How to vet a China supplier before you pay a deposit

The riskiest moment in importing is the first transfer to a supplier you have never met. A good website and fast replies feel reassuring, but neither tells you whether the company can make your product to spec, on time, at the price quoted. These are the checks worth doing before a deposit leaves your account.

A catalog is not proof

Many sellers on sourcing platforms are trading companies, not factories. That is not automatically bad — a good trading partner can add value — but you should know which you are dealing with, because it changes who controls quality and lead time. Ask directly whether they manufacture the product themselves, and what part of the process they own.

Confirm they actually make what you need

Ask for specifics only a real producer would have: which production line runs your product, recent output for similar orders, the machines involved, and photos or a video walk-through of the line. Vague answers to concrete questions are a signal. If you can, arrange a video call that moves through the workshop rather than sitting in an office.

Check that the business is real

Confirm the company is a registered legal entity, that the bank account you are asked to pay matches the company name, and that contact details are consistent across documents. A payment request to a personal account, or a name that does not match the registration, is a stop sign — pause and ask why.

Ask for references and a real sample

A supplier who has done this before can point to other buyers and provide a production sample — not a showroom piece, but one from the line that would make your order. Pay for the sample if needed; it is cheap relative to a bad bulk run. Check the sample against your written spec, not against your memory of the quote.

Protect the deposit

Settle terms in writing before you pay: what the deposit covers, what triggers the balance, and what happens if the goods fail inspection. Tie your final payment to a pre-shipment inspection, so your leverage survives until you have confirmed the goods. See the full sequence in our buyer's checklist.

A supplier vetting checklist

Before the deposit:

• Are they the manufacturer, a trading company, or both — and does that fit what I need?
• Have I seen the actual production line, not just an office or a showroom?
• Does the registered company name match the bank account I am paying?
• Do I have a production sample checked against my written spec?
• Is my balance payment tied to an inspection I control?

None of this guarantees a perfect supplier. What it does is move the decision from a good feeling to evidence — and give you the questions to keep asking as the order runs.

Every check here is a step you can take yourself. If you want them organised around your specific product and origin, get a sourcing brief and take the questions to your supplier.

Where the checks meet the numbers

Vetting is one leg of the pre-deposit work; the other is the money. Confirm the likely heading for the product in the HS directory — a supplier quoting a category they rarely make (say, lighting under HS 9405) is itself a signal — and once your broker confirms the duty rate, run the quote through the landed-cost calculator so the negotiation happens on the real number.