Reading a 1688 Supplier Profile: The Six Signals That Matter
On this page
- 1. Repurchase rate
- 2. Transaction volume
- 3. Years trading
- 4. Dispute and refund rate
- 5. