Chinese New Year: The Production Calendar That Catches Importers Out

Every year, a wave of importers discovers the hard way that "7 days of official holiday" in China actually means their goods are a month late. Chinese New Year is the single biggest scheduling event in global manufacturing, and if you're importing to New Zealand you need to plan around it from months out — not react to it when your supplier goes quiet in late January.

What actually happens at CNY

Chinese New Year falls between 21 January and 20 February, depending on the lunar calendar. The official public holiday is about a week — but factories close for up to three to four weeks. For most workers this is the only annual leave they take, and many travel days to reach home provinces, so factories wind down early and restart slowly.

Then comes the part that catches even experienced importers: in some factories, up to half the workers simply don't return after the holiday. They take jobs closer to home or move to a rival plant. The factory spends weeks recruiting and retraining, quality wobbles, and the production queue that built up before the holiday now collides with post-holiday chaos. Factories fight back with bonuses, dormitories, free meals and training programmes — but from your side of the ocean, the effect is the same: February and March are slow, congested and risky.

Figure: The Chinese production year at a glance — CNY shutdown window, other factory holidays, and the order deadlines that matter for NZ importers.

The knock-on effects you pay for

• Orders queue on both sides of the holiday. Place an order in December and it may not ship until March.
• Vessels sell out pre-CNY. Everyone races to ship before the shutdown, so bookings fill and freight rates spike in the rush. Reserve vessel space early — ideally before you even place the factory order.
• Suppliers go dark. During the holiday your contact is at a family table in a distant province, not at a desk. Ask every factory for its specific closure dates — they vary, and "we close on the 15th" is information you want in writing in November, not January.

The rest of the calendar

CNY is the big one, but China's production year has more speed bumps. Factories are mostly closed for: New Year's Day (1 January), Qingming Festival (early April), Labour Day (1–3 May), Dragon Boat Festival (fifth day of the fifth lunar month), Mid-Autumn Festival (15th day of the eighth lunar month), and National Day Golden Week (1–7 October) — a full week that surprises importers who only planned for CNY. Check the holiday calendar both when timing orders and when planning any China trip.

What this means for a Kiwi importer's diary

Work backwards from the roughly 90-day cycle from order to your warehouse (production plus ~20–23 days' sea transit to Auckland or Tauranga, plus clearance). Overlay the holidays and the rules write themselves:

• Christmas stock: your orders need to be placed by winter — June or July — and shipped well before the pre-CNY rush even begins. Leave it until spring and you're gambling.
• Ship before CNY, always. If production finishes anywhere near January, push hard to get goods on the water before the shutdown. Goods that miss the window sit for a month or more.
• Order early for autumn. Stock you want in March or April should be ordered around October–November, before the pre-CNY queue forms — and remember Golden Week eats the first week of October.
• Buffer your reorders. If your stock countdown says you'll need replenishment in February or March, order extra in the pre-CNY batch. Running lean across CNY is how you end up with a "sold out" listing for six weeks while competitors take your customers.

One more nuance: the first production runs after CNY carry elevated quality risk, because lines are full of new hires. If your goods must be made in the post-CNY window, this is exactly when a during-production or pre-shipment inspection earns its ~US$300 several times over.

CNY's dates shift every year — it lands in early February in 2027 — so put the specific dates in your planning calendar each year and ask suppliers for their closure windows before you commit to any Q1 delivery.

Key takeaways

• Factories close for up to 3–4 weeks around CNY (21 Jan–20 Feb window), and up to 50% of workers may not return.
• Ship before CNY; book vessel space early because pre-holiday sailings sell out and rates spike.
• Don't forget the other closures — especially Golden Week, 1–7 October.
• Plan Christmas and Q1 stock months ahead using the ~90-day order-to-warehouse cycle, and inspect post-CNY production runs.

Related: From Deposit to Dispatch: Monitoring Your Order During Production, Re-Orders Done Right: Locking In Price and Quality the Second Time

Import Scams and Red Flags: How Kiwis Get Burned (and How Not To)

If it's too good to be true, it usually is. That one sentence would have saved every importer we've ever heard from who lost money to a "supplier" in China. The scams that catch Kiwis aren't sophisticated — they exploit hurry, greed and the fact that you're vetting a company from 9,500 km away. Here's the pattern book, so none of it works on you.

Scam #1: the price that's too good

Genuine factories in the same region, making the same product, quote within a fairly tight band. When one "supplier" comes in 40% below everyone else, that's not a bargain — it's bait. Either the goods will never ship, or what ships will be factory rejects, or the price will mysteriously "correct" after your deposit lands.

A legitimate version of this exists too: confront an expensive supplier with cheaper rival quotes and you'll sometimes get an honest reply — one buyer we know received "we are actually a trading company" in writing. Wild price spread is always information. Investigate it before you act on it.

