Every importer of lighting has a story that starts the same way: the quote was great, the samples were perfect, and the container was not. The gap between sample and shipment is where sourcing relationships live or die. In China’s lighting industry — the world’s largest — the difference between a factory and a trading company is not size, it is process. These seven checks find the difference before you commit money.
Check one: registration. Ask for the business license and check the company name against the bank account name that receives your payment. In China, a mismatch between the two is the single strongest red flag in the entire supply chain. Also check the registered capital and establishment date — a factory registered this year with a claimed 20-year history has already failed the test.
Check two: a live video tour. Ask to see, on video call, three specific areas in this order: the production line, the quality inspection station, and the warehouse. A trading company can rent a showroom but cannot fake a working assembly line on a live call. Count the machines on screen, note whether operators are actually working, and ask to see the batch you will be buying, not the sample cabinet.
Check three: the written spec sheet. The difference between a real manufacturer and a reseller shows up here. A factory gives you wattage range, voltage options, base types, dimensions, life expectancy and operating temperature in a format they use internally. A reseller gives you marketing copy. If the spec sheet cannot survive contact with a test meter, neither can the product.
Check four: sample consistency across a batch. Order not one sample but five, from different production dates if possible, and measure them against each other — same wattage, same base dimensions, same brightness. The single most common complaint in lighting imports is not "the product is bad" but "the first sample was great, the rest were not". Batch consistency is the real quality metric.
Check five: MOQ and price tiers. MOQ varies wildly by product: commodity halogen capsules may require 1,000+ pieces, while specialized or custom-base items start from 2–50. Ask for a price-break table across quantity tiers rather than a single quote, and get tooling and packaging costs in writing. A supplier who cannot articulate their MOQ logic does not understand their own cost structure.
Check six: Incoterms, explicitly. FOB at Shanghai, Qingdao or Guangdong is the lighting industry standard; CFR and CIF shift freight responsibility to the seller; DDP transfers customs risk but adds a premium. Write the port and the term on the PO — verbal agreements about shipping terms are how freight disputes start, and the full freight, Incoterms and customs chain is covered in our shipping guide.
Check seven: payment terms and dispute path. The industry norm for new relationships is 30% deposit / 70% against shipping documents. If a supplier demands 100% upfront for a first order, walk away — even if the factory is genuine, the terms predict the relationship. Trade assurance or letter of credit adds protection for larger orders. Shunqi Lighting quotes within one working day, publishes spec sheets before the PO, welcomes factory tours and sample batches, and ships under standard FOB terms from Shanghai, Qingdao or Guangdong.