How to Buy from Yiwu Market: From Booth Visit to Container Loading

Last fact-checked: November 10, 2026.

How to buy from Yiwu, if you want goods you can actually import, is a written quote, a named seller, and a carton count. The market operator tells you which floor to start on. It does not negotiate for you. Use the district and floor pages to aim the morning, then treat every booth as a supplier you have not checked yet.

From the list to the warehouse

Before you go, split the list by district so you are not crossing the complex for one SKU at a time. In the booth, get the unit, the MOQ, the carton and the price term on one spec. A number with no term is not a quote. EXW at the booth leaves the haul, the export and the risk on you. FOB names a port and a different set of jobs. The words are defined in Incoterms 2020.

The deposit, if you pay one, goes to the company on the invoice after the order names the spec, the packing and the inspection right. There is no official Yiwu deposit percentage to copy onto an order. Agree the split in the contract and ignore any blog that presents one ratio as the market rule. What "MOQ" is doing in that sentence is on MOQ in sourcing.

Before you leave the city, match the samples to the booth plates. A sample without a booth number becomes an orphan the week you try to reorder. If the booth will post the sample, write the address they will use and the description the courier will see. "Gifts" on a waybill is how a sample sits in a customs queue you did not expect. Keep the commercial sample, if you are charged for it, on its own small invoice. Do not let the booth add the sample cost silently to the bulk unit price later. You will not be able to see it.

Same spec, two booths

You cannot pick Booth B because it "sounds cheaper" until both numbers sit on the same term. Comparing quotes properly is the point of comparing supplier quotes from China.

While you are still in the booth, confirm the carton the price refers to. A unit price "per piece" with a display box the booth expects you to pay for separately will not match the carton you sketched. Ask whether the export carton is included, whether the inner polybag is included, and whether a barcode or a hang tag is included. Write the answer on the quote. Buyers lose the comparison the moment one booth's price includes a printed hang tag and the other booth's price is for a bare piece in a bulk bag.

What the order has to say

• Spec, colour, logo and the signed sample's identity.
• Inner pack, export carton, quantity per carton, and the marks.
• Where the goods are delivered, and the Incoterm that matches that place.
• Who may inspect, and whether a failed inspection holds the balance. The practical list is the pre-shipment inspection checklist.
• The payee. It matches the invoice. A nickname in a chat is not a payee. Read verify the supplier before payment and Trade.gov on methods of payment.

A typical case

A buyer of kitchen tools wants three spatula sizes and a turner, all on one drawing set, shipped LCL if the cube stays under a container. Two booths in District 2 quote. One says EXW and a carton size. The other says FOB and a different carton. The buyer writes both down, asks the EXW booth what the goods cost once they reach the same FOB point, and does not invent that number in the aisle. Samples go out by courier to the buyer's own address. Bulk cartons later sit with other booths in one warehouse, which is the consolidation step, and the sea leg is the same shape as LCL from China.

Three ways the booth visit goes wrong

• The booth price is treated as a factory price. Ask who manufactures and who issues the invoice. They are often different companies.
• There is no invoice, and the deposit is requested to a personal account. Do not pay. The commercial invoice sits in the set described by Trade.gov's common export documents.
• Cartons from several booths are given one mark at the market door. Split the packing lists before the warehouse, or the declaration will describe a mix you cannot classify. The packing list is the document that has to stay split.

The market context is the Yiwu market guide. If you do not want to run the booths yourself, the selection rules are on choosing a Yiwu agent. The spec goes on the RFQ form.

Official sources

• Yiwugo District 1 and District 2 for where the walk starts.
• ICC Incoterms 2020 for the price term on the quote.
• Trade.gov: common export documents.
• Trade.gov: methods of payment.