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Before you pay a deposit in China: a practical supplier verification guide

By Duan Botao, Hangzhou · Updated 2026-10-29

For Amazon, Etsy and Shopify sellers and small importers buying standard products from China.

This is the full sequence before a deposit. If you already have one supplier and only want the short list, use the seven checks before a deposit. That page stays a checklist for a single name. This page is the method around it: a written spec, a shortlist, the same desk checks on each name, a comparison, then sampling and payment.

The real problem is not finding a supplier

Finding a supplier on 1688 or Alibaba takes minutes. A good-looking store, a good price and many product photos do not prove that the seller makes the product, holds the certificates it shows, or can deliver the quality and quantity you ordered.

Most problems show up in the paperwork, in Chinese, before any money moves. Verify the supplier on paper first, compare a shortlist side by side, and only then pay a deposit, test a sample, and place a bulk order.

Step 1: Write a clear spec before you search

A vague brief produces vague quotes. Before you contact suppliers, write down the product, material, size, colour, packaging, target quantity, target market and any certificates you need. If a certificate is required for your market, say so at the start. A supplier that cannot meet a required certificate is not a cheaper option, it is the wrong option.

The same list is what you send to start a desk review: product and spec, target quantity, target market, certificates you need, and the store links or company names you are considering. The brief on the home page is that list, ready to paste into an Upwork order.

Step 2: Shortlist three to five, not one

Do not check only the first supplier that replies. Search in Chinese on 1688 and Alibaba, build a shortlist of three to five suppliers for the same spec, and compare them on the same points. A single supplier gives you no price band, no MOQ comparison and no fallback if one fails a check. How to read a 1688 store against an Alibaba.com page is in the 1688 guide.

Be careful with paid supplier lists and courses that sell names. A list is a starting point, not a check. Many lists simply repackage contacts already visible on the platforms, with no check of licence, scope or factory status, and they go out of date fast. A company can change its scope, stop producing a product, or start trading goods it never made. What matters is the supplier behind the name on the day you order: registered or not, factory or trader, certificates still valid or not, and any litigation, penalty or tax notice on record.

Step 3: Run the six desk checks on each supplier

For each supplier, check the following from Chinese-language records and platform pages. Label every claim by its evidence. The labels are only Verified, Supplier-claimed and Unknown.

1. Business licence (营业执照). Is the company active? What is its legal form, founding date, registered capital and operating term? Read the fields, then confirm them in the public record. The field-by-field reading is in how to read a Chinese business licence.
2. Registered scope (经营范围). Does the scope cover your product, and does it include processing? A real company may not be registered for what you order. The same licence guide shows how to read production wording against sales wording.
3. Owners and management (股东, 高管). Who owns and runs the company?
4. Litigation, penalties and tax notices (诉讼, 处罚, 欠税). Any court cases, penalties or overdue tax notices on record? A notice on record is a fact to report. No lookup, or a lookup you could not finish, stays Unknown.
5. Certificates, trademarks and patents (证书, 商标, 专利). Do they exist, match this supplier, and stay valid? A certificate scan alone is not proof. Check the number with the issuing body where a public database exists, and check the expiry date. The questions and the places to confirm each type are in the certificates guide.
6. Factory or trader (工厂, 贸易商). Cross-check licence, store range and product pages together, never one signal alone. A short scope focused on one product family and production wording points one way. Dozens of unrelated items, wholesale and retail only, and no production wording point the other way. The five signals are in the factory-or-trader guide.

Add two practical checks that buyers often miss.

• Price band. Compare the quote with the market band for the same product on the major Chinese B2B platforms. A price far below the band is a warning, not a bargain. It is not, by itself, a Verified finding about who makes the goods. The 1688 guide covers the same price and stock patterns on a store page.
• History and domain. Check whether a claimed long history matches the company founding date and the domain registration date. A new domain with an old claim needs a second look. A mismatch is a question, not a finished conclusion.

Label every line

Use the same three labels on every row of the comparison. Do not add others, and do not leave a row blank and treat it as fine.

• Verified. Confirmed by an official or third-party source.
• Supplier-claimed. Stated by the supplier, not independently confirmed.
• Unknown. Could not be confirmed, and not assumed to be fine.

Unknown stays Unknown. An inconsistency in the public records is a signal to cross-check, not a verdict. Explain what to ask the supplier to close the gap. If the supplier does not reply, do not invent a quote. That supplier is marked unverified in the risk rating, and every unanswered point stays Unknown.

Step 4: Compare, rate the risk, and do not guess the gaps

Put the shortlist in one comparison table, with an evidence card for each supplier and a risk rating for each. The rating comes from what could be confirmed. It does not fill a gap with a guess.

A trading company is not automatically a bad supplier. Many traders are reliable, and some are the better choice for small orders. The risk is paying a factory price and planning a factory lead time while actually buying from a trader. The report should tell you which one you are dealing with, so you can negotiate price, MOQ and lead time on that basis.

The seven-point list for one supplier, including matching the legal name on the contract and the account you pay, is the deposit checklist. Use this comparison when you have three to five names. Use that checklist when you are about to pay one of them.

Step 5: Sample, then pay safely

For low-value goods, raw materials and parts, test a sample before a bulk order. For a claimed manufacturer, ask for a live video walkthrough of the production floor, not only edited photos. If an agent demands a very high MOQ or sends a good sample and a different bulk product, that is a reason to pause and re-check the spec, not to increase the order.

Never pay a personal account. Pay the company directly or through platform escrow. Keep payment to the supplier separate from any verification service. A verifier should never handle your payment to the factory. Orders for this desk review run through Upwork. I do not take payment outside Upwork, and I never ask for a bank transfer.

What desk verification cannot do

Desk verification checks documents, platform data and public records. It does not visit the factory, does not inspect goods before shipment, and does not promise quality or delivery. If you need a site visit or a pre-shipment inspection, that is a separate service, and it should be arranged before a large bulk deposit, not after a problem appears.

Limit of a desk check. A report shows what could be confirmed and what could not. Unknown stays Unknown. It is not a factory visit, not a pre-shipment inspection, and not a promise of quality or delivery.

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