E-commerce

Sourcing from China for bol: how do you avoid a bad purchase?

Lars Hurkmans·Co-founder·13 May 2026·Reading time 6 minutes

A container that arrives wrong, wrong colour, a crooked logo, lower quality than expected, is almost never a production error. It's a process error: you skipped a step beforehand. Sourcing from China isn't ordering and hoping for the best. It's a process with five steps, and every step you skip increases the chance of problems.

This step-by-step plan comes from our sourcing expert who works from China. She sees daily which steps sellers skip and what problems that causes. Below we walk through the five steps that belong between finding a product and placing the order, and that prevent most bad purchases.

Why does a container from China arrive wrong?

Because steps get skipped, not necessarily because the supplier is bad. Most problems when sourcing from China aren't production errors but process errors: things you could have prevented beforehand. The pattern is almost always the same. You see a product, you ask a price, you negotiate a bit, and you order.

Between finding a product and placing the order there are only a few actions left. Skip them, and it's no surprise things go wrong. In short, these are the five steps we walk through:

1. Selecting the right supplier.
2. Analysing the quotes.
3. Locking down the specifications.
4. Checking the samples.
5. Monitoring production.

Step 1: how do you select the right supplier?

Approach at least five to six comparable suppliers at once, instead of one or two. Many sellers look at one, maybe two suppliers, get a quote and order. The problem with that is you have no basis for comparison. You don't know whether the price is realistic and you don't know whether the supplier is reliable.

With five to six quotes side by side, you do know. If five suppliers say thirty-five euros and one says eighteen, you know something's off. You also see who responds quickly, who communicates professionally and who thinks along with you. And you keep alternatives in reserve in case a supplier causes problems. Five to six is a guideline, not a hard number; the point is to have enough comparable quotes side by side to assess. The first supplier you find might not be the best, but you only know that once you've seen the others.

Write down the pros and cons per supplier and decide from there who you want to move forward with. Where you find those suppliers and how you approach them the right way is covered in our article on sourcing on Alibaba.

Step 2: how do you analyse the quotes?

Look at more than just the price. A quote isn't just an amount, but a document that shows how professionally a supplier operates. Anyone who only compares on price naturally picks the cheapest, and that's exactly where things often go wrong.

So compare systematically, preferably in a spreadsheet. Then you see the difference: that cheapest quote often comes with incomplete information, unrealistic timing and inconsistent communication. Red flags, one after another. The slightly more expensive quote is regularly complete, professional and realistic. Price counts, but it isn't the only criterion.

Step 3: which specifications do you lock down?

Everything. What you don't specify, the supplier fills in themselves, usually the cheapest way. This is where most mistakes happen. Terms like "blue", "premium quality" or "standard packaging" are too vague: what's logical to you doesn't have to be to the supplier.

So specify per component exactly what you want:

• Product: the exact dimensions, materials, features and technical specifications.
• Logo: the number of colours, the finishes, the size, the placement and the printing technique.
• Packaging: the type of box, the material, the colour and the images.
• Manual: the number of pages, the languages and the design.
• Certifications: the documentation you need, for example for the CE marking.

Those certifications are the most underestimated. You affix a marking such as CE yourself, but you need certain documents from your supplier for that, and they often don't have those in order. In our Knowledge Base, Francois from Instrux shows exactly which documentation you need and how you arrange that for your products. What the CE marking involves and how you apply for it is worked out in our article on applying for CE marking.

Write everything down, send it over and have the supplier confirm it. The more specific you are, the fewer surprises you get.

Step 4: how do you check samples?

Ask for a production sample and test it, don't just look at it. For a regular sample, a supplier sometimes uses better materials to close the deal. The sample looks perfect, you order a thousand units, and production only reaches half that quality.

You prevent that in two ways. First ask whether the sample is exactly the same as the production version: same materials, same process. If in doubt, ask for a production sample, made with the real production materials. Then test it thoroughly. Don't just look at it, use it: drop it, put it in the cold and the heat, get it wet. Use the product as if you were your own customer.

If the sample isn't good, don't order, or have adjustments made and ask for a new sample. A sample might cost fifty euros; a container of poor quality quickly costs thousands.

Step 5: how do you monitor production?

Ask for weekly updates and photos during production. Many sellers place an order, hear nothing for six weeks, and hope on arrival that it's fine. What happens during those weeks, they don't know.

It's better to stay in contact. Ask how production is going, in week four whether it's nearly done, in week five when they're shipping. Also ask for photos during production: of an applied logo, or of how your product sits in the personalised packaging. If something's going wrong, you want to know before shipping, not after.

Anyone wanting more certainty has a quality check done on site: someone who goes to the factory and checks before shipping. That costs money, but it prevents bigger problems. It feels like micromanagement, and it is, but it's your money and you're not there yourself.

Where does this step-by-step plan start and end?

This step-by-step plan starts once you know what you're going to source, and it ends at shipping. What you source, which product has enough demand and room to differentiate, you determine beforehand with market research; how you approach that with MarktMentor is covered in our article on market research on bol.

And once the container is ready for shipping, import duties, VAT and trade terms come into play. Those fall outside these five steps, but do belong to the whole picture; we've worked them out in our article on Incoterms and importing from China.

Summary: the five steps when sourcing from China

Don't skip a step. Every step you skip increases the chance of a bad purchase.

Read more:

• How do you successfully source products via Alibaba?
• Applying for CE marking: everything you need to know
• Incoterms, import duties and VAT when importing from China
• Market research on bol: from first idea to sourcing decision