Blog
Practical insights on doing business in China — sourcing, inspection, and local support.
Amazon FBA Prep and Inspection in China: The Gap Between What Amazon Checks and What Sellers Assume
FBA solves the job of shipping and delivery — it does not inspect production, does not catch a wrong barcode, and does not fix weak packaging or an inaccurate customs value. Many sellers only discover this gap after a rejected shipment or a wave of quality complaints. Here's what actually needs checking before goods leave China, and why fixing it there is a fraction of the cost of fixing it later.
China Product Certification in 2026: What Importers Are Legally Responsible For (Not the Factory)
The importer bears legal responsibility for product compliance, not the factory — a fact that surprises buyers who assume a supplier's certification claim transfers the risk along with it. 2026 brought a specific new complication: US regulators banned Chinese labs from issuing new FCC certifications. Here's what's actually changed and what to verify before accepting a factory's compliance documents.
Verifying Factory Production Capacity in China: How to Check a Number You Can't See
"We can produce 500 containers a month" is a number, not a fact — and taking it at face value is one of the most common ways buyers end up with a supplier who can't actually deliver their order on time. Here's a practical way to check a factory's real capacity against what they're claiming, using numbers that can be observed on the spot.
WeChat Agreements With Chinese Suppliers: What Actually Holds Up If Something Goes Wrong
WeChat is where most day-to-day supplier communication actually happens — price adjustments, spec changes, delivery date confirmations, all agreed in a chat thread that feels as binding as any other conversation. It usually isn't, and buyers tend to find this out at the worst possible moment. Here's what actually holds up when a WeChat agreement is challenged.
Negotiating with Chinese Factories in 2026: Why the Old Assumptions Don't Hold Anymore
Many buyers still negotiate with Chinese factories as if orders are scarce and factories hold all the leverage. In 2026, that assumption is increasingly backwards — China's manufacturing PMI has sat in contraction territory since late 2025, and a growing number of factories are short on orders, not overbooked. Here's what that shift actually means at the negotiating table.
Planning a Multi-Category Sourcing Trip to China (When Your List Doesn't Fit One Industry)
Some buyers arrive in China with a single product in mind. Others land with a list that reads like a wholesale catalog — diapers, bedding, perfumes, jeans, and a piece of industrial equipment, all in the same eight days. Here's how to actually structure a trip like that so it produces results instead of chaos.
Protecting Your Intellectual Property When Sourcing from China: What OEM and ODM Buyers Need to Know
Most buyers who lose intellectual property in China don't lose it through dramatic theft. They lose it through gaps in their supplier agreements, mold ownership structures, and trademark registration timing. Here's what the risks actually look like — and the specific steps that close them.
Managing Chinese Supplier Relationships: What Experienced Buyers Do Differently
The buyers who consistently get better pricing, faster responses, and more flexibility from Chinese suppliers aren't the ones with the largest orders. They're the ones who've invested in the relationship. Here's what that actually looks like in practice — and how to do it effectively from abroad.
China Export Customs Delays in 2026: What's Causing Them and How to Prevent Them Before Your Goods Reach the Port
A customs delay on a China shipment isn't just a logistics problem — it's a supply chain problem that starts at the factory, not the port. Most delays in 2026 are preventable, and most of them have the same root causes: documentation errors, HS code mistakes, and compliance gaps that are invisible until the moment a shipment gets pulled for review.
Is Sourcing from China Still Worth It in 2026? A Category-by-Category Honest Answer
For many industries, China sourcing has shifted from a risk management conversation to a crisis management conversation in 2026. That doesn't mean the answer is to leave. It means the answer has become more nuanced — and more dependent on which product category you're in, what market you're selling into, and how well you're managing the risks that have genuinely increased.