A wholesale order that clears customs can still be rejected at a marketplace inbound dock. The difference is rarely product quality — it is labelling and packaging discipline, which has to be designed into the purchase order, not fixed after arrival.

1. Sell Through Your Own GTIN, Not the Factory's

A GTIN is tied to the company that owns the brand, not to the company that manufactures it. If a supplier prints a barcode onto your retail pack, that barcode belongs to the supplier's prefix, and the listing can be contested later.

Register the GTIN under your own company prefix, then send the artwork file to the factory as part of the packaging spec. Treat the barcode file as controlled artwork with a version number, exactly like a logo file.

2. FNSKU Relabelling vs Manufacturer Barcode

Where the marketplace requires commingled inventory to be distinguished, each unit receives a marketplace-issued label covering the original barcode. This step can be done at the factory or at a prep centre; doing it at the factory removes one handling step and one source of mislabels, but requires the seller to supply label files before production ends.

3. Polybag and Suffocation Warning Requirements

Bagged hair is treated as a bagged item: the bag needs a suffocation warning of a specified minimum print size, a vent hole where the specification calls for one, and a barcode that scans flat rather than wrapping around a curve.

Curved-surface scanning failure is the most common inbound defect on bundle products. Printing the barcode on a flat header card instead of the bag face resolves it permanently.

4. Carton-Level Prep and Inbound Tolerances

Carton weight limits, box strength, and label placement are all specified by the marketplace, and all of them are the buyer's responsibility even when the factory does the packing. Put the carton spec in the PO annex, request photographs of the first packed carton before the run continues, and keep the approval photo on file for the inbound dispute that may follow months later.

5. What to Lock in the Purchase Order

Artwork version, label placement position, bag dimensions and thickness, warning text, carton dimensions and count per carton, and the approval step that triggers bulk packing. A private label programme is only differentiated if the retail presentation survives the journey intact.