Supplier Verification Checklist for Buying from China

About this guide. This is general information based on our work as a sourcing agent in Guangzhou, not legal, tax or customs advice. Requirements depend on the product and destination and change over time; confirm them with the relevant authority, your customs broker or a qualified adviser before ordering.

Verification is not a single document. It is a short sequence of checks, each cheap on its own, that together make it hard for a supplier to be something other than what it claims. Use this checklist for every new supplier, and repeat the relevant parts when an existing supplier changes address, ownership or product.

1. Company identity

• Business licence (营业执照): company name in Chinese and English, unified social credit code, registered address, legal representative, registered capital and business scope. Check the scope includes manufacturing where the supplier claims to be a factory.
• Registration lookup. The unified social credit code can be checked against China’s National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System (gsxt.gov.cn), which is in Chinese and is sometimes unreachable from outside China. A sourcing agent or Chinese-speaking colleague can do this in minutes.
• Name consistency. The name on the licence, the quotation, the pro-forma invoice and the bank account should match. Any mismatch needs a written explanation.

2. Capability

• Which products and processes are genuinely in-house? Ask for a list of machinery for the relevant process.
• Approximate monthly capacity for your product, and current lead time.
• Number of production lines and shifts; whether peak-season capacity is shared with larger customers.
• Who owns tooling and moulds if you pay for them, and what happens to them at the end of the relationship.

3. Quality system and documentation

• Quality-management certification (for example ISO 9001) where relevant, checked against the certificate register rather than the PDF.
• Test reports for the specific product and model, not generic certificates. Confirm the report is from a recognised laboratory and still within validity.
• Which documentation your destination market may require, and whether the supplier has produced it before. Requirements depend on the product and destination; see our product compliance guide.

4. Export experience

• Which markets they currently ship to and in what volumes.
• Sample export documents (with customer details redacted) such as a commercial invoice or bill of lading.
• Experience with your required labelling, language and packaging standards.

5. Samples

• Request a sample made to your specification, and pay for it. Free stock samples show what the factory already makes, not what it will make for you.
• Record the approved sample with photos, measurements and a signed sample-approval sheet. This becomes the reference for inspection later.

6. Commercial terms

• Unit price by quantity break, with packaging, tooling and any testing stated separately.
• Incoterm (for example FOB or EXW) and the named port or place.
• Payment terms and the beneficiary bank account, confirmed in writing and matching the licensed company name.
• Lead time from deposit, and the consequence of late delivery agreed before the order.

7. Visit or video tour

Whether you visit yourself or someone visits for you, look for: the production line actually running your type of product; incoming material storage; a quality-control station with records; the packing area; and the general order of the site. Ask to meet the person who will manage your order.

8. References and history

• Customer references in your market, where the supplier is willing to share them.
• How long the company has operated at the current address.
• Any history of name changes, which is common and not necessarily negative, but should be explained.

For category-specific checks, see the supplier and quality checks listed under each of our product categories.

Using the checklist proportionately

Not every order needs every step. A trial order of stock goods may justify only the identity, sample and payment checks plus a pre-shipment inspection. A custom product with tooling and a large first order justifies the full list and an in-person visit. The point is to decide deliberately which checks you are skipping, rather than skipping them by default.

How Flawless Effect helps

Our factory verification service runs these checks for you in Chinese, on the ground in Guangdong and beyond, and reports back with photos and video where a visit is included. If you already have a shortlist, we can screen it; if you do not, we can build one.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources and further reading

• Alibaba Verified Supplier programme — how marketplace verification works
• ISO 9001 quality management — what the certificate covers