Using a B2B platform without getting burned.

What a listing actually is.

An advertisement. The company wrote it, chose the photographs and selected the claims, exactly as they would on their own website. Prominence in search results is usually a paid tier rather than a quality ranking.

That is not a criticism of platforms, which do the job they exist for. It becomes a problem when a buyer reads a listing as though somebody checked it, and the design of most platforms quietly encourages that reading.

Verification badges, where they exist, generally mean a body confirmed documents and sometimes an address. Read what the badge says it audited rather than what it implies, because the gap between those two is where losses happen.

Six checks, about twenty minutes.

These are the same checks that apply to a company found anywhere else. The platform changes nothing about them.

1. 01

   Look up the registration yourself

   Indonesia runs a single online licensing system. Ask for the business identification number and check what the company is licensed to do, rather than accepting a certificate image.

2. 02

   Match three names

   The company on the listing, on the registration, and later on the bank account. Two out of three matching is the most common shape of a loss.

3. 03

   Reverse-search the photographs

   Stock images and other companies' factory photographs appear regularly. It takes a minute and it settles a lot.

4. 04

   Ask a question you know the answer to

   A specific requirement of your own destination. Somebody who ships there answers immediately and without enthusiasm.

5. 05

   Ask for a previous shipment to your market

   Not a reference, a shipment. Documents for a real container that cleared where you are.

6. 06

   Put somebody at the address

   Before any substantial deposit. This is the check the other five exist to avoid needing, and it is the only one that cannot be faked.

Where platforms genuinely help.

Volume of candidates for nothing, which is a real service. Finding twenty companies making your product in an afternoon is worth having, and the fact that most will fail the checks is the process working rather than failing.

Trade assurance and escrow arrangements on small orders, where they exist, reduce the risk of paying for nothing. They do not reduce the risk of paying for the wrong thing, which is the more common problem.

Messaging history, which is worth keeping. A written record of what was promised is useful later, and platform threads are harder to lose than a personal chat app.

Questions buyers ask.

Read next.

• 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.

• 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.

• What to look at on a factory visit

  A day at a producer answers questions no document can. What to look for and the three things that tell you most.

• 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.

• A sourcing agent or a B2B platform

  What a platform does well, what it structurally cannot do, and the order size at which paying somebody on the ground starts to make sense.

• Reading a supplier's website

  Ten minutes on a supplier's site answers questions before you ask them. Signal, noise and warnings.