An Incoterm defines where the seller's responsibility ends and yours begins. Comparing quotes without it is comparing different products.
EXW — Ex Works
The lowest number you will see, and the one that hides the most. The seller makes the goods available at their premises; everything after that is yours — loading, inland transport to port, export clearance, freight, insurance, import clearance, delivery.
EXW makes sense if you have a freight forwarder in China who handles this routinely. If you do not, an EXW quote is not a price, it is the first line of a price.
FOB — Free On Board
The seller delivers the goods on board the vessel at the named port and handles export clearance and inland transport to it. You take over from there: sea freight, insurance, import duties and delivery.
FOB is the common term in this trade — shipping here is quoted FOB Shenzhen, EXW, express door-to-door for smaller orders, or sea freight for bulk. FOB is generally the most useful basis for comparing suppliers, because it puts the Chinese-side costs on the seller where they have better information, and leaves the international leg with you where you can shop it.
CIF — Cost, Insurance and Freight
The seller arranges and pays freight and insurance to your named destination port. Convenient, and the most common trap: the seller chooses the forwarder, and destination-side charges that the forwarder levies on you can be substantial and are not in the quoted price. If you take CIF, ask specifically what destination charges will fall to you.
DDP — Delivered Duty Paid
The seller handles everything to your door including import duties. Simple and usually the highest headline price. Worth it for small shipments or when you have no import capability, but check who is named as importer of record, because that has compliance implications beyond the shipment.
Comparing quotes properly
Convert everything to one basis before comparing. Ask each supplier for the same term — FOB is usually the practical choice — and if a quote arrives on a different basis, ask for it restated rather than adjusting it yourself with assumed costs.
Then remember that packaging is bulky relative to its value. A pouch order that is cheap by unit price can be expensive by volume, so freight is a larger share of landed cost here than for dense goods. Get the carton dimensions and total volume with the quote, not after.