Almost every bad import story starts the same way: the buyer liked the price, sent the payment, and only then began asking questions. Checking a supplier is not complicated, but it has to happen while you still have leverage — that is, before the money leaves your hands.

Look at the company, not the listing

A product page is marketing. The company behind it is what you are actually dealing with. Ask for the business licence and see whether the company name on it matches the name you are being invoiced by. Check what the company is registered to do: a business that makes one category of goods but offers you an unrelated product range is usually a trading company reselling someone else’s output.

Neither is wrong. Factories often give better prices at higher quantities; trading companies are often easier to deal with for smaller, mixed orders. The problem is only when you think you are talking to one and you are talking to the other.

Understand what platform badges do and do not mean

Verification badges on sourcing platforms generally confirm that some paperwork was submitted and checked. They do not confirm product quality, production capacity, or that this particular order will go well. Treat a badge as one small piece of evidence, not a guarantee.

If you are still deciding where to look for suppliers, our comparison of Alibaba and 1688 for Bangladeshi businesses covers how the two platforms differ.

Ask questions that cannot be answered with “yes”

Vague questions get vague answers. Specific questions reveal how well a supplier actually knows their own product:

  • What material is this made of, and what alternatives do you offer?
  • What is included in the price, and what is charged separately?
  • How is the product packed, and how many pieces per carton?
  • What happens if a portion of the shipment arrives damaged or does not match the sample?
  • Which of these items do you produce yourself, and which do you buy in?

A supplier who answers precisely and quickly is telling you something useful. So is one who avoids the question or replies with a new photo instead of an answer.

Watch how they handle the small things

Before a large order, you usually have at least one small interaction: a sample request, a question about packaging, a request for a revised quotation. How that is handled predicts how the real order will be handled. Slow, careless replies at the sample stage rarely turn into careful work at the production stage.

Keep payments traceable and in the company’s name

Pay a registered company account that matches the company you have been dealing with, through a route your bank can document. A request to pay a personal account, a third-party account, or an account in a different country than expected is worth pausing over — not necessarily fraud, but always a question that deserves a clear answer before you proceed.

Our guide on paying a Chinese supplier from Bangladesh goes through the common routes in more detail.

Make the first order small enough to lose

This is the single most effective protection available to a new importer. A trial order costs more per unit and feels inefficient, but it tests the product, the supplier and your own process at the same time — at a size where a mistake is a lesson rather than a loss you cannot absorb.

Signals worth slowing down for

  • A price far below every other quotation for the same specification
  • Pressure to decide immediately because of a “limited” offer
  • Reluctance to share the business licence or company details
  • Answers that change between messages
  • A request to move the conversation and the payment off any platform you started on

None of these on its own proves anything. Two or three together are usually worth acting on.

If you would rather not do this checking yourself, send us your product requirement and we will look at what is available before anything is committed.

Related reading: China product sourcing guide for Bangladeshi businesses and things to consider before importing.