After Canton Fair: Follow-up, Samples, Quotes and the First Order

Last fact-checked: November 9, 2026.

After Canton Fair, the order is not the stack of cards in your bag. It is the written quote that still matches a sample a week later. The hall is loud, the prices sound close, and the person at the booth wants a deposit before you reach the taxi. Pay when the spec, the packing, the Incoterm, and the sample agree. Not before.

Which week you just left still matters. Phase 1, Phase 2, and Phase 3 are different product lists. A card from the wrong phase will not become a good reorder just because the conversation was friendly. The dates and groups are on the organiser's pages, linked below. The follow-up is the same shape in each phase.

A typical case

A buyer leaves Phase 2 with fourteen cards for storage boxes. The illustrative order is about 9 CBM, quoted FOB, to move as LCL once one finish is approved. Three of the cards are ceramic, collected "while we were there." Two are a trading company that offered to "bundle everything." The rest are box makers. The same evening, the ceramic and the bundle offer come off the pile. They are a different product and a different risk. The box makers get one message: send a proforma with the finish code, the carton spec, the quantity, and the named place.

Put that brief on the RFQ form if you want the lines compared before the deposit. A voice note is not the brief.

Three versions of the same booth talk

How to read two proformas side by side, once they exist, is on comparing supplier quotes. The vocabulary for the freight line is Incoterms 2020. FOB needs a place. If one booth says FOB factory and another says FOB the port, you are not looking at two versions of the same number.

The two days after the hall

The timing in that figure is an illustration for the storage-box leads, not a promise that every factory replies overnight. Use it as a sort order.

• Same evening: keep the cards that match the spec you flew in with. Park the rest. A friendly booth in the wrong category is still the wrong category. Phase 2 groups are on the Phase 2 guide. Electronics were Phase 1. Apparel and toys are Phase 3.
• Next message: ask for a proforma, not a restated unit price. The page should carry the company name you will pay, the spec, the packing, the quantity, the Incoterm and place, and when any deposit is due. A deposit percentage copied from another order does not belong on this one unless this quote says it.
• Sample: one finish, marked with the quote line. When it arrives, compare it before any money moves. Samples and trial orders and the sample order page are the working versions of that step. What a proforma is is the document side.
• Only then: the first production order, and, if several booths survived, the question of whether they can share a container. That is consolidation, after each lot still matches its sample.

What the quote is quiet about

Booths rarely volunteer who inspects, who owns a mould, or what happens if the bulk does not match the sample. Write those in. The pre-shipment inspection checklist is the list to attach, not a surprise visit after the balance is paid.

Payment method is a separate choice from the fair. A wire is a wire. Read T/T and confirm the account name against the company you checked. Checks before payment still apply when you met the person. A handshake is not a registry extract.

One customs authority's document list is a useful picture of what "the file" means, and only for that country. ZATCA's import instructions ask the importer for a commercial invoice, a bill of lading, and a certificate of origin when origin is not already clear, plus whatever the product itself requires. Your country publishes its own list. Build the proforma so a broker in your market can use it. Do not assume the Saudi list is the universal one.

What usually goes wrong

• Paying a deposit from the taxi queue because the booth said the price is only good today. A price that cannot survive until tomorrow is not a price you can replenish.
• Approving a sample that is a showroom piece, then discovering the quote describes a cheaper mould. Mark the sample with the quote line when you receive it.
• Letting one trading company "bundle" three booths onto one invoice before you have approved each spec. You have lost the line-by-line comparison, and you may have lost the maker's name.
• Booking the container from the hall. The cube is not real until the packing list exists. CBM comes from cartons, not from a booth footprint.
• Chasing every card. Fourteen leads are a pile. The order is the two that match.

The proforma, line by line

The organiser's general-information page tells you which phase you were standing in. It does not chase the supplier for you. If the quote comes back thin, send it back. The first order can wait a week. A wrong deposit cannot.

See also Canton Fair 2027 Dates, Phases and Which Products Each Phase Covers and Shipping Goods Bought at Canton Fair.

Official sources

• Canton Fair general information, released 3 November 2026. Phases, hours, and venue for the 141st session.
• 141st exhibition dates, released 3 November 2026. Which week you attended.
• ICC Incoterms 2020. Name the rule and the place on the quote.
• ZATCA import instructions. One customs authority's document list, as an example of what a broker needs. Your country publishes its own.