Scam #2: the payment switcheroo

The single most reliable scam signal is an odd payment request:

• 100% upfront payment demanded — walk away, no exceptions. Legitimate suppliers accept 30% T/T or a letter of credit.
• Payment to a personal account, or an account name that doesn't match the company you've been dealing with.
• Bank details that "change" mid-transaction by email. Email accounts get compromised; always verify new details by video call with your known contact before sending a cent.
• Requests for Western Union — cash to a stranger, zero recourse.

For small platform orders, stay inside escrow (Alibaba Trade Assurance) where a third party holds funds and mediates disputes. Scammers avoid escrow for the same reason you should love it.

Scam #3: the middleman in a factory costume

Not a theft, but a tax on everything you do: a trading company posing as a manufacturer. The tells stack up fast:

• Category breadth: a "factory" selling everything from bananas to computers is a trader.
• Name convention: trading companies typically register with their hometown in the name; manufacturers use the province. "Ningbo Better Lighting Co." → likely trader; "Zhejiang Ningbo Better Lighting Co." → likely manufacturer.
• Registered capital sanity check: 50,000 RMB registered capital with claimed turnover of US$50 million doesn't add up. Nor does huge turnover with 15 staff.
• No ISO 9001 or BSCI on the profile — middlemen won't invest in management standards.

The killer test: ask for a customised sample they don't have on hand, plus a video call showing the factory floor. Middlemen can't fake either easily. (One nuance: some genuine factories lack an export licence and legitimately work through a trading partner for the paperwork — so "trading" in the name is a flag to investigate, not an automatic disqualifier.)

Scam #4: forged certificates

Fake test reports and certificates are a real, recurring problem. Before you rely on any certificate — ISO 9001, CE-style test reports, electrical safety documentation — check that the company name and address on the document match the supplier you're actually dealing with, and have your third-party inspection company verify it. A quick verification often costs nothing and has caught forgeries repeatedly. This matters doubly in NZ: as the importer, compliance with our Electricity (Safety) Regulations and Radio Spectrum Management requirements sits on you, not the factory.

Your standing defences

• Filter hard on the platforms. On Alibaba, combine Gold Supplier, Onsite Check and Assessed Supplier filters — scammers and pure middlemen rarely pay for all three. Relax the filters stepwise only if results run thin.
• Ask for the business licence. It'll be in Chinese, and that's fine — outright refusal to send it is the signal.
• Check their laboratories. Be cautious if they only ever work with Chinese test and inspection companies nobody's heard of.
• Watch communication quality. Fragmented, slow, evasive replies at the enquiry stage only get worse mid-order. Eliminate the weakest communicators early.
• Never reveal you're a first-time importer. It marks you as a target for every trick above.
• Inspect before the balance. A ~US$300 pre-shipment inspection, with 70% of your money still unpaid, converts most "scams" back into solvable quality disputes.

No single check is bulletproof. Stacked together, they filter out nearly everyone you'd regret meeting.

Key takeaways

• Prices far below the market band are bait, not bargains — investigate every outlier.
• 100% upfront, personal accounts, changed bank details or Western Union: refuse and verify by video call.
• Vet profiles forensically: names, registered capital, standards, licences — and run the custom-sample-plus-video-call test.
• Verify certificates through your inspection company; forgeries are common and NZ liability lands on you.

Related: How to Vet a Chinese Supplier Before Sending a Cent, How to Pay Chinese Suppliers Safely: T/T, Trade Assurance, PayPal, L/C

Figure: Red flags ranked by how fast you should walk away.

How to Pay Chinese Suppliers Safely: T/T, Trade Assurance, PayPal, L/C

A supplier asks for 100% payment up front and offers a 5% discount for the favour. Take that deal and you've just handed away the only real leverage you have as an importer sitting 9,500 km from the factory. How you pay a Chinese supplier matters more than almost any clause in your contract, because once your money leaves New Zealand, getting it back is genuinely hard.

Here's how we structure payments — and which methods suit which order sizes.

The golden rule: never pay more than 30% up front

For a standard bank transfer order, the worldwide convention is a 30% deposit to start production and the 70% balance paid only after your pre-shipment inspection passes and the goods are released for shipment.

That unpaid 70% is your leverage. If the inspection finds faults, the supplier will rework the goods — not out of kindness, but because he's still waiting for most of his money. Pay everything early and a defect claim becomes a polite request he can ignore.

A supplier who insists on 100% up front is a hard red flag. He's either in financial trouble or setting up a scam. Every legitimate factory accepts 30% T/T or a letter of credit. Walk away.

The four main methods compared

Figure: Buyer risk and typical order-size sweet spot for each payment method, from telegraphic transfer through to letter of credit.

