1. What does “checked” mean on my product?
A good answer names a reference — an approved sample or the listing you supplied — and says what is compared against it. A weak answer repeats the word quality.
How to choose a China fulfilment agent
There are hundreds of China-based sourcing agents, fulfilment agents and third-party logistics operators selling to dropshippers, and their websites are close to interchangeable. That is not an accident: the claims that are cheapest to write are the ones everybody writes. This page is the checklist we would use if we were buying rather than selling — the questions that separate operators, and the ones that do not.
An honest disclosure, since you should apply the same scepticism here. We are a fulfilment agent. This checklist is shaped by how we think the work should be done, and we do well on it, which is exactly why we published it. Use it on us. Our own answers are linked at the bottom, and where our answer is a limitation we have written it as one.
Claims that no longer tell you anything
Every one of these is true of most operators in the market, which is what makes them useless for choosing between them. None of them is a lie. They are just not information.
| The claim | Why it is not information | Ask instead |
|---|---|---|
| “One-stop” / “all-in-one” | Sourcing, warehousing, packing and shipping under one roof is the definition of the category, not a feature of one operator. | Which part do you actually do yourselves, and which part is a partner? |
| “Factory-direct pricing” | Almost everyone buys from the same manufacturing base. It describes where goods come from, not what you will pay. | Show me a complete landed number for my product to my main country, with the assumptions written down. |
| “No monthly fee” / “free” | Free entry is standard. Revenue still has to come from somewhere: product margin, shipping margin, commission, or a supplier-side arrangement. | Where does your margin sit, and what happens to it if my volume doubles? |
| “QC on every order” | Everyone says they check. The word covers everything from a written inspection definition to somebody glancing in a carton. | Write down what “checked” means on my product, and what happens to a batch that fails. |
| “Custom branding” | Logo mailers and inserts are widely available. Consistency across batches is not. | What is the minimum, and who pays if batch three does not match batch one? |
| “Dedicated account manager” | Very common as a promise, rarely defined as a role. | Who owns my order at 9pm on a Friday when the carrier loses it, and what is the next thing that happens? |
| “Fast shipping” | A transit range from dispatch, not a delivery promise, and processing time is usually excluded. | Transit from dispatch, plus processing, plus what happens if it is pre-stocked — to my country, not “major routes”. |
| “AI-powered” | It has become a layer in nearly every operator’s description of itself, with very little public technical evidence behind it. | Fine — what does it change about my order that I would notice? |
| Warehouse photos, staff counts, square metres, daily parcels, defect rates | Self-published and almost never independently verifiable. Some operators publish figures that contradict each other on the same page. | What is that number measured from, over what window, and can you show me the same figure next quarter? |
Twelve questions worth asking
A good operator can answer all of these in a message without checking with anyone. Vagueness on more than two or three of them is the signal.
2. How many days do I have to report a defect?
You want a number and an evidence requirement. “Case by case” is not a term; it is the absence of one.
3. Who owns my order when it goes wrong?
Ask what a status update contains. Stage, owner, next update, closing evidence is a real answer. “We will look into it” is not.
4. What currency am I quoted in, and who carries the move?
Almost nobody in this market publishes anything about foreign exchange. Ask whose problem a 4% swing between quote and payment is.
5. How long does a quote hold?
And what happens when freight moves. An operator that requotes silently is telling you something about every other number they give you.
6. Who is the importer, and is duty inside the price?
DDP means duty is prepaid and your customer is not billed at the door. DDU means somebody will be. Get it per route, not as a slogan.
7. What happens at the US border now?
Duty-free de minimis entry for low-value parcels ended — for China and Hong Kong in May 2025, then globally from August 2025, and the suspension has been extended since. Anyone still selling on “it is under the threshold so it clears free” is working from a rulebook that no longer applies.
8. What happens to my stock if I leave?
Notice period, who ships it out, who pays, and how long they will hold it. Lock-in in this market is usually about stock and records rather than contracts.
9. What do you refuse to do?
An operator that will do anything for you will do anything to you. A clear refusal list is a better signal than a long capability list.
10. What went wrong on your last account?
The most useful question on this page. Everyone has a story; the ones worth working with can tell you what they changed because of it.
11. When does my order stop being changeable?
Ask for the cut-off hour and the weekend rule in writing, so you can publish it in your own store policy instead of requesting an exception every time.
12. What are the storage terms after the free period?
Thirty, sixty or ninety free days is an acquisition device across most of this market. The rate on day 91, and what triggers it, is the actual term.
How to check the answers
Claims are cheap; evidence has a shape. In rough order of how much weight it deserves:
| Evidence | What it proves | What it does not |
|---|---|---|
| A multi-year public review history on a marketplace they do not control | That the operation is real, has been running, and has customers who came back to write about it | Anything about your product, your route or your account |
| A measured figure with a stated source and a stated window | That somebody is counting, and is willing to be counted again | Nothing, if the window is never refreshed — check the date |
| Published operating terms with numbers in them | That the operator has decided what it will be held to | That the price is low; a published term and a good price are different things |
| A first small order | More than every other item on this list combined | How they behave at volume, or on a bad week |
| A platform integration badge | That an app connects to a store | Factory compliance, product safety, warehouse control or carrier performance |
| Warehouse photos and video | That there is a warehouse | Whose it is, what runs through it, or what happens to your parcel inside it |
The cheapest real test in this market is one order. Not a sample, not a call — one live order with a real customer at the end of it, on the thing that broke at your last agent. It costs one order to find out whether the answers above were true.
Our own answers
So that this is a checklist rather than an advertisement, here is where each of ours is written down, including the ones that are limitations.
The 14-day defect window, what an inspection checks, the currency position, exception ownership and what happens if you leave →
What actually moves a quote, and why there is no honest rate card for a parcel nobody has seen →
What can still be changed at each stage, and what a useful first report contains →
Six anonymised accounts, each closing with what went wrong and what changed →
The European customs position, written as specifics rather than as advice to ask your agent →
Sixty-five answers, including the ones where the answer is no →