Last updated: October 2026
By Jack Lv, General Manager — 925 sterling silver and GRA moissanite manufacturing in Foshan since 2011
Private label means the product carries your brand rather than the factory's, and the route from positioning to a live listing runs through seven stages that each lock in the next one. Expect a larger upfront commitment and a slower payback than buying stock designs, because you pay for tooling, branding and packaging before you have a single sale.
The table below is the full path, with the decision each stage asks you to make and the mistake that is most common at that point. Read it as a sequence, because a decision made badly early is expensive to undo later.
| Stage | The decision you make | The mistake to avoid |
|---|---|---|
| Positioning and price band | Who the piece is for and where it sits in the market | Choosing a price band before understanding the metal and stone cost that can support it |
| Design selection | Which designs carry the brand, and how many to launch | Launching too many designs at once, so none of them gets real depth |
| Sampling | Which details are fixed now and which can wait | Approving a sample without measuring or weighing it |
| Packaging and branding | Logo, tags, box and certificate presentation | Leaving branding until after the pieces are made |
| First order | Quantity per design and total order size | Ordering above your realistic sell-through to chase a bigger discount |
| Delivery and inspection | How you check the shipment against the approved sample | Accepting goods without comparing them to the sealed sample |
| Listing and launch | How the product is described and priced at retail | Publishing the listing before the compliance documents are in hand |
There is no universal number, only a method. Work backwards from a realistic sell-through over the first selling period, add the pieces you expect to lose to damage and samples, and order that. If the result sits below the factory minimum, your range is too wide for the budget, so cut designs rather than depth.
A first private label run should usually carry fewer designs than feels comfortable, each at a quantity you can genuinely sell, because one design that clearly sells out tells you more about your market than five that move slowly. Nabest runs 10 pieces per design as the baseline, which sets the depth floor for every style you include.
A sensible shape for a first range mixes a few pieces from existing designs with the pieces you have developed, so the launch contains something proven while the new work carries the brand. That split also spreads your risk: the existing design sells while the new design establishes the identity.
One boundary is worth keeping clear. A 925 silver piece is hallmarked as sterling silver, and that mark describes the material rather than the brand, so keep the hallmark and your logo as two separate marks in the listing and in your customer service copy.
Nabest engraves or stamps a buyer's logo on request and packs to a buyer's own tag and box specification, which is the practical scope of branding available to a private label buyer.
The concern is legitimate. The factory that makes your best-selling design will be asked by someone else for something similar, and without an agreement there is nothing stopping that request being met. The protection is contractual and specific rather than implied.
Nabest signs an NDA before drawings are shared, does not sell a design developed for one buyer to another buyer, and keeps a mould made for your design for your reorders. Those three commitments cover the two things that matter: the idea before it exists, and the tooling after it does.
Write exclusivity as a named list rather than a general promise. State which designs are exclusive, how long the exclusivity runs, and in which markets you are protected, because a named list is far easier to hold someone to than a sentence about partnership.
A factory can only advise honestly on what it has been told, so disclosure should be generous with the facts that affect the product and minimal with the facts that do not.
Before a listing goes live, collect the compliance documents that apply to your market and keep the numbers where you can find them. For silver and moissanite jewelry that normally means a REACH SVHC report, a RoHS and CE document covering your models, and the stone reports for pieces that ship with one.
Nabest issues the REACH SVHC report BKC25020516BR from Shenzhen BKC Testing, dated 2025-02-27, covering 247 SVHC substances below 0.1 percent on a sample set of necklace, bracelet, ring and earring. The RoHS and CE certificate HYC2025120053RV1 from Shenzhen HyCert, dated 2025-12-31, covers the 27 models listed on it. Each stone can ship with its own GRA report, and the Intertek audit certificate 483553466_T, valid from 2025-12-31 to 2026-12-30, supports the site rather than the product and can be checked through the ASV service at intertek.com.cn.
Check each number against the model you are listing rather than against the supplier page, because a document that does not cover your item is not a document you can rely on if a marketplace or a customs broker asks.
Private label costs more before it earns anything. You pay for tooling, for samples, for branding and for packaging before a single piece is sold, and those costs sit in the first order rather than spreading across it. A stock design bought from an existing range avoids all of them and can be resold as soon as it lands, which is a real advantage and not a compromise.
The return on the extra work is that the product is genuinely yours: your mark on the metal, your name on the box, a design that is not sold to the next buyer, and a margin that is not set by whoever else happens to be selling the same piece. That is worth the slower start for a brand, and it is not worth it for a buyer whose model is moving volume through a marketplace. Choosing the simpler route for that reason is a sound decision, not a failure of ambition.
At Nabest the baseline is 10 pieces per design, so the total order size depends on how many designs you launch. A narrow first range of a few designs keeps the total manageable while still giving each style enough depth to be worth making.
Both are possible. A stamped logo needs a surface on the design that takes a clean impression, and you approve the position on the sample. The packaging side - tag, box, pouch and certificate presentation - can carry your brand on any design, including existing ones.
Nabest does not sell a design developed for one buyer to another, and it keeps a mould made for your design for your reorders. Put the exclusivity in writing as a named list of designs, with a duration and the markets covered, so the commitment is specific rather than general.
Sampling takes 5 to 7 days and bulk production runs 15 to 20 days after approval, with courier time on top. Add your own packaging, photography and listing work, and plan in weeks rather than days from the first drawing.
Not to place the order, because the factory can make and mark goods against your artwork. A registered trademark matters for the market you sell into, since it is what lets you stop someone else trading on the name once the range has traction.
Send your design, size and quantity — factory quote back within 24 hours. Reference: General enquiry