# Questions to ask Chinese supplier before ordering: the complete list
Knowing the right questions to ask Chinese supplier before ordering is what separates buyers who get what they expected from buyers who get a lesson. Most sourcing problems are not mysteries. They are questions nobody asked: about the factory behind the sales rep, about what the price actually includes, about who owns the mold, about what happens when the goods fail inspection.
This guide organizes the essential questions by topic. Work through these questions to ask Chinese supplier before ordering in sequence: each section builds on the last. Ask them in writing, keep the answers, and treat evasive replies as data. A supplier's willingness to answer precisely is itself a quality signal.
Questions to ask Chinese supplier before ordering: company and legitimacy
Start with identity, because every other answer depends on who is actually answering. Ask for the company's full legal name in Chinese and a copy of the business license. Ask for the 18-character USCC so you can verify the company on gsxt.gov.cn or Qichacha yourself.
Then ask the question that frames everything, and the most basic of the questions to ask Chinese supplier before ordering: are you the factory manufacturing this product, or a trading company? If they are a trader, ask which factory makes the goods and whether you can verify that factory directly. Honest traders answer plainly and facilitate verification. Evasive ones have something to protect.
Ask how long the company has operated under its current legal name, and what the registered address is. Compare the answers against the license. Ask which markets they currently export to and how long they have done so. A supplier serving your target market for years understands its compliance expectations. One that has never exported there will learn on your order.
Production capability questions
These questions test whether the supplier can actually make your product at your volume. Ask what the monthly production capacity is for your product category, and how many production lines run it. Ask what their current order book looks like and how your order would fit. A factory at full capacity when you ask will not have spare capacity when your deadline arrives.
Ask about the equipment used for your specific product and how old the key machines are. Ask who makes the molds or tooling if your product needs them, who owns them, and where they are kept. Mold ownership is a classic dispute source: clarify before production that tooling you paid for belongs to you, in writing.
Ask about raw materials: where they source them, whether they buy in lots, and what happens to your price if material costs move. Capability questions are the questions to ask Chinese supplier before ordering that predict delivery reliability. This also explains their MOQ, since material purchase lots and production-line changeovers are what MOQs are built on. A supplier who can explain their MOQ in terms of real costs is showing you their actual operation. One who cannot is quoting a number they inherited or invented.
Quality control questions
Quality questions reveal whether the supplier has a system or just a sales pitch. Ask whether they hold ISO 9001 certification and which body issued it, so you can verify it independently. Ask how many QC staff they employ and whether QC reports to production or operates independently.
Ask them to describe their inspection process: incoming material checks, in-process checkpoints, and final inspection. These are the questions to ask Chinese supplier before ordering that reveal whether quality is a system or a slogan. Ask what their most common defect is on products like yours and what corrective action they took last time. This is a revealing question. A specific answer means they track quality. A claim of zero defects means they do not.
Ask how they handle your spec sheet: do they work from controlled documents, and will they confirm each specification in writing before production? The spec sheet, with materials, dimensions and tolerances, colors, functions, packaging, labeling, and QC criteria, should be the single source of truth. If the supplier works from informal chat messages, expect the misunderstandings that informal communication breeds.
Finally, ask whether they accept third-party inspections at each production stage, including pre-shipment inspection with the balance tied to passing. A supplier who resists independent inspection is telling you about their confidence in their own quality.
Certification and compliance questions
For regulated products, these questions are non-negotiable. Compliance questions are the questions to ask Chinese supplier before ordering that protect you as importer of record. Ask which certifications the product currently holds, the certificate numbers, the issuing bodies, and which legal entity is named on each certificate. Then verify every one of them in the issuing body's public database yourself: FCC IDs in the FCC database, CE Notified Body numbers in the EU NANDO database, FDA registrations in FDA lookup.
Ask whether the certificates cover your exact product model and configuration, not a related one. Ask when the underlying testing was done and whether they retest for new production batches. Remember that as the importer of record, you own compliance in markets like the US. The supplier's paperwork supports your position; it does not replace your responsibility.
Ask about labeling and packaging compliance for your market: barcodes, warning labels, language requirements, suffocation warnings on poly bags for certain markets. Confirm these details before production, because relabeling a finished container is expensive and sometimes impossible.
Pricing and quotation questions
Never accept a bare number. Ask for a detailed proforma invoice and confirm it includes Incoterms, unit price, total value, weight, packed dimensions, HS code, payment terms, lead time, and validity period. Each missing item is a future argument.
Ask what the price includes and excludes: which packaging, which certifications and testing, which labeling, what freight terms. Price-structure questions are the questions to ask Chinese supplier before ordering that expose what the quote hides. The cheapest quote often excludes what the others include, so normalize every quotation to identical terms before comparing. Ask for a cost breakdown, materials, labor, overhead, margin. Factories can usually provide one; traders often cannot without revealing their markup, which is itself useful information.
