Supply Chain Consultant — Sourcing & Fulfillment Plan for US Ecom Brand (several thousand units/mo)

We run a fast-growing US DTC brand selling a bulky home product — several thousand units per month, multiple size variants, nationwide shipping. Inventory currently comes from a domestic supplier under a transactional arrangement. It works, but we're leaving margin, control, and brand experience on the table. Read this part carefully — it's the actual job: We are a marketing team. We will not be doing the research with you, sitting on supplier calls, or building spreadsheets together. We hand you the problem, our data, and access — you own everything from there: research, sourcing, outreach, calculations, quote-gathering, negotiations, vendor vetting. You come back to us with finished work: "Here are your 3 options, here are the real numbers behind each, here's what I recommend and why, here's what I need from you to execute." We hop on a weekly call, challenge it, decide, and pay for what's approved. If your working style is asking the client what to do next, don't apply. Full details (product, volumes, current costs, existing carrier/warehouse quotes) shared with the selected candidate under NDA. What you'll own and deliver (milestones): Factory sourcing — done by you: find, contact, and vet 4–6 overseas manufacturers for our category. You run the outreach and the negotiations. Deliverable: FOB quotes for all variants, MOQs, lead times, sampling + third-party QC plan — negotiated, not list prices. Landed-cost model — built by you: per-unit landed cost by variant (freight, duties/tariffs incl. any anti-dumping exposure, insurance) at 2–3 volume tiers. Fulfillment comparison — quoted by you: (a) improved terms with our current domestic supplier — you help drive that negotiation, (b) our own small warehouse (we have rate cards and space quotes to hand you), (c) 2–3 3PLs incl. custom-packaging/kitting — you run the RFQs. Deliverable: recommendation with real numbers. Cash-flow & inventory model: reorder cadence, safety stock, working capital per path, bridge plan for the first long-lead order. Execution roadmap: exactly what we approve, sign, and pay — with the vendor relationships you built handed over warm. Requirements: You've personally owned sourcing + fulfillment for a US ecom brand doing 3,000+ units/month in bulky/heavy goods (furniture, bedding, fitness — not phone cases) You've negotiated directly with overseas factories (Mandarin a strong plus) and handled US freight forwarding + customs Hands-on 3PL and/or Amazon FBA/MCF operational experience Flat fees only — no %-of-purchase-order arrangements, ever Self-directed to a fault. You'd rather bring a wrong-but-complete recommendation than a question about what to research next. To apply, answer these 3 questions (applications without them are ignored): A compressed-foam home product ships from Ningbo, 1,000 units, ~0.8 cuft / 10 lb boxed. Walk me through landed cost per unit: HTS classification approach, duty + anti-dumping exposure in foam-based home categories, realistic ocean freight. A brand pays ~$27/unit delivered from domestic stock with next-day replenishment. Under what conditions would you advise AGAINST going factory-direct overseas? Describe one project where the client handed you a supply-chain problem and you brought back the finished answer: category, volumes, what you recommended, and the before/after numbers.