Legitimacy Of Chinese Suppliers: 9 Simple Ways To Verify

Chinese suppliers might be your priority when it comes to trading, as they proffer benefits like standardised services at low costs with the opportunities of encountering a profitable outcome. However, the very same supplier, who appears fine and promises the potentials of a business opportunity, might turn out to be a fraudster, and so you need to watch out for such imposters. But the million-dollar question is— how to spot a legitimate supplier from a group of hoaxers? This is what the article intends to clarify by jotting down ten simple ways to a legitimacy verification.

1. Take Advantage Of The Ever Popular Search Engines Never underestimate the power of search engines as it reveals a lot about a company. By simply typing ‘company name + scam’ or similar such variants, on one of it, you might just come across the poor experiences of retailers. Moreover, you might stumble upon the Chinese supplier’s profiles created on popular B2B directories like Hong Kong Trade Development Council, Alibaba and plenty others. Try browsing through its reviews, look for proper contact details, address, their sales figures and similar such data uploaded by the supplier on the web. The presence of Chinese companies on trade shows is another important factor determining the genuineness of it. In short, exploit the search engine as much as you can to get an up-close analysis of your chosen supplier and its company.
2. Ring Up Generally, scammers upload only their mobile numbers on the web, to keep themselves away from the clutches of law enforcement authorities. Therefore, always ring up on their landline numbers and ask for their business license and registration number, to ensure their authenticity.
3. Look For References References reflect a Chinese supplier’s financial creditworthiness and resources like bank’s referral letters ensure a clean track record. You can also check the references provided by the supplier by calling them up and verifying their validity.
4. Ask For A Sample Shortlisting a supplier simply on the grounds of a clean track record is not enough. Therefore, it’s wise to ask for a sample, so that you can check on the quality, even if that necessitates making a payment. Also, insist on a company bank account, for making the payment to make out its legitimacy.
5. Choose Your Mode Of Payment Cautiously Fraudsters usually avoid cash on deliveries so the most prudent thing would be to ask for the same. Collect your products from their address and pay for it on spot. This way, you can validate their address. If wire transfers are your preference, settle only with PayPal, Western Union, or TT, as these are far more reliable than other modes of payment.
6. Run A Factory Audit Prior to issuing your purchase order, make it clear to the supplier about your intentions of running a factory audit. If you get a hint of rejection or even smell excuses coming up their way, approaching them for supplies would never be a good idea then.
7. Take The Aid Of A Database Databases come to rescue even when other methods fail. To catch a scammer, the optimal way will be to type the name of the supplier in the Chinese Supreme Court’s database and get a hint of their background.
8. Carry Out Background Checks If other techniques fail, you can at least rely on the services of GloBIS or China Checkup, which delivers reports on background checks, revealing a lot about the supplier’s legal representatives, its scope of conducting business and its financial records as a whole.
9. Visit The Organisation Personally Regardless of all the checks, a doubt might still linger on and in that case, it is best to visit the Chinese supplier personally to discuss your concerns. A face-to-face conversation always clears out every doubt pertaining to quality, prices, products and similar such aspects.

Conclusion

Meticulous researches, QA checks and face-to-face meetings are the foundation stones of a strong relationship. So no matter how you wish to take your business ahead, be it through online or offline trading, take the responsibility of saving yourself from imposters and ensure all the above-mentioned checks, before entering into any transaction with the shortlisted Chinese supplier.