T/T (telegraphic transfer / bank wire). The workhorse. Medium risk — you have little recourse if things go wrong, which is exactly why the 30/70 split exists. Our recommendation for first-timers on orders of roughly US$1,000–20,000. Your NZ bank will charge an international transfer fee, and the supplier will usually quote in US dollars, so watch the NZD/USD rate when you time the payment.

Trade Assurance / escrow (Alibaba). A third party holds your money until you confirm the goods arrived as agreed, with neutral dispute mediation if they didn't. Very safe, and the default choice when you're buying through Alibaba anyway. For small trial orders this is the closest thing to a safety net a new Kiwi importer can get.

PayPal. Fairly safe for the buyer — good protection and easy chargebacks. That's precisely why suppliers dislike it: withdrawal hassles, fees and chargeback exposure sit on their side. Many will accept it only for samples or small lots, sometimes adding the fee to your price. Fine for small amounts; don't expect it on a container order.

Letter of credit (L/C at sight). The bank releases funds only when shipping documents prove the goods were dispatched as specified. Both sides are protected, and the supplier can even use the L/C draft to finance raw materials. The catch: it's complicated and costly to set up through your bank, so it only makes sense on orders of about US$20,000 and up. Talk to your bank's trade finance team before you promise a supplier an L/C.

Western Union deserves its own warning: it's cash to a stranger with zero guarantee. Only ever use it with people you know well — which, for a new supplier, is nobody.

A useful escrow trick for small bulk buys

Found the product on AliExpress? Message the seller, negotiate a bulk price, then have them adjust an AliExpress order to that agreed price and pay through the platform. You get wholesale-ish pricing with AliExpress escrow protection wrapped around the deal. It's a tidy way to test a product at 50–200 units without T/T exposure.

Keep the paper trail (the IRD will thank you)

From day one, keep digital copies of every invoice, payment confirmation and receipt. You'll need them for disputes, for claiming import GST back once you're GST-registered (remember: NZ GST is 15%, and registration kicks in at NZ$60,000 turnover), and for the email from four months ago that proves what was agreed. Track sample payments separately too — most suppliers will deduct sample costs from your first order, but only if you agreed it up front and actually remember to claim it.

Match the method to the moment

• Trial order under ~US$2,000 through a platform → escrow / Trade Assurance.
• First real order, US$1,000–20,000, direct with the factory → 30/70 T/T, inspection before the balance.
• US$20,000+ → letter of credit.
• Long-standing relationship → you can eventually negotiate softer terms, even balance-on-delivery, for cash-flow breathing room. Earn that; don't start there.

Key takeaways

• Never pay more than 30% before production; release the 70% balance only after a passed inspection.
• A demand for 100% upfront payment is a walk-away red flag, every time.
• Use escrow for small platform orders, 30/70 T/T for mid-size orders, L/C above ~US$20,000.
• File every invoice and payment record — for disputes, and for claiming back your 15% import GST.

Related: Pro-Forma Invoices and Purchase Orders: Paperwork That Protects You, Import Scams and Red Flags: How Kiwis Get Burned (and How Not To)

Sourcing Agents: When to Use One, What They Cost, What to Expect

A sourcing agent will typically add at least 5% to your factory price — and full-service operators charge up to 30%. On a NZ$40,000 order, that's between NZ$2,000 and NZ$12,000 for work you could largely do yourself. Sometimes that's daylight robbery; sometimes it's the best money you'll spend all year. The difference lies in knowing exactly what agents do, how they charge, and when your situation genuinely calls for one.

What a sourcing agent actually does

A good agent is a full supply-chain proxy on the ground in China. The service menu usually covers: finding and shortlisting suppliers for your product; verifying factories on-site (something you can't do from Tauranga); inspecting quality during and after production; translating and negotiating; processing samples; consolidating small orders from several factories into one LCL shipment; and handling admin right down to booking flights, hotels and visa invitations if you visit. Full-service agents offer genuine door-to-door: you describe the product, they deliver it to your warehouse.

Structurally, the agent sits in the money flow: you pay the agent, the agent pays the factory net of their fee, and they run the order. Quotes normally arrive with the fee already baked in — which means you rarely see the true factory price. Some also charge an upfront retainer. Always ask how the agent is paid; an agent taking undisclosed commissions from factories on top of your fee is working for the factory, not for you.

What it costs

The market standard runs from about 5% on top of factory price for basic sourcing help to 30% for full-service management, plus any retainers. Compare that honestly with the alternative costs of doing it yourself: third-party inspections at roughly US$300 a time, your own hours vetting suppliers, and the occasional expensive mistake. For a small first order, an agent's percentage can be cheaper than one bad supplier decision. At scale, that same percentage becomes the largest single leak in your margin — remember, margin is made in purchasing, and the whole point of importing directly is to strip middle layers out.

