Finding and checking suppliers
Reading a supplier's website.
A supplier's website is written to impress rather than to inform, so read it for what it accidentally reveals. Who they photographed, what they will not name, and how the catalogue is arranged tell you more than any of the claims.
Signal.
Photographs of their own facility with the same room appearing across different pages. A factory that exists gets photographed repeatedly and inconsistently, which is exactly what real photographs look like.
Product photographs with obvious defects and normal variation. Perfect studio images are stock or rendered, and a real production photograph shows real product.
A specific address that matches the registration, and a landline. Both are checkable in minutes.
A narrow catalogue. A company that makes three things is a factory. A company that offers three hundred unrelated products across four industries is a trader, which is not a problem as long as you know.
Certificates shown with numbers and issuing bodies, which can be verified with the issuer rather than admired.
Noise.
Years of experience, quality commitments and customer-first language. Every site has it and it distinguishes nobody.
Client logos without a case study or a contact. Logos are easy to place on a page and hard to remove.
Statistics with no source: number of clients, retention rates, countries served. In this industry these figures are almost never audited and frequently invented.
Awards from organisations you cannot find. Some are real, many are paid listings, and the effort to tell them apart is better spent elsewhere.
Warnings.
Stock photography of a factory. If they are showing somebody else's production line, ask why.
No address, or an address that is a residential building or a virtual office. Trading is a legitimate business and hiding it is not.
A catalogue spanning food, furniture and electronics. Nobody makes all three, so this is a trading intermediary presenting as a producer.
Prices published for commodities that move daily. Either the figures are stale or they are bait.
Pressure language on a business-to-business site. Limited stock and act now belong in retail, and in export they signal a broker rather than a producer.
What to do with what you found.
Turn each observation into a question rather than a conclusion. A trader who admits to being a trader can be an excellent partner, and a factory that photographs badly can be superb.
Then verify independently: the registration, the licensing record, the certificate with its issuer, and eventually the premises. The website tells you what to check rather than what is true.
Questions buyers ask.
Does a bad website mean a bad supplier?
No, and some of the best Indonesian producers have almost no web presence because their order book is full. A polished site is a marketing budget rather than a production capability.
How do I tell a factory from a trading company?
Catalogue breadth is the fastest signal, and the reliable answer comes from the licensing record and a visit. Ask directly as well, because many will simply tell you.
Are the certificates on the site genuine?
Sometimes, and the ones that matter are verifiable with the issuing body rather than by looking at the image. An expired certificate presented as current is common enough to check every time.
Read next.
How to verify an Indonesian supplier
Two public government registries, the cross-check between them that catches most problems before a deposit moves, and the part only a visit can answer.
Finding a producer in Indonesia
Six routes to real producers, what each is good for and blind to, and the five-step funnel from a list of names to a first order.
How importers lose money in Indonesia
Six recurring patterns, from credentials that are not export documents to borrowed registrations, and the five checks that catch them.
PT, CV and what the letters mean
The letters in front of a supplier's name carry real information about liability, capital and ownership.
Using a B2B platform without getting burned
A directory produces candidates and cannot verify them. What the badges audit, and the checks to run yourself.
Trade fairs and sourcing trips
A stand costs money, which filters some noise and not all of it. How to work a fair and use the week around it.
Onboarding a supplier
Everything to collect before the first order, in the order it is worth collecting it.
Sourcing from Indonesia?
Tell us the product, the quantity and the destination. We come back with what it involves before anyone talks about money.