How to find a manufacturer overseas and vet it before you pay a deposit

Finding a factory overseas takes an afternoon. Knowing whether it will build what you ordered, and whether your deposit reaches it, takes more work. Here’s how to do both before any money leaves your account.

How to find a manufacturer for your product

Most buyers find manufacturers in four places, and it pays to use more than one.

• Trade shows. You meet the people who’ll build your order and see their products in person. Some exhibitors are trading companies, so ask.
• B2B directories and marketplaces. Fast for a long list of names. Listings are written by the sellers, so treat every claim as unchecked.
• US import records. Federal rules allow the information on the cargo declarations of inward vessel manifests to be copied and published, and commercial services sell searches of shipment records. A search on a product type shows which overseas companies already ship it to US buyers.
• Referrals. Ask other operators, your equipment service company or a trade association who builds their equipment.

Write a one-page spec before you contact anyone: the product, the US standards it has to meet, voltage, size, finish, quantity and delivery ZIP code. Factories answer a specific request faster and more accurately, and the replies are easier to compare.

Is it a factory or a trading company?

Some companies that call themselves manufacturers are trading companies that buy from factories and resell. That can work well, and a good trading company can handle communication and quality checks for you. The risk is not knowing which one you’re dealing with, because you can’t judge quality control at a factory you’ve never seen.

Ask three things:

1. Ask for a live video call on the production floor, with the camera on your model or one like it. Stalling, or a showroom tour in place of the floor, tells you something.
2. Ask which steps they do in-house (metal cutting, welding, foaming, wiring, assembly) and which they buy in.
3. Ask for the listing or file number for the product, then look it up yourself (see below). If the listing belongs to another company, ask how the two are related.

How do you check that the company is real?

Check the company itself before you check its products.

• Registration. Ask for its business registration and check the name, address and registration number against the company registry in the supplier’s country. The legal name should match the contract, the invoice and the bank account.
• Restricted parties. Search the company name in the Consolidated Screening List, a free US government search that combines restricted-party lists from the Departments of Commerce, State and the Treasury. On a possible match, the government says “additional due diligence should be conducted before proceeding”.
• Shipping history. Ask for references from US buyers and for copies of recent bills of lading with prices blacked out. An import-record search can back this up. Importers can ask US Customs to keep their own and their shippers’ names off published manifest data, for two years at a time, so a missing record proves little on its own.
• Labor. US law bars goods made “wholly or in part” with forced labor from entering the country. Ask where the parts and materials come from, and put the answer in writing.

How do you check a manufacturer’s certifications?

Every certificate a supplier sends you should be checked in the issuer’s own database. A PDF proves nothing on its own, and a certificate for one model, or for another company, gets passed around.

Claim	What it covers	Where to check it
UL listed	Product safety, model by model	UL Solutions’ free Product iQ database, by company name, model or file number
ETL listed	Product safety, model by model	Intertek’s ETL Listed Mark Directory, by manufacturer, model or standard
NSF/ANSI	Food equipment sanitation	NSF’s listings search, by manufacturer and standard
ISO 9001	The factory’s quality management system	IAF CertSearch, by company name or certificate number

Match the company name, the factory address and the exact model number. ISO 9001 is a quality management standard, so it tells you how the factory runs. It doesn’t show that a product meets US safety rules, so you still need the listing for the model you’re buying. Our guide to UL, ETL and NSF marks explains which marks commercial equipment needs.

Should you get a sample or a factory audit first?

Get a sample for anything new to you. Pay for it, test it the way you’ll use it, and keep one approved unit as the reference for the production run. Write down what you approved: dimensions, finish, components, labels and packing.

A third-party audit sends an auditor to the factory to check how it actually runs. It makes sense for custom builds, larger orders and a factory you plan to use for years. For a small first order of a standard model, a live video walk-through, two or three references and an approved sample cover much of the same ground.

Then plan an inspection before the balance is paid. Once the goods have shipped and the factory has its money, you have little left to bargain with.

How should you pay the deposit safely?

Pay in stages, and pay only the company on your contract. The International Trade Administration calls paying in advance “the least attractive option for the buyer”, and a letter of credit protects the buyer “since no payment obligation arises until the goods have been shipped as promised”.

If a factory asks for a deposit before production and the balance before shipping, tie the balance to an inspection you’ve passed.

Watch for payment fraud. The FBI describes business email compromise as a scam “targeting businesses or individuals working with suppliers and/or businesses regularly performing wire transfer payments”. A common version is an email, apparently from your supplier, saying its bank details have changed. The FBI counted more than $55 billion in exposed losses worldwide from October 2013 to December 2023.

Before every wire:

• Confirm new or changed bank details through a second channel, such as a phone number you already had, never one from the email asking for the change.
• Check that the account name matches the company on the contract.
• If you’ve already sent money to a fake account, call your bank right away to ask for a recall of the funds, then file a complaint at ic3.gov.

Supplier red flags

Red flag	What it can mean
Won’t do a live video of the production floor	Not a factory, or not the factory it claims
Bank account in a different name from the contract	A middleman you didn’t agree to, or fraud
“Our bank details have changed” by email	Possible business email compromise. Confirm by phone first
Certificate the issuer’s database can’t find	Expired, withdrawn, for another model, or fake
Asks for full payment up front	Nothing left to hold back if the goods are wrong or late
Price well below every other quote	Thinner steel, uncertified parts or a missing cost
Pressure to pay today	A push to skip your checks

How Tally Wholesale vets the factories we use

We source from vetted factories, and we supply certified units only: electrical equipment is UL or ETL listed, gas equipment is certified to ANSI Z83.11, and food equipment is certified to NSF/ANSI sanitation standards where required. The listings for each model are named in your quote, so you can check them yourself. Every order is inspected at the factory before it ships.

You deal with and pay a US company, Tally Wholesale LLC. Quotes are free and nothing is paid until you approve one. A 50% deposit starts production and the balance is due before the equipment ships.

The price is one landed price per unit, with freight, customs and duties included, as our guide to what a landed price includes explains. If you would rather buy direct, our custom sourcing service does the work in this guide for you: we find and visit the factory, check samples and certification, and inspect your order, with our services quoted per project. How it works covers each step.

To get started, request a quote with the equipment, quantity and delivery ZIP code.