When an agent genuinely earns their fee

• You can't find the supplier. Niche products sometimes hide in factory clusters that never list well on Alibaba. An agent with real industry contacts can reach factories you can't.
• You can't monitor the order. Complex or custom production benefits from someone physically walking the line — especially when a video call won't cut it.
• You're consolidating. Buying small quantities from four factories? An agent who inspects, collects and ships them as one consolidated consignment saves real freight money — and with NZ border levies charged per consignment since April 2026, one shipment instead of four saves at the border too.
• You're testing the waters. A low-risk first toe in the water with small quantities, before you've built your own process, is a legitimate use of an agent — as long as you treat it as training wheels, not a permanent arrangement.

When shouldn't you use one? When the product is easy to find, the supplier vets cleanly, and the order is standard enough for a third-party inspection to cover quality. That describes most first imports of proven ODM products — which is why we teach the direct route first.

The free alternatives most Kiwis miss

Before paying anyone, exhaust the free options. Both Alibaba and Global Sources run buyer-sourcing services that will find and match vetted suppliers to your requirements at no charge — describe the product, specs, target price and quantity, and their teams do the legwork. Global Sources adds private sourcing events, where they pre-screen around 20 suppliers against your brief. Government trade agencies also hand out supplier contacts, but be aware many of those "contacts" are importers and distributors themselves — exactly the middle layer you're trying to cut out.

If you do hire one

Choose an agent oriented to Western service standards, not a generic local operator. Ask for references from customers in New Zealand or Australia. Demand transparency: fee structure in writing, factory names disclosed, inspection reports supplied as standard. And keep learning the direct-import craft in parallel — vet the suppliers your agent picks, read the inspection reports, understand the quotes. The importers who get burned by agents are the ones who outsourced their understanding along with the legwork.

Key takeaways

• Agents charge from 5% (basic sourcing) up to 30% (full service), usually baked invisibly into your quote — always ask how they're paid.
• They earn their fee for hard-to-find products, orders needing on-the-ground monitoring, and multi-factory consolidation into single consignments.
• Alibaba and Global Sources will source vetted suppliers for you free — use that before paying anyone.
• Treat agents as training wheels or specialists, not a permanent layer: every percent they take is margin you went direct to capture.

Related: Alibaba vs Global Sources: Which Platform Should Kiwi Importers Use?, Freight Forwarders and Customs Brokers: Who Does What in NZ

Figure: What sourcing help costs on a NZ$40,000 order, from DIY to full-service.

Negotiation Tactics That Actually Work With Chinese Suppliers

Take the supplier's quoted price, cut it by 20%, and send that back as your target. In roughly 80% of cases you won't get the full cut — but you will get a further reduction, typically around 5% off the original quote, simply because you asked in a structured way. That's the 20% counter, and it's the first move in a toolkit of tactics that work on real Chinese suppliers, in real email threads, without poisoning the relationship you'll depend on for years. Remember why this matters so much: margin is made in purchasing, not selling. Every dollar negotiated off your buy price drops straight to your bottom line.

The core price tactics

The 20% counter. As above. Quote received, minus 20%, presented politely as your target price "to make this product work in the New Zealand market". Expect to land around 5% below the original quote. It fails mainly when quantities are genuinely tiny.

Trial-order framing. Never negotiate a first order as a one-off. "This is a trial order — if it succeeds, larger orders follow" reframes your small volume as the start of a pipeline, which is the only story that justifies a factory sharpening its pencil.

The double/triple-quantity quote. Ask for pricing at two to three times your intended volume to expose the supplier's real floor, then ask them to honour that price on your smaller starter order with the full quantity promised at reorder. Factories need lines running; this works in most cases.

The mixed calculation. Buying four SKUs from one supplier, but only one is price-sensitive against competitors? Push the sensitive item's price down and let the supplier claw some of it back across the other three. Your competitive product stays sharp; the supplier's total stays acceptable; everyone signs.

The competing offer. Present a cheaper rival quote and ask for at least parity. If you genuinely have one, send it. If you don't, you may claim one exists — around 10% cheaper is credible — and you're under no obligation to show it. Suppliers do exactly the same in reverse.

Advance raw-material purchase. Before a reorder, when commodity prices are low, offer this trade: the supplier buys raw material now at today's prices, and in exchange you get a better price than last order. They may ask for a written order confirmation first — that's reasonable.

Lock the price down

A negotiated price you can't hold is worthless. Always demand stated validity on quotes: 90 days is standard, so ask for 180. Big retail buyers get twelve months or more. Without validity in writing, the price can move between your quote to a customer and your purchase order to the factory — and that gap comes out of your margin. Get validity onto every quotation and into your purchase-order terms.

