How to import from China

1. Specify the product. Not "a power bank" — a capacity, a cell chemistry, an output protocol, a housing material, a certification target and a destination market. A vague specification does not get you a vague quote; it gets you a confident quote for something you did not want.
2. Find and verify suppliers. Marketplaces, trade shows, referrals or an agent. The verification step is the one that matters and is covered below.
3. Get quotes on a stated Incoterm. "US$4.20" means nothing until you know whether it is EXW, FOB or DDP. Two quotes on different terms are not comparable, and this is the most common way buyers compare the wrong numbers.
4. Sample and approve. Pay for the sample. Approve it in writing, keep it, and state that production will be measured against it.
5. Agree the contract and payment terms. A deposit against balance on shipping documents is the usual shape; 30% deposit and 70% balance is the most common convention, though it varies with volume and relationship.
6. Place the order and pay the deposit. Payment goes to the company that invoices you, and the account name should match the company name. If it does not, stop and ask why before sending anything.
7. Inspect before shipment. Covered below — this is the step with the leverage.
8. Freight, and the export and import formalities. Sea or air, an HS classification, an export declaration at origin and a customs entry at destination.
9. Pay the balance and take delivery. Then measure what arrived against what you approved, because that record is what makes the next order better.

This is the first of the three expensive steps, and most guides reduce it to "check the business licence", which is necessary and nowhere near sufficient.

The business licence carries a 经营范围 — a registered scope of business. A manufacturer's scope names manufacturing; a trading company's names wholesale and import/export. That single field separates the two and it is the check almost nobody runs.

Beyond the document: ask which processes happen in their own building and which are subcontracted, and ask it as a neutral question rather than a challenge — most real factories subcontract something, and a straight answer tells you more than a denial. Ask for the test report and check the applicant name on it matches the company quoting you. Ask for photographs of the specific production line for your product, not the corporate gate.

And be clear about why it matters. A trading company is not a fraud — it is a legitimate business, and for a small mixed order it can be the right counterparty. But you are paying a margin for a service, and you should know that you are, because it changes what the price means and who can actually change the specification.

A sample you did not pay for is a marketing sample, and it is frequently not made on the line that will make your order. Pay for it.

Approve it in writing, with photographs, and keep the physical piece. The approved sample is the reference the production run is measured against, and without one every later disagreement becomes an argument about memory.

State explicitly that production must match the approved sample, and that any change of material, component or subcontractor requires notice. This is the clause that turns a substituted cell or a cheaper hinge from an argument into a breach.

And watch for the golden-sample problem: a sample built by hand, by the best operator, without line pressure, is not evidence that the line can hold that standard across ten thousand units. That is what the inspection is for.

This is the single highest-value step in the sequence and the one most often skipped to save a few hundred dollars.

The timing is the whole point. Inspect before the balance is paid and before the goods leave China, because at that moment the factory still wants something from you. After the balance clears and the container sails, your only remedies are commercial goodwill and a lawsuit in a foreign jurisdiction.

Inspection is normally done on an AQL sampling plan — a defined sample size and a defined number of allowable defects, agreed in advance rather than argued afterwards. Agree the AQL level and the defect classification before production starts, not when the inspector is standing in the warehouse.

Check quantity, workmanship, function, packaging, labelling and the carton markings. Labelling failures are the quiet ones: a missing country of origin or a wrong voltage marking can hold a shipment at the border as effectively as a defect can.

Tooling, where a product is moulded — and agree in writing who owns the tool before it is cut.

Samples and sample courier, which on a technical product across several iterations is not trivial.

Inspection, usually charged per man-day.

Freight, and the mode is decided by value density and by whether the product is restricted. Anything with a lithium cell is Class 9 dangerous goods, cannot fly as cargo on a passenger aircraft, and must ship at no more than 30% state of charge.

Duty and import tax in your market, calculated on a value base that usually includes freight.

Currency conversion, which is a real cost even when nobody calls it a fee — the spread is the fee.

And rework, which is the line nobody budgets and the one that decides whether a first order was profitable. Agree in advance who pays for sorting, repacking or remaking a batch that fails inspection.