Delivering Bulk Orders to Europe
By The Velocity Wear Team
We deliver bulk orders across Europe, and the production side is the predictable half: 10 to 15 working days from artwork approval. Transit sits on top and varies with the destination, the size of the shipment and the service used. What moves dates unexpectedly is paperwork and import handling, not the making, so confirm the destination details before artwork approval rather than after.
How long does a European delivery take?
Count it as three separate stages rather than one number. Approval to finished goods is the production window. Finished goods to the carrier is packing and collection. Carrier to your door is transit, and that is the stage that varies most — a metropolitan address on a major route clears far faster than a rural one, and a shipment that stops for customs inspection stops for as long as it stops. Build a buffer for the third stage specifically, because it is the one nobody controls.
If the order is for a fixed date — a conference, a season opener, a launch — tell us the date at quote stage rather than the quantity alone. It changes the advice you get about when artwork has to be locked, and it is far cheaper to adjust a schedule than to expedite a shipment.
What paperwork travels with the order?
A commercial invoice describing the goods, their value and their origin, plus a packing list. The description matters more than people expect: vague wording on an invoice is a common reason a shipment is held for clarification. Make sure the consignee details on the paperwork exactly match the business receiving the goods, including the registered name and any tax registration number, because a mismatch between the invoice and the receiving entity causes delays that have nothing to do with clothing.
Who pays duty and import charges?
That depends on the terms agreed, and it should be agreed explicitly rather than assumed. Import charges are a real part of your landed cost, and a quote that looks competitive before they are counted can look ordinary afterwards. Ask for the shipping to be quoted as its own line, ask who is named as importer, and work out the total figure before you approve anything. The invoice side of that is covered in paying for a bulk clothing order, including the seven currencies we can bill in.
Whoever is named as importer needs to be set up to act as one. If your business has never imported before, check that in advance — a company discovering its registration status on the day a pallet arrives is the most avoidable delay in this whole process. Details of the range being shipped are on the wholesale page.
What should you confirm before approving artwork?
The full delivery address including any site access restrictions, the receiving hours, and who will physically be there to sign for a pallet. A bulk clothing order is not a parcel; it may arrive on a pallet requiring a forklift or a tail lift, and a delivery that cannot be accepted goes back to a depot and waits. Confirm the contact name and a phone number that someone answers. Then confirm the spec itself, because everything above is wasted if the garments are wrong — a sample settles that before the run, and delivering bulk orders to the USA covers the equivalent checks for a transatlantic shipment.
