Insights / Guides

Practical sourcing guides.

Use these chapters to prepare clearer questions before an industrial order, supplier commitment or import assumption is accepted.

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Engineering and sourcing notes prepared for a buying decision.

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Guide chapters

Why Source from China — and When Not To

Use this guide before searching for suppliers: test whether China has the right volume, cost gap, capability, lead-time tolerance...

Finding Suppliers Beyond Alibaba — the Discovery Stack

Use this guide to build a supplier discovery stack beyond platform listings, then verify candidates against Chinese registry, tra...

Factory vs Trading Company — Five Public-Record Checks

Before treating a supplier as a factory, check registration scope, address evidence, production proof, export footprint and quota...

The RFQ for Industrial Goods — What UK Buyers Should Ask

Use this RFQ guide to make supplier quotes comparable before price review: define specification, tolerances, MOQ, Incoterms, samp...

Reading the First Quote — What CIF and FOB Hide

Break the first CIF or FOB quote into cost claims before comparing suppliers, so freight, duty, VAT, packaging and payment assump...

Negotiation and Payment Terms — T/T 30/70 vs L/C vs Trade Assurance

Set payment terms against supplier evidence and order risk, not habit: compare T/T, letters of credit and Trade Assurance before...

Samples and the Factory Audit — When the £600 Audit Pays Back

Use samples and factory audits as evidence gates: decide what the sample proves, when a paid audit is worth it and what still rem...

Pre-Shipment Inspection — SGS, TUV, or Self-Organised

Turn pre-shipment inspection into a batch-release control before final payment, with AQL, scope, photos and rework terms agreed i...

Incoterms Decision Tree — DDP vs FOB vs CIF for UK industrial buyers

Choose DDP, FOB or CIF by control and evidence, not by the neatest quote, then model who owns freight, customs, VAT and delay risk.

Freight Booking and Forwarder Selection

Before booking freight, compare forwarders on route, cut-off dates, FCL/LCL economics, documentation discipline and escalation pa...

UK customs clearance and PVA: the £9,000 field your forwarder may miss

Use PVA as a written customs-instruction control, then verify the forwarder used the right CDS treatment before cash leaves the b...

Postponed VAT accounting: the forwarder evidence check

Separate quote facts from supplier assumptions in the landed-cost stack, so CIF, duty, VAT, port fees and delivery lines can be c...

Post-Arrival QC, Dispute Path, and Repeat Orders

After arrival, preserve evidence quickly: inspect the batch, document defects, protect the dispute path and change the repeat-ord...

EU environmental and carbon evidence for China sourcing

Before EU market entry, check whether environmental, carbon or product-entry evidence is missing from the China supplier file and...