. So the amounts will be slightly higher than those in the inquiry file. It's just an estimated amount to make the payments easier.

What if the amount in the proforma invoice is different from the amount of the final order?
In the purchasing process, there may be different cases: some item prices may need to be adjusted; some orders may be canceled; users may want to add some urgent orders; domestic shipping fees may need to be adjusted. All of those cases will make the real final amount different from that in the proforma invoice. If the amount is shorter than real cost after the final settlement, you can pay the short part together with your next purchase; if there is an extra amount left after the final settlement, it will still be your money kept in your member account balance and you can use it for your next purchase.

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