Once a relationship matures, add the annual bonus agreement: agree a yearly turnover target with, say, a 5% rebate off the next order when it's hit, stepping up for higher thresholds. These conversations barely work by email — they're for phone calls at minimum, and ideally for a factory visit, where suppliers who've promised "best price, best service" to your face find it very hard to walk that back.

The relationship is the strategy

Here's what separates negotiators who get one good deal from importers who get a decade of them: six rules — mutual benefit, respect, fairness, trust, support, help. Squeeze every last cent from a supplier and you'll win the spreadsheet and lose the war: your order goes to the back of the queue, quality gets quietly value-engineered, and when you need an urgent favour — a rushed reorder before Chinese New Year, a rework at no charge — nobody picks up. Suppliers prioritise customers who are profitable and easy to deal with. Be firm on numbers, generous on everything else.

The most elegant tactic of all is what we call inception: framing your request as the supplier's own opportunity. A factory once refused to fund the roughly US$8,000 audit a European retail customer required — until the conversation reframed it: this standard is the entry ticket to every big retailer in that market; invest and you open doors far beyond one customer, and we'll refer you. He paid for it himself. When you can make your ask their win, you stop negotiating and start collaborating.

One caution to finish: a suspiciously low price is not a victory. Suppliers don't sell below cost — an impossible price means substituted materials, skipped testing or a scam. Negotiate hard toward a fair price, not a fantasy one.

Key takeaways

• Open with the 20% counter and trial-order framing; expect around 5% off the original quote in most negotiations.
• Use the double-quantity quote to find the real price floor and the mixed calculation across multi-SKU orders.
• Demand 180-day price validity in writing — an unlocked price silently eats the margin you just negotiated.
• Play the long game: fair, respectful buyers get better prices, priority production and rescue favours; cent-squeezers get the back of the queue.

Related: MOQ Explained: How to Negotiate Smaller First Orders, Handling Supplier Price Increases Without Losing Your Margin

Figure: Typical savings each tactic delivers off a first quote — and they stack.

Trading Company or Factory? How to Tell Who You're Really Dealing With

"Ningbo Better Lighting Co." and "Zhejiang Ningbo Better Lighting Co." sound almost identical — but one is probably a trading company and the other probably owns a factory. That single naming detail has saved us from paying middleman margins more times than any other check. Margin is made in purchasing, not selling: every percentage point a hidden middleman skims off your buy price is profit you'll never get back at the selling end. Here's how to work out who you're really dealing with.

Why it matters (and when it doesn't)

A trading company buys from factories and resells to you with a margin on top — often the very markup you went direct to China to avoid. Worse, a trader has no control over production quality, timing or specifications; they're forwarding your emails to a factory you'll never meet.

But let's be fair: not all traders are villains. Many genuine factories don't hold an export licence and legitimately sell through an affiliated trading company that handles export documents for a small percentage. Some traders add real value — consolidating small orders, quality-checking, communicating in good English. The problem isn't traders existing; it's traders pretending to be manufacturers so they can charge factory-direct expectations at middleman prices. Your job is to know the truth, then decide.

The company-name convention

Chinese company registrations follow a pattern that leaks the answer. Trading companies typically register with their hometown city in the name; manufacturers tend to register with the province. So "Ningbo Better Lighting Co." (city) leans trader, while "Zhejiang Ningbo Better Lighting Co." (province first) leans manufacturer. It's a probability signal, not proof — but it tells you which follow-up questions to push hardest.

Profile checks that expose middlemen

• Category spread. A "factory" whose storefront sells LED torches, yoga mats, USB cables and garden furniture makes none of them. Real manufacturers are specialists — a factory is a building full of machines tooled for one product family.
• Management standards. Factories invest in ISO 9001 (and increasingly BSCI); traders almost never do. No standard listed → assume trader. Standard listed → request the certificate and check the company name and address on it match. A mismatch means they're showing you someone else's factory.
• Registered capital vs claimed turnover. 50,000 RMB registered capital claiming US$50M turnover doesn't add up. Neither does massive turnover with a staff of 15. A properly organised factory usually runs 200+ people across workers, sales, engineers and management.
• The business licence. Ask for a copy. Yes, it's in Chinese — but outright refusal to provide it is the tell, and the registered scope of business can be translated in seconds.

The tests a trader can't pass

Paper checks narrow the field; two active tests settle it.

The customised sample. Ask for a small modification to the product — a different colour, your logo moulded in, a spec tweak — and a sample of it. A factory controls its own line and can do this; a trader has to go begging to the real manufacturer, and the delay, cost and excuses give the game away.

The live factory video call. Ask your contact to video-call you from the production floor and walk the line while you watch. Manufacturers are proud to show off; middlemen suddenly have "no availability". Back it up with a phone call: ask about annual capacity, main customers, which machines they run, what their engineers are working on. Vague answers to concrete factory questions mean there's no factory.

