Canton Fair Online: What the Year-Round Platform Offers Buyers

The Canton Fair online platform is open between sessions. A booked negotiation on it, in the organiser's own handbook, is limited to the weeks the physical fair is running.

Last fact-checked: 9 November 2026. Two official texts are in play. The exhibitor handbook whose offline dates are the spring 2026 session (15-19 April, 23-27 April, and 1-5 May 2026) describes the platform as open 365 days and 24 hours, and says the appointment service is only open during the offline fair. The live Canton Fair 365 homepage, opened the same day, says "Stay Connected All-Year-Around" and shows category search, sourcing requests, and product cards. It does not repeat the appointment limit. The handbook is the page that does.

Phase dates for the halls you will still walk are on the 141st dates page.

What the handbook says the platform is

The handbook calls the online platform at www.cantonfair.org.cn a trade site for display, search, and talks. It lists full-media display, exhibitor and product search, instant messages, online negotiation, events, buyer registration, short video, matching, a virtual hall, and web access. It also says the platform runs all year, 365 days by 24 hours.

In the same handbook, the line on appointments is narrower. The platform is open all year. The appointment-negotiation service is open only while the offline fair is on. Details are referred back to the official site. That handbook is an exhibitor document for the spring 2026 session. A 141st handbook was not the file at that URL. Treat the 365-day sentence as what that handbook published, and check the live site if a button you need is missing.

Suppliers, not buyers, are the ones the handbook charges for display packages. It lists three annual packages. The amounts are in the handbook, not restated here, because a 141st price was not on the page. A polished virtual booth is a package the supplier bought. It is not proof they own a factory.

What the live 365 site showed

365.cantonfair.org.cn loaded on 9 November 2026. The homepage offers product categories, a trade-matching strip, and short videos. The matching strip, in the site's own words, runs from a buyer posting a sourcing request, to the fair matching suppliers, to quotations, to contact between the two sides. Product cards name a supplier and a product. Those names are whatever the site was featuring that day. They are not a shortlist.

The same homepage does not say that a video call can be booked in March for a booth that will exist in April. If you need a timed meeting, use the control the handbook describes: appointment negotiation during the offline session. The session clock is the phase calendar, 9:30 to 18:00 on phase days.

How a buyer should use the months in between

Search by the product, not by the adjective "manufacturer." Save the legal name as it is spelled on the card. Ask three things in writing: whether they make the item or trade it, the MOQ, and the lead time for a sample. Drop names that will not match a license. The method is on the exhibitor verification page.

Pre-registration is a different button. It is how you get the badge, and it is open on the terms of the badge guide. Chatting on 365 does not pre-register you.

A typical case

In March 2027 a buyer of gifts builds a list of ten names on the 365 site for Phase 2, which the general-information page sets as 23-27 April 2027. She asks each one for a written sample price under FOB Guangzhou or FOB Shenzhen, and for the booth number they expect to have. Four names cannot produce a company name that matches the person emailing. She deletes them. She walks the remaining six in Phase 2, with the badge already in hand. The online card got her the list. The hall is where she accepts a sample.

That sequence is a typical case, not a recorded order. None of the product names on the homepage that day are recommended here.

Where the online path fails

Treating a featured card as an audited factory. The handbook says the fair's security office monitors false information and system abuse on the platform. Monitoring is not a certificate on each card. You still match the name, the contract, and the bank account. The longer version of that check is how to verify a Chinese supplier before you pay.

Booking flights because a supplier "confirmed a meeting" in a chat in January. The handbook limits the appointment service to the offline fair. A chat is a chat until the session tool gives you a time.

Skipping the phase. Electronics and hardware are not in the same week as apparel. The platform can show both in March. The building will not.

Questions the platform does not answer

Does Canton Fair online replace the trip?

It replaces the blank week before you fly. It does not replace the sample in your hand, and the handbook does not say the appointment tool runs all year. The halls still use the phase dates.

Is there a fee for buyers to search?

The handbook's package prices are supplier display packages. This page does not copy them. Buyer badge fees are a different notice: new, replacement, and renewal of the overseas buyer badge were free on the 26 September 2026 badge guide. Search the live site for the account you actually need rather than paying a third party for "cloud Canton Fair access."

Can I message an exhibitor after the session?

The handbook describes instant messages and matching as platform functions on a site that runs all year. Whether a given supplier still answers is their choice. A silent inbox is not a rejection of your product. It is a reason to move that name down the list before you fly.

When the shortlist is real, put the specification on an RFQ. The first walk through the halls, if you want a plan for it, is the first-time buyer guide.

Sources

• Canton Fair exhibitor handbook PDF. Offline dates inside the file are the spring 2026 session. Platform open all year, appointment negotiation only during the offline fair, and the function list.
• Canton Fair 365. Homepage checked 9 November 2026. "Stay Connected All-Year-Around," categories, sourcing requests, short video.
• Canton Fair: General information. Release date on the page: 4 November 2026. 141st phase dates the online list still has to obey.