How It Works — From Inquiry to Loaded on Board

The process

Simple, transparent, and you approve every milestone before SourceEyes moves forward.

Importing from China does not have to mean months of guesswork. The sequence below is the exact playbook SourceEyes runs for buyers in India, Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America — and the process is identical wherever you import to, whether your order is one carton or a full container. If you are still figuring out how to import from China, follow the six steps, then send your product to SourceEyes: you will see what step one looks like for your specific case.

SourceEyes runs the same 6 steps for every first order: brief, shortlist, samples, production follow-up, pre-shipment inspection and loading. The whole sequence is 3–5 days of vetting, 7–14 days of samples and 20–45 days of production, ending the moment the goods are on board.

How to import from China: the safeguards behind every step

Most importers do not lose money on the factory price — they lose it in the gaps between steps. A deposit paid before the factory is verified. Samples approved from photos instead of the real item. A shipment released without a final check. Every safeguard in this import process exists because SourceEyes has seen each of those failures happen to someone else’s order.

So before anything moves: (1) SourceEyes vets the factory before you pay a deposit, (2) you approve real samples by video before production starts, (3) a pre-shipment inspection against AQL standards is done before the balance is released, and (4) the shipment is tracked through to loading on board, with export documents handled by people who do this daily. Follow a structured how to import from China process like this and surprises stay small and early — not big and waiting at the port.

SourceEyes also handles the trade mechanics that confuse first-time buyers — Incoterms such as FOB or CIF, export declarations and documentation. You pick the terms you are comfortable with; we manage the rest with freight partners we have used for years.

The fastest way to test this process is with one small order. Tell SourceEyes what you want to import from China, and you get the exact steps, timeline and cost before you commit to anything.

SourceEyes handles the China side — vetting, negotiation, on-site inspection and loading supervision — while the buyer keeps every commercial decision, and 1 named contact carries the project from the first brief to the day the goods are on board.

Who’s handling your project

A real team in Suzhou — one main contact, three specialists behind it.

Between them, the SourceEyes team covers research, logistics, negotiation and on-site QC — so every step of your import has a named person behind it, not a ticket queue.

LeownYour main contact · Sales · Inspection · On-site

Quinn SunResearch & supplier vetting · Logistics

Betty GaoSales · Inspection · On-site support

How to import from China: a realistic timeline

What a first order really takes — and where the delays come from.

The calendar is the surprise. Vetting a shortlist takes 3–5 working days. Samples take 7–14 days, plus shipping. Production runs 20–45 days; sea freight adds 25–40 days to most destinations. Air freight is the other lever: 5–7 days door to door, at 3–5× the sea rate. First orders run longer than reorders, and the delay is rarely machine time: a packaging approval that comes back late, a spec change after tooling starts, a deposit that takes a week to clear, or a holiday week that stops a cluster.

Two things compress it fastest for anyone learning how to import from China: a full specification on day one, and a deposit that clears before a holiday. Plan around Chinese New Year: factories close for two to three weeks. Knowing that upfront is the practical half of how to import from China.

The shutdown is not one date — it runs roughly from late January into early March depending on the province, and container space tightens before it, not after. Our Chinese New Year factory shutdown timeline sets out the dates that matter.

None of this is a reason to avoid the process — it is a reason to sequence it properly and to lock the specification before the deposit moves. Most guides on how to import from China stop at the six steps above; the timeline is what surprises buyers.

Once you know how to import from China, the second order typically runs in about half the time: the factory is vetted, the sample is signed off, and the decisions left are quantity and timing. That is the honest case for learning how to import from China with someone on the ground.