One more trick from the negotiation table: if one supplier's quote is well above the others, show them the cheaper quotes and ask why. We've seen this produce the remarkably honest reply, "Actually, we are a trading company." Cheaper isn't automatically better, though — sometimes a higher price reflects better materials or genuine certifications, which is exactly why you ask rather than assume.

What to do with the answer

If they're a factory: proceed to full vetting, samples and negotiation. If they're a trader who admits it and adds value you need — export licence, consolidation, communication — you can still work with them, with eyes open and prices benchmarked against factory-direct quotes. If they're a trader who lied about being a factory: walk. Someone who deceives you about their own identity before the first order will not become more honest after your deposit lands.

For a New Zealand importer running orders from 10,000 km away, the supplier relationship is your entire supply chain. Knowing exactly who is on the other end of it isn't paranoia — it's the foundation everything else sits on.

Key takeaways

• City name = likely trader; province name = likely manufacturer. Use it to direct your questioning, not as final proof.
• Specialist product range, ISO 9001, plausible capital/turnover/headcount and a willingly shared business licence all point to a real factory.
• A customised sample plus a live video walk-through of the production line is the pairing no middleman can fake.
• An honest trading company with an export licence can be legitimate — a trader pretending to be a factory never is.

Related: How to Vet a Chinese Supplier Before Sending a Cent, Sourcing Agents: When to Use One, What They Cost, What to Expect

Figure: The tells that separate real manufacturers from middlemen — stack them for a clear picture.

How to Vet a Chinese Supplier Before Sending a Cent

The most expensive email a new importer ever sends is the one transferring a deposit to a supplier they never checked. From Auckland or Christchurch you can't drop in to see the factory, so your protection is a vetting process — a series of cheap, fast checks that scammers and fake factories can't pass. Run every prospective supplier through this before a single dollar leaves your account.

Start with the platform filters

On Alibaba, filter for Gold Supplier, Onsite Check and Assessed Supplier together. Each represents money and scrutiny a scammer won't invest in. On Global Sources, look at the verified data: exhibiting history and named customers. This first pass eliminates most of the worst candidates in thirty seconds. It can also exclude some genuine young factories, so if results are thin, relax one filter at a time — but tighten your later checks to compensate.

Read the profile like a detective

A supplier's own profile leaks the truth if you know where to look:

• Management standards. No ISO 9001 or BSCI listed? Skip them. If it is listed, ask for the certificate and check the company name and address on it match the supplier you're talking to. Middlemen don't invest in management standards.
• Category breadth. A "manufacturer" selling everything from kitchenware to power tools to phone cases is a trading company. Real factories are specialists.
• Numbers that don't add up. Registered capital of 50,000 RMB against claimed turnover of US$50 million is fantasy. Huge turnover with 15 staff is equally fishy.
• Scale and age. A well-organised factory typically runs 200+ employees — say 160 workers, 30 sales staff, 10 engineers, 10 managers. Factories younger than about five years deserve extra caution.
• The company-name convention. Trading companies usually register with their hometown in the name; manufacturers use the province. We cover this trick in detail in its own post.

Figure: Our supplier vetting scorecard — how the individual checks combine into a simple go/no-go score before you commit money.

Ask for the documents

Now move to active verification. Email the supplier and request: a copy of their business licence (it will be in Chinese — the refusal to send it is the signal, not the content); their factory standard certificates (ISO 9001 at minimum); which third-party test laboratories they use; factory photos or a company presentation; and their customer list and main export markets.

Two things to watch in the answers. First, be cautious if they only ever work with Chinese test and inspection companies — you want suppliers accustomed to international third-party scrutiny. Second, look at their markets. If they already supply Australia, the UK, Germany or the US, they've likely passed the audits and testing those markets demand, which is a strong proxy that they can meet New Zealand requirements too — things like an SDoC for declared electrical articles and Radio Spectrum Management compliance for wireless products. If they've never exported to a first-world market, expect to educate them at your own risk.

Send a short vendor profile form asking for production capacity, worker/engineer counts, main customers, certifications and turnover. Professional suppliers fill it in without fuss.

The killer test

Two checks are almost impossible for a middleman to fake. First, ask them to produce a customised sample — something they don't have sitting on a shelf. Second, ask for a video call where they walk you through the factory live. A genuine manufacturer will happily show off the production line; a trader will stall, excuse and deflect. Follow up with a phone call and grill them on customers, annual capacity and certifications. You're building a gut feeling as much as a file of evidence.

And watch the communication itself. If replies are slow, fragmented or ignore half your questions at the enquiry stage — when they're trying to win your business — it will be worse mid-order when they already have your deposit. Eliminate the weakest communicators early.

