How to prepare a China purchase list
Template and criteria for a China purchase list that gets quoted in one pass: the five data points per line, how to state variants, what everyone omits.
A China purchase list is prepared with five data points per line — reference, quantity, variant, specification and destination — grouped by category and numbered one by one. A product sold in five colours and three sizes is fifteen different SKUs, not one line, and quoting it as a single line is the most frequent cause of a quote that later does not match the invoice. The list is not a formality: it decides whether you receive a number in a single pass or after three rounds of questions.
Why the list decides the price and the turnaround of the quote
A quote is worth exactly what the brief it comes from is worth. When a buyer concludes that their agent “takes forever”, the agent is usually not slow: it is asking, waiting and asking again because the list did not allow the order to be quoted.
The reason is time zones: the work is done in China, and the gap is fourteen hours with Mexico and eleven with Argentina and Brazil. Each round of questions costs a day, not an hour: what you write in the afternoon reaches Shenzhen the next day and the answer returns the following night your time. A list with four ambiguities is four calendar days. The buying process is built around one complete brief, not a stream of messages.
An ambiguous brief is not quoted more cheaply: it is quoted worse. When a data point is missing, someone fills it with an assumption — the best-selling model, the usual material, the standard packaging — and that assumption causes most later disputes. Rarely because someone lied, but because nobody wrote down what they wanted.
The five data points every line needs
| Data point | What to write | What happens when it is missing |
|---|---|---|
| Reference | Product link, or a sharp photo plus a written description | A similar variant is found and a different product is quoted |
| Quantity | A number per variant, not just the total | The tier price changes and the minimum cannot be checked |
| Variant | Colour, size, model, plug type, voltage | Whatever was available gets bought |
| Specification | Material, thickness, capacity, required certification | The cheap version that looks identical gets bought |
| Destination | Country and city, not “Latin America” | It is not known which certification applies or which route to quote |
The link is the best data point, and sometimes it does not exist. If you saw it at a trade fair or in a competitor’s shop, a sharp photo with a written description replaces it: what it is, what material, what size and for which model.
The target price is optional and works as a filter, not an anchor for haggling. It tells you whether the product is reachable in that band or you are comparing a different category.
The four omissions that always appear
All four repeat in almost every list, and all end in a question or an assumption.
| Omission | Why it matters | What to write |
|---|---|---|
| The variant | A colour or size that is not bought is a sale that does not exist | The exact breakdown by variant |
| The destination country | Determines which certification must be processed before shipping | Country and city of delivery |
| Whether the packaging can be changed | Decides whether the billable volume can be reduced | “Neutral”, “with my brand” or “repack” |
| The deadline | Decides the transport mode and whether the order is viable | The date it must be at your warehouse |
The variant is the most expensive omission and the easiest to fix. If the product exists in five colours, “500 units” means someone chooses for you, and probably the colour the supplier has left over.
The destination country is not a logistics data point, it is a regulatory one. It is not where the parcel goes, but which certificate must be obtained before the goods leave China: the same Bluetooth earbud can ship to one country with no further formality and be held in another.
Whether the packaging can be changed decides the freight. In air freight, the billable weight is the greater of the actual and the volumetric weight, which is the volume in cubic centimetres divided by a carrier-set divisor, usually between 5,000 and 6,000; light, bulky products are billed this way, by space occupied. Oversized packaging that cannot be touched is paid for on every shipment; packaging that can be is fixed once. That is where cargo consolidation changes the numbers.
The deadline is what decides the mode. An order that must arrive in three weeks and one that can wait three months do not ship the same way or cost the same.
One badly specified line and the same line specified well
| Data point | Version A: what usually arrives | Version B: what is needed |
|---|---|---|
| Reference | “A case like this one” plus a screenshot | The link to the specific model on 1688 |
| Quantity | “500” | 500 units |
| Variant | Unspecified | 5 colours, 100 units of each |
| Specification | “Silicone, good quality” | 1.0 mm TPU, neutral packaging |
| Destination | Unspecified | Mexico City |
| Cost of the back-and-forth | Version A | Version B |
|---|---|---|
| Rounds of questions before quoting | 3 | 0 |
| Calendar days to get the number | 3 | 1 |
| Risk of quoting the wrong variant | High | None |
The difference is not the effort of writing version B: it is about ten minutes, and it avoids three days of questions played out in deferred time.
