Vetting a new supplier: the audit that happens before the deposit

Why the photograph proves nothing

A factory photo can be borrowed, and often is. A certificate can be shared between companies that have nothing else in common. A client list is aspirational more often than it is accurate. None of it is verification, it is marketing, and marketing is not what protects a deposit.

Real verification happens on a call and on a document, not in a PDF someone designed to be shown. It takes under an hour, and it happens before you quote the factory to a client, not after.

The four checks that take under an hour

Business licence first. Ask for it directly. The registered scope states manufacturing or trading in plain terms, and it can be cross-checked against China's national enterprise credit registry in minutes. A legitimate supplier hands it over without a delay.

Product range second. A factory does a narrow range well. A supplier quoting rackets, kitchenware and LED lighting from the same address is a catalogue with a factory's name on it.

Export history third. Ask which countries they currently ship to. A real answer names markets and, often, a buyer they are comfortable naming. A vague answer is the honest one: they do not know, because someone else runs that relationship.

Live video walk fourth. Ask for a camera on the specific line making your category of product, today, not a promotional video shot last year. The reaction to that request is more informative than the footage itself.

The questions that separate a factory from a sales office

Ask something only production would know: the mould cycle time, the resin ratio, who supplies the raw material and whether you can see the purchase invoice. A factory answers in seconds. A trading company has to check and call you back.

Then ask the question that actually matters: if my order exceeds your capacity this month, where does the overflow go. A real factory names a subcontractor, because it happens to them constantly and they have nothing to hide about it. A trader goes quiet, because admitting it means admitting they do not control production at all.

What happens after the audit passes

Passing the audit clears a supplier for a sample order. It does not clear them for a deposit. Those are two different decisions, made at two different points, and collapsing them into one is the single most common mistake we see from importers buying direct for the first time.

We run this exact sequence before we put a factory in front of a client, and the suppliers that fail rarely fail on paper. They fail on the video call, when the camera does not go where they said it would.