When a retailer asks for a spec sheet, they ask for the weight. It is the reflex, and it is a beginner's mistake that suppliers are in no hurry to correct. Here is why, and what to ask for instead.
First, net weight or gross weight?
A supplier can give you two weights for the same piece, and the gap is not trivial. Net weight is the furniture. Gross weight is the parcel, packaging included.
Across our range the gap is remarkably steady: three kilos on average, between two and a half and three and a half depending on the piece. An armchair quoted at 22.5 kilos leaves at 25, a sofa given as 63 weighs 66 on the dock.
As a percentage it runs from five to eleven percent, and it shows most on small pieces. A supplier who gives you the net figure without saying so makes the product look lighter than it travels. Always ask which of the two you are being given.
But on sea freight that weight barely matters
Sea freight does not charge by the kilo. It charges on whichever is worse between actual weight and volume converted into weight. On groupage the usual rule is that one cubic metre counts as one tonne.
Apply it to a compressed sofa. Our three seater takes 0.33 cubic metres, so 330 kilos of chargeable weight against 66 real ones. The armchair, at 0.14 cubic metres, gives 140 chargeable against 25 real.
Across the range, chargeable volume is four to six times the real weight. In other words: you always pay for volume, never for weight. Those three kilos of packaging change nothing on your freight invoice.
The number to ask for is the carton volume
Ask for the outer carton dimensions and its volume in cubic metres. That figure drives your freight, your pieces per container and your storage plan.
For scale, our cartons run from 0.14 cubic metres for an armchair to 0.33 for a three seater sofa, which is 110 by 35 by 35 centimetres at one end and 135 by 45 by 45 at the other.
A supplier who knows the job gives those three dimensions without hesitating. One who has to go and look them up has not shipped enough to be a safe partner.
Where weight really does matter
It matters on handling. Twenty five kilos can be carried alone, sixty six cannot. That is a staffing and safety question in your stockroom, not a transport cost.
It matters on the last mile, where many carriers charge by weight rather than volume. The rule therefore flips between the container and the van.
And it matters for your racking: shelving has a load rating, and stacking sixty six kilo cartons is not the same as stacking twenty five kilo ones.
The three figures to insist on before ordering
Outer carton dimensions and volume. This is the figure that drives freight and pieces per container.
Gross weight, stated explicitly as gross. This is the one that concerns your team and your final delivery.
Packages per piece. Many corner models arrive in two or three cartons, which changes both the loading calculation and your receiving time.