A product with variants is not one line: it is a set of SKUs
Five colours and three sizes are not one product: they are fifteen SKUs, each with its own price, its own minimum and its own stock. Quoting fifteen references as a single line produces the quote that looks correct and then does not match: the supplier quotes the cheapest colour and the minimum for the set, and the invoice comes out different.
The breakdown by variant is not an agent’s whim: it is the only way to know whether the supplier stocks everything or only part. The number of SKUs also affects what comes next: per-unit labelling for MercadoLibre Full or Amazon FBA costs USD 0.12 per unit at the published service rates, and fifteen SKUs with uneven stock are fifteen labelling decisions, not one.
If you do not yet know which split of variants you want, write it that way. “500 units spread across the colours that sell best; propose the split yourself” is quotable. “500 units” on its own is not.
How to handle a long list
A list of thirty untidy lines takes longer than one of a hundred tidy lines, and the difference is three formatting decisions.
- Group by category. Each category has different suppliers, minimums and certification; grouping lets them be quoted in parallel, not in series.
- Number every line. It is the only way to refer to “number 14” unambiguously when forty references are in play and several people read the order.
- Mark every line as essential or exploratory. The essential ones define whether the order happens; the exploratory ones you want quoted if the price works.
The third decision orders the calendar. If the agent knows which five lines are indispensable, it quotes those first and holds the exploratory ones back. Without that mark, all forty weigh the same.
Destination changes the list: Mexico, Argentina and Brazil
The five data points are the same for all three countries; what changes is what must be found out before buying. Destination affects more than freight: it determines which certification must be processed, and some are obtained on the finished product, after manufacturing and before shipment.
| Country | Certification that filters the list | What it requires of the importer |
|---|---|---|
| Mexico | NOM, according to the product category, before shipment | Registration in the SAT’s Padrón de Importadores, which requires an active RFC and a positive compliance opinion; there are specific registries for sensitive sectors, including electronics |
| Brazil | ANATEL homologation for every product with a radio transmitter, and Inmetro certification where applicable | Enabling in the Receita Federal’s RADAR, which requires a Brazilian company with a CNPJ |
| Argentina | ENACOM homologation for every device that transmits or receives radio frequency, WiFi and Bluetooth included, with a local legal representative | Electrical safety regime renewed in 2025: Resolution 18/25 replaced the previous framework with Resolutions 16, 17 and 236, with a conformity mark and QR code from October 2025 |
That is why destination goes on the first line of the list and not the last. A supplier that cannot issue the certificate your country requires is not a last-mile problem: it invalidates the whole order, and it is worth knowing before you pay the deposit, which is where buyer protection matters. The categories covered change over time, so the scope is checked case by case.
Template to copy and paste
ORDER — [your reference]
Destination: [country] / [city]
Deadline: the goods must be at my warehouse on [date]
Packaging: [neutral / with my brand / repack to reduce volume]
1. [Product] — ESSENTIAL
Link:
Total quantity:
Variants (colour, size, model, plug, voltage):
Specification that is not negotiable:
Target price per unit:
Notes:
2. [Product] — EXPLORATORY
Link:
Total quantity:
Variants:
Specification that is not negotiable:
Target price per unit:
Notes:Two rules for using it. If you do not know a field, write “I do not know” rather than leaving it blank: a blank field reads as “you decide”; an “I do not know” generates a specific question. And one line per product, not per variant, with the variant breakdown inside.
What not to do
A screenshot with no quantity. This is the most frequent case. A screenshot carries no exact model, no price in yuan and no quantity: all it contributes is the look. If you saw the product on a social network, what is needed is its name with the measurements, not the image.
“The best price” with no volume. The unit price in China depends on quantity: ordering 100 units is not the same as ordering 10,000. Without a volume, you receive a range that is useless for deciding. Ask for a price at a specific quantity, or at two or three steps.
Unrelated categories mixed into the same message. A text that bundles phone cases, LED lighting and kitchenware into one running paragraph cannot be broken up or split among suppliers. If they belong to the same order, they go in numbered lines; if they are different projects, better in separate messages.
The case for a well-built list
A buyer who sends a well-formed list gets a faster and cheaper answer than one who sends twelve separate messages, and not out of goodwill: because the work is bounded. Twelve messages force the order to be reconstructed, the same question to be asked twice and twelve conversations kept open; a list forces it to be quoted once.
Below USD 2,000 of purchase value, MeliPrep publishes a flat fee of USD 150 per order instead of a percentage commission, because the work does not shrink with the order size. An agent that receives a complete list does that work once; one that receives twelve messages does it twelve times, and charges the same.