A convincing website and a low quote are not evidence that a supplier can actually deliver. Before you send a deposit, shipment records let you check three things that matter.
1. Are they actually shipping?
Search the supplier by name in bill of lading data. A genuine exporter appears as the shipper on real shipments, with dates, destinations and volumes. No shipment history is a warning sign.
2. Do they ship your product?
Check the HS codes and product descriptions on their shipments. A supplier who claims to make your product but only ever ships something else may be a trader, not a manufacturer.
3. Who else buys from them?
The consignees on a supplier's shipments show their existing customers and the countries they already serve. An exporter that already ships to buyers in your market has cleared the practical hurdles you would otherwise discover the hard way.
You can build this picture from the Bill of Lading database, filtering by country and product. Start with a free sample to see the fields you get for each supplier.
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