Ask about price validity and what triggers a price change. Raw material movements are the legitimate driver; get the supplier to name the mechanism rather than accepting open-ended adjustment rights. And ask about payment terms explicitly: deposit percentage, balance timing, and whether the balance can be tied to a passed pre-shipment inspection.
Lead time and logistics questions
Ask for the lead time broken into stages: material procurement, production, and inspection and loading. Timing questions are the questions to ask Chinese supplier before ordering that prevent holiday surprises. A single "30 days" hides where the risk sits. Ask what could delay each stage and how they communicate delays. Then ask about the calendar: how do they schedule around Chinese New Year, which shuts factories for about three weeks, and Golden Week in early October? Plan production to finish before the long breaks, and get the holiday schedule in writing.
Ask which Incoterms they normally quote and which ports they ship from. Ask whether they handle export documentation themselves or through an agent. Ask how they pack for ocean freight: carton strength, palletization, container loading method. Packaging belongs on your QC checklist, and confirming it before production prevents the crushed-carton surprises that ruin otherwise good orders.
Problem-resolution questions
Nobody asks these until they need the answers, which is exactly the wrong time. These final questions to ask Chinese supplier before ordering matter most when things go wrong. Ask upfront: what happens if the pre-shipment inspection fails? Who pays for rework, who pays for re-inspection, and what is the timeline? Get the answers tied to your contract's acceptance criteria and late-delivery penalties.
Ask how they handle quality complaints after delivery. Ask for two or three customer references you can contact, preferably buyers in your market. A supplier with happy long-term customers offers them readily. One with none, or who refuses, is showing you the state of those relationships.
Ask about IP protection if you are sharing designs: will they sign an NNN agreement covering non-disclosure, non-use, and non-circumvention? Will they agree in writing that molds and tooling you paid for are your property? These conversations are normal in OEM relationships, and resistance to them is informative.
How to ask: process tips
Ask in writing, by email, even if you also discuss by WeChat or phone. WeChat is for speed; email is for records. Written answers create accountability and give you a file to check the goods against later.
Send the questions as a structured RFQ rather than dripping them out one by one. Putting these questions to ask Chinese supplier before ordering into a structured RFQ filters suppliers fast: a clear RFQ, with your specs, target price, MOQ expectations, certifications needed, and timeline, gets serious replies from serious suppliers and silence from the rest. That filtering is the point.
Follow up politely and persistently. Chinese suppliers deal with many inquiries, and the good ones prioritize buyers who are organized and specific. A detailed question list marks you as a buyer worth answering well, which improves the quality of what you get back.
Conclusion
The questions to ask Chinese supplier before ordering boil down to a simple principle: verify identity, capability, quality systems, compliance, price structure, timing, and problem resolution, all in writing, before money moves. Keep the list handy and reuse it: the questions to ask Chinese supplier before ordering do not change much between products, only the answers do. Suppliers who answer precisely earn your order. Suppliers who evade have answered the most important question of all.
Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
### What are the most important questions to ask Chinese supplier before ordering?
The legitimacy questions come first: legal name, business license, USCC, factory or trader. Then capability, quality systems, certifications, price structure, lead time, and problem resolution. Skip the first group and nothing else you learn matters.
### How many questions is too many to ask a supplier?
There is no such number if the questions are specific and organized. Serious suppliers expect detailed RFQs from professional buyers. A supplier who complains about thorough questions is complaining about being treated like a business partner.
### Should I ask these questions before or after getting a quotation?
Both. Send a structured RFQ with your key questions upfront so quotations arrive comparable. Then ask the deeper verification questions, on capability, quality systems, and compliance, with your shortlisted suppliers before committing.
### What if the supplier refuses to answer some questions?
Distinguish between proprietary details and basic transparency. A factory need not share its full customer list, but it should share its license, its certifications, its QC process, and its inspection policy. Refusal on basics is a red flag. Evasion on specifics after a reasonable explanation deserves one follow-up, then a decision.
### Do I need to ask these questions for reorders too?
In lighter form, yes: the questions to ask Chinese supplier before ordering shrink for reorders, but the verification habit should not. Confirm nothing material has changed: same factory, same materials, same specs, current certificates. Product drift between orders is real, and a short re-confirmation before each reorder catches it cheaply.
### What is the single most revealing question to ask?
Ask them to describe their most common defect and their last corrective action. It tests whether they track quality, whether they are honest about problems, and whether their system actually improves things. The specificity of the answer tells you everything about the operation behind the sales rep.