Factory-direct pricing for commercial fitouts. Managed end-to-end.
SpecSwap sources your fitout packages straight from Chinese manufacturers — sourcing, samples, QC and freight, one Australian point of contact. First package review is free.
No access fees. No memberships. We charge when we deliver.
PACKAGE REVIEW · Loose furniture, L3 fitout
incl. freight, duties, QC inspection
Worked example — every package assessed on its own numbers.
- Australian construction experience
- Factory comparison & negotiation
- Samples & approval tracking
- Independent pre-shipment inspection
- Freight coordinated to site
Same access
Pay for the product, not the supply chain.
Many construction products pass through an importer, distributor and reseller before they reach your project — each with a margin. We connect your package to the factory and manage the rest.
Traditional sourcing
$100
Illustrative $100 spent locally
$38
Illustrative China-direct equivalent
Illustrative.
Start here
Start with one package. See whether the numbers work.
You don't need to commit a project. Send one package you suspect is overpriced locally — we'll tell you honestly whether China-direct sourcing is worth pursuing, and when it isn't.
Loose furniture & seatingTask chairs, breakout, boardroom
Workstations & tablesRepeat items, multi-floor rollouts
Joinery & cabinetryKitchenettes, reception desks, storage (select projects)
Tiles & flooring500m²+ packages
Decorative lightingSubject to AU electrical compliance
Acoustic & wall panelsPET panels, feature wallsAugust factory programme
Give us something real to investigate.
We'll be meeting manufacturers across Guangdong & Shanghai from 3–17 August. Rather than walk factory floors with a generic shopping list, we're inviting Australian builders to nominate real packages for us to investigate — your items, your quantities, your target pricing. We'll come back with factory pricing, photos and video from the floor, and an honest read on whether it stacks up. Free for the first 10 builders. No obligation to proceed.
- A package you're currently pricing
- A product that's become prohibitively expensive
- A repeated item you buy across multiple projects
- An existing quote you want tested
Only 4 of 10 slots left
6 of 10 already claimed
Commercial information treated confidentially. Anonymised before any factory discussion.
How it works
From submission to delivery, one process
What we source
Where China-direct sourcing makes sense — and where it doesn't
We stay disciplined about category risk. Low-compliance categories are our focus today; anything structural or fire-rated is reviewed individually, not blanket-offered.
We'll tell you when a package should stay local.
Why not just go yourself?
Having someone on the ground changes everything
Doing it yourself
- Navigating 1688/Alibaba listings with no way to verify quality
- Setting up Alipay and negotiating in a second language
- No one on the ground if a factory doesn't deliver
- Every mistake is a mistake you pay for
Working with SpecSwap
- Factories shortlisted and assessed before any recommendation — and from August, personally visited
- Negotiation and QC handled by someone who's done this before
- One point of contact coordinating every category — so finishes and delivery stay consistent across the whole project
- You keep control — we just remove the risk
Trust & process
Built by people who go and check, not just promise
Factory assessment & QC
Every supplier is assessed for quality, reliability and communication before we recommend them — and every order gets an independent pre-shipment inspection on our side, not just a sign-off from the people who made it.
Staged-payment protection
Your product funds move against milestones, never in advance: deposit on order confirmation → production checkpoint payments → final balance only after independent pre-shipment inspection passes. Our service fee is invoiced separately — we never hold your product money.
Compliance discipline
We stick to low-compliance categories first — lighting, hardware, acoustic panels, furniture — and review structural or fire-rated items case by case, not blanket.
Warranties & after-sales
Clear warranty terms agreed before you commit, handover documentation your installer can actually use, and a single point of contact if anything needs following up after delivery.
The founder
Built from the builder's side of the table.
SpecSwap was founded by Ben Woodward, an Australian construction and procurement professional. After repeatedly seeing the gap between manufacturing cost and local supply pricing, he built SpecSwap to close it — without creating a coordination problem for your project team. In August he's on factory floors in China doing exactly that. We're not offshoring trades — local contractors still coordinate, install and deliver. We're offshoring the one input builders can't control locally: product cost.
What should he look at for you? →Pricing
Clear fees. Transparent product costs.
Opportunity Review
Free
Send a package. We identify what's worth investigating, what should stay local, indicative landed range, programme requirements and key risks. Yours either way.
Package Validation
Fixed fee, from $750+GST
Factory quotations, like-for-like comparisons, sample coordination and a landed-cost recommendation you can take to your client. Scoped and priced before we start — credited in full if you proceed to managed procurement.
Managed Procurement
5% of landed cost
Sourcing, negotiation, production oversight, independent inspection, freight and delivery to site. Minimum project fee $4,500+GST — best suited to packages from ~$50k landed value. Factory costs, freight, duties and inspections itemised separately, so you see where every dollar goes.
No access fees. No memberships. No % of "savings" games.
Why % of landed cost and not % of "savings"? Because "savings" invites arguments about the baseline. Landed cost is a number we can both see.
Owner-building, renovating, or developing residential?
The same factory-direct process works for custom homes, major renovations and multi-dwelling projects with meaningful package volumes. We don't do small one-off orders.
Explore residential sourcing →FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What does SpecSwap do?
SpecSwap is a China-first construction procurement broker. We assess and shortlist factories, negotiate on your behalf, then manage sourcing, quality control and freight — so you get factory pricing without carrying the import risk yourself.
What's the 5% based on?
5% of the landed cost of your order — not a percentage of savings, so there's no dispute over what counts as a "saving". There's a minimum project fee of $4,500+GST, and it's best suited to packages from around $50k landed value.
How is my payment protected?
You pay the factory, supplier or freight provider directly, in stages against production and pre-shipment QC milestones — you're never asked to pay in full, upfront, before goods are inspected. SpecSwap never collects or holds your product funds; our own fee is invoiced separately.
How do you assess a factory?
We assess quality, reliability and communication before recommending any supplier, and arrange independent pre-shipment inspection before goods leave the factory. From our August programme onward, factories we recommend in verified categories will carry a "factory visited" badge.
How long does shipping take?
Typically 6–12+ weeks depending on category and production schedule — we'll give you a realistic estimate for your specific items during your review.
Is sourcing from China right for every project?
No. Every build is different, and sourcing overseas doesn't make sense for every budget, timeline or category. We review each project honestly — sometimes the right answer is that a local supplier is still your best option.
Who's responsible for Australian compliance?
You and your project's certifiers remain responsible for meeting Australian standards and approvals — that doesn't change because a product is factory-direct. We only bring forward categories with a low compliance burden, flag anything certification-heavy for case-by-case review, and provide the documentation your certifier needs to sign off. If a category needs an approval pathway that isn't already established, we'll tell you before you commit rather than after.
Can you guarantee a saving?
No — and we think that's the honest answer. Savings depend on your category, quantities, specification and timing, and we won't quote a headline percentage we can't stand behind. What we will do is give you a real, itemised landed-cost estimate for your actual package, so you can judge for yourself whether it stacks up.
What should we look at while we're in China?
Send a package, a quote you want tested, or even a one-line product request. We'll review it within 48 hours and tell you whether it deserves further investigation.
Upload only documents you're authorised to share. We treat project documents confidentially and only share relevant extracts with suppliers where needed for pricing and lead-time checks.