The walk-away triggers

Some findings end the conversation immediately: a demand for 100% payment up front (legitimate suppliers accept a 30% deposit or a letter of credit); prices dramatically below every other quote; odd payment requests such as a personal bank account or Western Union; certificates whose company details don't match. The golden rule is old but reliable — if it looks too good to be true, it is. There are thousands of suppliers; never be so invested in one that you ignore a red flag.

One nuance: "trading company" is not automatically a death sentence. Many genuine factories lack an export licence and legitimately sell through an affiliated trader who handles export paperwork for a small margin. The crime isn't being a trader — it's pretending to be a factory.

Key takeaways

• Stack the free platform filters first, then verify certificates, licences and customer lists yourself — matching names and addresses on every document.
• A customised sample plus a live factory video call is the test middlemen can't fake.
• Poor communication at enquiry stage only gets worse after you've paid — cut slow repliers early.
• 100% upfront payment demands, implausible prices and mismatched certificates are instant walk-away triggers.

Related: Trading Company or Factory? How to Tell Who You're Really Dealing With, Import Scams and Red Flags: How Kiwis Get Burned (and How Not To)

The 6-Step Import Process Every New Zealand Beginner Should Follow

Roughly 90 days. That's how long it takes, on average, from placing a production order in China to having stock sitting in your New Zealand warehouse. Beginners who don't know that number promise customers stock "next month", plan a Christmas promotion in October, and learn the hard way. The 90 days is just one output of a repeatable six-step process — the same one we run every idea through, whether it's a NZ$2,000 trial or a full container.

Run every product through these six steps, in order. Skipping a step is where the expensive mistakes live.

Step 1: Check the regulatory ground first

Before anything else, find your product's Harmonized System (HS) tariff code — it determines duty rate, any restrictions, and whether anti-dumping duties apply. For NZ, check the Working Tariff Document and tariff-finder.govt.nz; the good news is most goods enter duty-free, and Chinese-origin goods are almost all 0% under the NZ–China FTA with a Certificate of Origin. While you're at it, check MPI's Import Health Standards for biosecurity requirements, and MBIE for any trade-remedy (anti-dumping) measures. Ten minutes here can save you from a product that's uneconomic or effectively blocked at the border.

Step 2: Find your product

Product selection deserves its own posts (and gets them later in this series), but the short version: pick a niche you have an edge in — audience, passion, or professional knowledge — and differentiate on quality, bundles, colours or packaging rather than copying whatever saturates Trade Me already.

Step 3: Find a supplier

The most exciting and the most difficult step. Alibaba and Global Sources are your main hunting grounds; both will even match you with vetted suppliers free of charge. Contact multiple suppliers — never rely on one — and filter hard: verified status, ISO 9001, plausible company profile, responsive communication. If a supplier's replies are slow and fragmented at enquiry stage, they'll be worse mid-order.

Step 4: Calculate all duties, taxes and costs

Build a landed-cost sheet before committing. Rule of thumb: supplier's FOB price plus 20–30% gets you close to landed cost in a low-duty country like NZ — but verify every line: freight, insurance (about 1% of product value), GST at 15% on (goods + shipping + insurance + any duty), the new Goods Management Levies, and forwarder and broker fees. If you're GST-registered, the import GST comes back to you. Triple-confirm each figure with the actual provider rather than guessing.

Step 5: Engage a freight forwarder and customs broker

Never DIY container logistics. A forwarder books the freight and handles documents; a broker lodges your customs entry through Trade Single Window. Your supplier will usually have forwarder contacts — get that quote as a benchmark, then compare with an NZ-based forwarder. Couriers (DHL, FedEx and friends) are for samples and small urgent lots only; at scale their volumetric pricing eats margin.

Step 6: Monitor the order and inspect before it ships

Small orders get deprioritised in factory queues, so check in weekly. Then, before the goods leave China, book a third-party pre-shipment inspection — around US$300. Time it for when about 80% of production is complete. If defects show up, the supplier will agree to rework — always — because you haven't paid the 70% balance yet. Which brings us to the iron rule that underpins the whole process: never pay 100% upfront. Thirty percent deposit, seventy percent after the inspection passes.

The 90-day timeline, broken down

Figure: The typical 90-day journey from order placement to NZ warehouse, stage by stage.

Here's where the time actually goes on a standard sea-freight order:

• Order placement and admin clarification: ~5 days
• Raw material purchase by the factory: 20–30 days
• Production arrangement and queueing: ~10 days
• Production through to shipment: 5–10 days
• Sea transit to NZ: China→Auckland is around 20–23 days port to port; allow ~30 with handling
• Customs clearance, MPI checks and inland transport: 5–10 days

Plan promotions, cash flow and reorder points around this cycle. Reorders are faster — typically about half the original lead time, since the factory already holds your specs — but Chinese New Year and October's Golden Week can add weeks if you order at the wrong moment.

