Canton Fair Guide: Key Questions to Ask Suppliers

Most Canton Fair advice focuses on logistics: how to register, which hall covers your product category, how to budget for an interpreter. That's useful, but it solves the wrong problem. Once you're standing at a booth with five minutes of a sales rep's attention, the thing that actually determines whether this trip was worth it is what you ask, not how you got there.

If you've walked a trade show floor before, you know the pattern. You stop at a booth, someone hands you a catalogue, quotes a price, and the conversation moves on before you've asked anything that would actually help you compare this supplier to the next one.

By the third day, you have a stack of business cards and no reliable way to tell which suppliers were factories, which were resellers, and which quoted you an aspirational price they'll walk back once you're home and can't easily verify it.

This playbook is built around what to ask, in what order, and why each question matters, based on the patterns that separate a good supplier meeting from a wasted one on the Canton Fair floor.

The 6 Questions, At a Glance

The sections below walk through each of these in the order you'd actually ask them, with the follow-up questions that expose a rehearsed answer versus a real one.

Why the Right Questions Matter More Than the Right Booth

A well-staffed, professionally designed booth tells you a company can afford a good booth. It doesn't tell you whether they own the factory that will make your product, whether their quoted lead time is realistic, or whether they'll still answer your emails six weeks after the fair ends.

The fair compresses months of supplier vetting into a few days. You don't have time to request a business licence, wait for a factory audit, or run a sample cycle before deciding who to follow up with. What you do have is five to ten minutes per booth and the ability to ask questions that expose the gap between how a supplier presents itself and what's actually true. The questions below are ordered the way you'd actually ask them in a real conversation, starting with the one that reframes everything that follows.

Question 1: "Is This Your Factory, or Do You Represent One?"

Ask this before anything else. Many booths at the Canton Fair belong to trading companies, and there's nothing wrong with that, a good trading company can be a legitimate sourcing partner. The problem is not knowing which one you're talking to, because it changes how you should weigh every other answer.

A factory representative can usually answer follow-up questions about production capacity, tooling, and material sourcing immediately, because they work with that information daily. A trading company representative will often need to check with the factory, which isn't dishonest, but it does mean their answers on lead time and customization are secondhand. Neither is a dealbreaker on its own. What matters is that you know which conversation you're having. You can also cross-check the answer once you're back online: China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) publishes registered business scope, which will say "manufacturing" for a genuine factory and something like "trade" or "consulting" for a reseller.

Question 2: What's the Price at Different Order Volumes?

MOQ (Minimum Order Quantity) and pricing are rarely fixed the way the printed catalog suggests. Ask for the price at two or three different order volumes, not just the one you're planning to place. This tells you two things: whether the supplier is flexible with smaller first orders, and how much their unit price actually moves with volume, which is useful leverage information even if you don't act on it during this conversation.

Ask specifically what the quoted price includes. A price that looks competitive on the surface can exclude packaging, quality inspection, or export documentation, all of which show up later as line items you didn't budget for. Get this itemised while you're standing at the booth, not after you've mentally committed to the number.

The number you get at the booth is also a starting point, not a final price. Our breakdown of what actually moves price when negotiating with Chinese suppliers the concrete levers, such as order volume, payment terms, and timing, that shift a quote well beyond what asking for a discount in a firmer tone ever will.

Question 3: What's the Realistic Lead Time, Not the Optimistic One?

"What's your lead time" is a question every supplier answers instantly and optimistically. A more useful version is "what's your lead time for an order of [your actual expected volume], and what's currently in your production queue." A supplier with a full production schedule will often quote a longer, more honest timeline once you make the question specific rather than generic.

Ask how they handle a delay if one happens. This isn't a hostile question, but a practical one, and a supplier with real production experience will have an actual answer (a penalty clause, a standard communication process) rather than a vague reassurance that delays "don't really happen."

Question 4: Have You Actually Done This Customization Before?

If you need any modification to a stock product, whether packaging, material, colour, or spec, ask specifically whether they've done that kind of customization before, and ask to see an example. A supplier who has genuinely handled private label or custom orders can usually produce a photo or sample from a past project within the conversation. One who hasn't will speak in generalities about what's "possible."

Ask what customization does to both price and lead time. Both usually increase, and getting a rough number at the fair, even an imprecise one, is more useful than discovering the real cost during email negotiations weeks later when you've already mentally committed to the supplier.

Question 5: Can I Take a Sample or Spec Sheet Before I Leave?

A conversation is easy to forget by the fourth booth of the day. A physical sample or a catalog with the supplier's contact details attached is not. If the product allows it, ask whether you can take a sample away, or at minimum, a printed spec sheet with pricing written on it rather than relying on your own notes.

If a sample isn't practical to carry, ask them to mail one to your hotel or home address before you leave China. A supplier who follows through on a small commitment like this before you've placed any order is a reasonable signal they'll follow through once money is involved. One who doesn't is worth noting for the same reason.

Question 6: What Are Your Payment Terms, and Do You Take RMB?

Ask what payment terms they expect for a first order before you leave the booth. Most suppliers will state a standard split (commonly 30% deposit, 70% before shipment), but terms are more negotiable in person than they are over email once you're a random inbox in a supplier's queue. Getting their default terms while you have their attention gives you a real number to work from in follow-up negotiations.

Ask whether they accept payment in RMB directly. Many suppliers price more favourably in RMB because it removes their own FX conversion cost, and this is worth asking on the floor even if you plan to finalise payment details later.

Once you're back from the fair and ready to send a deposit, a Statrys multi-currency business account lets you hold and pay in RMB alongside USD and 9 other currencies from a single account, with FX fees from 0.1% and real-time SWIFT tracking (MT103) so you have a clear, timestamped record of the deposit clearing, useful if a supplier's shipment timeline depends on confirmed payment.

After the Fair: Turning Notes Into a Decision

Collecting good answers at the booth only helps if you can compare them afterwards. Three steps make the difference between a stack of business cards and an actual shortlist.

1. Write everything down right after you leave the booth, not at the end of the day when three conversations have blurred together. A simple note with factory-or-trading-company, quoted price at two volumes, stated lead time, and payment terms is enough to make a real comparison later.
2. Follow up within a few days of the fair, while your conversation is still fresh in the supplier's memory too. A supplier who responds quickly and consistently with what they told you at the booth is a stronger signal than the booth conversation itself.
3. Watch for drift between the booth and the follow-up email. If a supplier's answers on price, lead time, or who actually manufactures the product start shifting once you're home, treat that inconsistency as information. It's a more reliable red flag than anything you could have caught by looking at their booth.