What to Order Before Chinese New Year (and What to Wait On)

Start with what you need before replenishment can arrive

Assess whether you can remain supplied until a post-holiday order has been produced, checked, shipped, cleared and delivered. Use this approach for a personal custom purchase, shop replenishment or business production inputs.

Maersk's guidance for the 2026 holiday describes disruption to production, workforce availability and transport. Use that context to check your own supply chain rather than assume a universal shutdown timetable.

For calendar details, use Chinese New Year factory closure dates. For counting production time, see working-day lead times around China holidays. The decisions below are practical purchasing recommendations, not statutory deadlines.

What should you order early, and what can wait?

Prioritise the consequence of running out and the difficulty of replacing the item. Assess dependencies as well as product categories: check whether missing packaging would prevent production or dispatch.

Consider whether an early commitment should cover tooling or materials rather than shipment of the entire finished order before closure. Agree the actual milestone and what your payment secures.

Set safety stock from the replenishment gap

Estimate demand from now until the next realistic replenishment reaches you. Use your sales history, confirmed customer orders or planned consumption, then assess a scenario with a slower restart or delayed shipment.

For planning, calculate the purchase requirement as expected demand until replenishment, plus your chosen safety stock, minus usable stock and confirmed incoming quantities available in time. If the result is negative, use zero as the additional requirement. Exclude damaged stock, quantities allocated elsewhere and unconfirmed deliveries.

Choose the buffer by item. Compare the consequences of a missing critical component with those of an unavailable optional colour. Balance protection against cash tied up, storage, shelf life and obsolescence risk.

For a personal purchase, plan around your required use date rather than sales demand. If that date is flexible, consider waiting instead of paying for urgency.

Pay deposits against a confirmed plan

Ask the supplier what starts the lead time: receipt of the deposit, final sample approval, material availability or a combination. Obtain written confirmation of the production slot, payment deadline and whether funds must have cleared by that deadline.

Where the agreed deposit releases essential materials or reserves a confirmed production slot, arrange payment early enough for that milestone. Verify the contracting business and payment beneficiary first, and independently check any changed bank instructions.

Record the deposit amount, what it purchases or reserves, the balance-payment trigger and what happens if the agreed milestone is missed. For tooling, also agree ownership, storage and access before payment. This guide does not recommend a universal deposit percentage.

Do not treat a deposit receipt as evidence that materials have been bought or production has started. Ask for evidence appropriate to the milestone, and retain the agreed inspection and acceptance conditions when discussing balance payment.

Approve samples before closure without rushing the decision

Work backwards from the supplier's last practical date for changes. Allow time to receive the sample, review it, obtain any necessary testing and approve corrections. Check the expected arrival date rather than relying on dispatch before closure.

Identify the approved sample and specification version. Record materials, dimensions, finish, function, packaging and acceptance criteria, with photographs and retained samples where appropriate. Make clear which details are approved and which remain open.

For repeat orders, confirm that the supplier will use the agreed materials and process. For a changed design, approve the change explicitly rather than assuming an older sample covers it.

If approval cannot be completed properly, agree a post-holiday schedule. Authorise any limited preparatory work separately, stating its scope and financial exposure. Keep full production subject to the outstanding approval.

Use the planning tools to connect delivery dates and cash

Prepare your required arrival date, supplier-confirmed working-day lead time, closure and restart assumptions, sample milestones and transport estimate. Use these when consulting the Chinese New Year planner, then confirm your timetable with the supplier and logistics provider.

Keep material readiness, production completion, inspection, cargo handover and arrival as separate milestones. Confirm the shipment's departure arrangements separately from the factory's completion date.

Use the China order cash planner alongside your timetable. Budget separately for deposits, balances, freight, destination charges and, where applicable, tooling, samples, inspection and testing. Check your figures against actual quotations.

Compare bringing forward essential stock with postponing optional lines. Ask whether a supplier-confirmed split delivery would meet the urgent need, and compare its costs and payment requirements.

Treat planning outputs as estimates. Recheck assumptions when approvals, quantities, transport arrangements or supplier dates change. Consult the related guidance in the Chinese New Year planning hub.

What can wait until the post-holiday restart?

Consider waiting when existing stock covers the replenishment gap, the required delivery date is flexible and no scarce input or tooling milestone needs an earlier commitment. Review non-essential variants and designs still being revised first.

While waiting, finalise specifications, prepare approval criteria and agree who will reconfirm capacity after reopening. Ask for realistic material, production and dispatch milestones rather than relying only on an office reopening date.

Do not assume a post-holiday order will be cheaper or immediately available. Seek a refreshed quote and schedule, then compare the complete delivered cost with your deadline and cash position.

Keep destination costs in the plan: a UK example

Consider goods imported into Great Britain for delivery to Cambridge. Where HMRC's transaction-value method applies, customs value is based on the total price paid or payable, with required adjustments, including transport and insurance to the UK border where not already included. Do not use the deposit alone as the goods' value.

For import VAT valuation, HMRC requires applicable import duties and qualifying incidental expenses to be added to customs value, excluding import VAT itself and avoiding duplicate costs. Relevant expenses include delivery to the first UK destination and transport to a further UK destination known at importation. Budget for the applicable charges alongside the supplier balance.

European Commission guidance similarly includes customs value, relevant duties and incidental expenses in the import VAT taxable amount, excluding the import VAT itself and avoiding duplication. For the US, CBP states that using a customs broker does not remove the importer's responsibility for compliance. Check destination-specific rules rather than transferring a UK calculation to another market.

Sources

The sources below identify the official pages used for the factual context. Maersk's 2026 holiday guidance supports the general disruption context, not your supplier's 2027 closure dates or capacity. HMRC and European Commission guidance support the valuation examples; CBP guidance supports the importer-responsibility statement. Order priorities, payment checks, sample approvals and stock calculations are practical recommendations, not statutory purchasing rules.