Key takeaways

• Always run the six steps in order: regulations → product → supplier → costs → logistics partners → monitoring and inspection.
• Check the HS code, tariff-finder.govt.nz and MPI requirements before you commit to any product.
• Budget ~90 days from production order to NZ warehouse, and plan promotions accordingly.
• Pay 30% deposit, inspect at 80% production for ~US$300, and release the 70% balance only when the report is clean.

Related: How to Start an Import Business in New Zealand in 2026: The Complete Roadmap, Landed Cost 101: The Formula That Decides Whether You Make Money

How to Start an Import Business in New Zealand in 2026: The Complete Roadmap

A 20-foot container shipped from China to Auckland costs roughly US$2,250–2,750 right now, and thanks to the NZ–China Free Trade Agreement, virtually everything inside it can enter New Zealand at 0% duty with the right paperwork. Most Kiwis never find that out, because they buy from a local wholesaler who did — and who keeps the margin.

That margin is the whole game. Our guiding maxim: margin is made in purchasing, not selling. Anyone can match your selling price on Trade Me next week. What they can't easily match is your buying price, if you've gone to the source — the factory — instead of buying from an importer three steps up the chain. This post is the full roadmap; the rest of this series unpacks each stage in detail.

Figure: The import roadmap from business setup to first sale.

Stage 1: Set up the boring bits (one week)

You need three things before goods can move: an NZBN for your business, a decision on GST registration, and — for any shipment over NZ$1,000 — a Customs client code, applied for through Trade Single Window (TSW). GST registration is compulsory once your turnover passes NZ$60,000 in 12 months, but registering voluntarily earlier lets you claim back the 15% GST you'll pay on imports. We cover the exact process in a later post.

Stage 2: Choose a product with a real thesis

Don't start with whatever everyone else is selling. Pick a niche based on what you genuinely have: a social-media audience, a hobby you understand deeply, industry experience, or simply a well-researched shortlist. Check demand signals (Trade Me listings, Amazon best sellers, sales-estimation tools), and check the product isn't restricted or biosecurity-sensitive in NZ before you fall in love with it. Rule of thumb: to undercut an established branded product, you generally need to price at least 30% below it.

Stage 3: Find and vet suppliers

Alibaba and Global Sources put tens of thousands of manufacturers a message away, and both will even source suppliers for you free of charge. The hard part isn't finding suppliers — it's filtering out traders and scammers. Use platform verification filters, check ISO 9001 certification, demand a business licence, and never rely on a single supplier. Golden rule: if the price looks too good to be true, it is.

Stage 4: Samples, then a small first order

Order samples (expect to pay 20–50% over unit price, refundable against your first order — agree that up front). Test them hard: bend, stretch, use. Then negotiate a small trial order. Listed MOQs are almost always negotiable, and you should never pay more than 30% upfront — the unpaid 70% balance is your leverage for quality and on-time delivery.

Stage 5: Know your landed cost before you commit

Landed cost = product + freight + insurance + duty + GST + border levies + inspection + local costs. For most Chinese-origin goods with a Certificate of Origin, duty is 0% under the FTA; GST is 15% on (goods + shipping + insurance + any duty) and claimable if you're GST-registered. Since 1 April 2026, new consignment-based Goods Management Levies also apply at the border. If the numbers don't work on paper, they won't work in a container.

Stage 6: Ship, clear the border, and pass MPI

Use a freight forwarder and customs broker — never DIY container logistics. Budget realistic transit times: sea freight China→Auckland runs about 20–23 days port to port, and roughly 90 days total from placing a production order to stock in your warehouse. MPI biosecurity is the uniquely NZ hurdle: ISPM 15-treated pallets, clean containers, and extra scrutiny on timber, natural fibres and outdoor goods.

Stage 7: Sell — and diversify from day one

Trade Me is the obvious NZ starting channel, alongside your own Shopify store, Mighty Ape, Facebook Marketplace for testing, and Amazon Australia when you're ready to scale across the Tasman. Never build the business on one channel; platforms change rules without warning.

What it takes

A realistic minimum starting budget is around US$5,000 in product and costs — we break down the real numbers in an upcoming post. More important than money is process discipline: written specs, third-party inspections (about US$300 per order), and never paying 100% upfront. Beginners who follow the process outperform gamblers with triple the budget.

Key takeaways

• Margin is made in purchasing, not selling — buy at the source, not from local wholesalers.
• The NZ–China FTA gives 0% duty on virtually all Chinese-origin goods with a Certificate of Origin.
• Setup essentials: NZBN, a GST decision, and a Customs client code via TSW for shipments over NZ$1,000.
• Plan around 90 days from order to warehouse, and never pay a supplier 100% upfront.

Related: The 6-Step Import Process Every New Zealand Beginner Should Follow · How Much Money Do You Need to Start Importing to NZ? Real Numbers