How to verify a supplier before you pay

A supplier can look entirely real on a video call and not exist on the registration system. This is the order we work in: paperwork first, then the sample, then the money. Practical notes from our own sourcing work, not legal advice and not official guidance.

What a document proves, and what it does not

Ask for two things: the business licence, and the Unified Social Credit Code, the registration number every incorporated Chinese company carries. Match the company name against the record you are reading, word for word. A name that differs by one term is a different company, not a translation.

A licence proves that an entity was registered, and it tells you the registered address, the legal representative and the approved business scope. It proves nothing about capacity, quality, export experience, or whether the person you are talking to is authorised by that entity. Those are separate questions, and the licence cannot answer them.

Trader or factory, and why it changes the conversation

Ask directly, then check for consistency rather than believing the answer. Trading companies and manufacturers usually differ in registered scope, in what the address looks like, and in whether anyone answers when you ask to see the workshop.

If it is a trader: ask who the factory is, whether you can visit it or at least be put through to it, and whether the price you were given is the factory price or includes a margin. A trader is often the right choice, especially for mixed containers and small orders. The mistake is negotiating with a trader as though it were a factory, on factory terms.

Read the business scope against what you are buying

Registration records carry an approved scope of activity. Search that text for your product category. A broad scope is normal and legal; what matters is the mismatch. A supplier who presents themselves as a specialist denim factory, whose scope mentions cosmetics, software development and general merchandise but never garments, is telling you something.

The reverse mismatch matters too: a scope that clearly covers manufacturing of your category, with an address that turns out to be an office tower rather than an industrial park, usually means a trading arm.

The address is a test you can run from abroad

Compare four addresses: the one on the licence, the one in the registration record, the one on the proforma invoice, and the one goods will ship from. Four different addresses is a question, not necessarily a problem.

Ask for a short video taken inside the specific workshop, not the showroom, and ask that it be dated that day. Ask who answers the phone at the registered number during Chinese working hours. If nobody does, that is information.

Then the sample

Approve a physical sample before production, and keep it. When the goods arrive the sample is your reference; a written description is not. Agree in writing who pays for the sample and the courier, and whether the sample cost is credited against the order.

For anything with a fit, a colour or a tolerance, expect to pay for two rounds. That is cheaper than one bad container. Our notes on how to check what arrives are in Inspection: what a sampling plan does and does not prove.

Then the money

Pay a deposit, not the whole amount, and tie the balance to an inspection you defined in advance. Put the terms in writing before the first transfer: what the price includes, the delivery date, the tolerance, and what happens when the goods miss it. Payment terms explained covers what the usual terms actually shift onto you.

Keep every payment on a channel traceable to the registered entity. A payment to a personal account is a signal even when the goods arrive perfectly, because it removes your recourse when they do not.

Red flags we treat as serious

• Will not produce the licence or the credit code.
• Will not allow any inspection, at any stage, at any price.
• Wants the full amount before production starts.
• The company name changes between the quotation, the invoice and the bank details.
• The price moves as soon as you stop asking questions.
• The registered address is a residential flat, and the "factory" you are shown is a rented office.

This is not legal advice, and requirements differ by product, by destination country and by year. We do not verify companies on request, we do not act as an agent, and nothing here is an endorsement or an accusation about any specific supplier. Records on this site are compiled from public registration data unless the page says otherwise, and the limits of that are stated on every record.