Most overseas buyers who get burned sourcing from China don't fail at the website stage. They fail at the evidence stage: they accept a supplier's own description of itself as proof, and skip the steps that take a phone call, a business-license lookup, or 40 minutes on the factory floor.
What follows is the process we walk clients through, in the order that tends to prevent the expensive mistakes.
1. Write the specification before you contact anyone
You can't judge a supplier with nothing to judge it against. Put this on one page:
- Product dimensions, materials, tolerances, surface finish
- Target unit price and the volume that price assumes
- Certifications your market requires (CE, FCC, FDA, CPSIA, REACH, RoHS, LFGB)
- Packaging, labeling, barcode and language requirements
- First order volume and expected annual volume
- Incoterm you want quoted (FOB, EXW or DDP)
- What you own: a design file, a mold, a formulation, a brand
Vague inquiries get vague quotes. Send a spec and a reference photo, and three suppliers will give you numbers you can actually compare.
2. Work out whether you're talking to a factory or a trading company
Both exist, both answer inquiries, and both call themselves factories.
| What you're checking | Factory | Trading company |
|---|---|---|
| Business license scope | Includes manufacturing (生产/制造) | Trade and import/export only |
| Address | A production site you can visit | Office or residential address |
| Product range | Narrow, process-driven | Wide, ability to make anything |
| Process questions | Answers with machine and cycle-time detail | Deflects to the factory |
| Video call | Walks the floor, shows equipment | Shows a showroom or samples |
| Pricing behavior | Reacts to material and tooling changes | Margin stacked on someone else's quote |
A good trading company is useful for small orders, mixed containers and English-language follow-up. The problem is paying factory prices to a middleman who has no control over the line.
3. Search the industrial cluster, not the whole country
OEM capability in China is concentrated by product. Searching for a generic OEM manufacturer returns a hundred Shenzhen trading companies; searching the right cluster returns people who make your product all day.
| Product | Main clusters |
|---|---|
| Electronics, PCBA | Shenzhen, Dongguan |
| LED lighting | Zhongshan, Ningbo |
| Apparel, textiles | Guangzhou, Shaoxing, Ningbo |
| Furniture | Foshan, Anji |
| Hardware, tools | Yongkang, Jinhua |
| Toys | Shantou (Chenghai) |
| Kitchenware | Jieyang, Chaozhou |
| Bags | Guangzhou Baiyun, Quanzhou |
Where to actually find them:
- B2B platforms — Alibaba, Global Sources, Made-in-China. Good for finding names, not for qualifying them.
- 1688.com — the domestic Chinese platform. Lower prices, Chinese-only interface, plenty of suppliers who have never exported. Workable only with local help.
- Trade fairs — Canton Fair in Guangzhou (April and October), plus regional fairs for furniture, lighting and commodities.
- Industry associations and local directories inside the cluster itself.
- Referrals from a current supplier, a freight forwarder, or another buyer in your category.
4. Screen with six questions on a live call
Email chains hide too much. Twenty minutes of video tells you whether there's a real organization behind the profile.
- What is your monthly capacity for this process?
- Which production steps do you do in-house, and which do you outsource?
- Can you show me the line running right now?
- What was the last quality problem you had, and what changed after it?
- Which export markets do your customers sell into?
- What are your sample lead time, sample cost, and payment terms?
A supplier who needs three days to arrange question three is usually not the manufacturer. A supplier demanding 100% payment in advance on a first order is telling you something too.
5. Verify the legal entity, not the landing page
- Business license (营业执照) — check the unified social credit code, incorporation date, registered capital, business scope and legal representative. The license name should match the proforma invoice and the bank account.
- Bank details — corporate account, name matching the contract. A request to pay a personal account is a stop sign, not a detail.
- Customs registration — a 10-digit code and an export record. Regular exporters have one; ask for a screenshot.
- Certificates — take the certificate number and check it with the issuing body. A PDF of a CE certificate is easy to make and easy to fake.
- Company records — 企查查 or 天眼查 for litigation and enforcement history. Overkill for a $2,000 order, worth the $30 above $20,000.
6. Audit before you pay for tooling
An audit is not a certificate. It answers specific questions: are the machines they claimed actually there? Is QC a department or one tired inspector? Is the site organized in a way that suggests process control? Is anyone else's product running on the same line?
| Type | Typical cost | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Live video walkthrough | $0–100 | Real-time look at the floor, limited angles |
| Basic factory audit | $250–500 | Photos, checklist, written report, one day |
| Social compliance audit | $600–1,500 | Worker interviews, wage and safety records |
| Pre-shipment inspection | $100–300/day | AQL sampling, defect count, photo report |
7. Buy samples, then run a pilot order
A sample is not production. Samples are often made by an engineer on a bench machine; your order runs on a line at speed. Pay for samples and treat them as a check on the spec and on communication speed, not as a guarantee.
Tooling deserves its own clause: who owns the mold, where it is stored, what happens if the relationship ends, and how you get it back. Pay in stages tied to T1 and T2 mold trials rather than one lump sum.
Then place a pilot order at roughly 10–30% of your first-year volume. Use it to test what a sample never tests: packaging, paperwork, lead-time honesty, and how they handle a defect.
8. Inspect before you release the balance
Standard terms with a new supplier: 30% deposit, 70% after a passed inspection and before shipment. Book the inspection once goods are finished and packed, not while the line is still running.
Use AQL sampling (ISO 2859-1) and a third party — SGS, Bureau Veritas, Intertek, QIMA, or an independent local inspector. $150–300 per man-day buys an independent set of photos and a defect count, which is far cheaper than a container of rejects.
9. Do the paperwork properly
- Contract in Chinese and English, with a governing law and arbitration clause
- NNN (non-disclosure, non-use, non-circumvention) agreement if you're handing over designs
- Registered design or trademark in China if the product is genuinely yours
- Packaging and label proofs approved in writing before mass production
- Logistics agreed before cargo is ready: who books, who insures, who clears customs, and which HS code applies
Red flags worth walking away from
- Prices 30% below everyone else with no explanation of why
- Urgency — a quote that is only valid today
- Personal bank account or an account name that doesn't match the contract
- No live video, only catalog photos and stock images
- Address changes between the license, the website and the invoice
- Refuses third-party inspection or insists on checking quality their own way
- Zero questions about your spec — a real factory asks
What it costs to do this properly
| Item | Typical cost |
|---|---|
| Samples and courier | $50–300 |
| Tooling | $500–20,000 depending on the part |
| Factory audit | $250–500 |
| Social compliance audit | $600–1,500 |
| Pre-shipment inspection | $100–300 per day |
| Sourcing agent or concierge | 3–10% of order value |
| Freight | Get FOB and DDP quotes before committing |
Treat verification as part of the order cost, not an optional extra. On a $30,000 order, $600 of audits and inspections is 2%.
When local help actually pays for itself
If you're buying one SKU at low volume from a supplier you already know, you probably don't need anyone. Local help earns its fee when you can't read the contract, can't get to the cluster, need someone standing on the floor during inspection, or need a Chinese-speaking person to push back on a delay. The value isn't the supplier list. It's having someone who can walk into the office.
Globesino is a China-based team that handles supplier search, factory audits, pre-shipment inspection and door-to-door delivery for overseas buyers who don't read Chinese. Tell us what you're sourcing and we'll tell you what the verification would take.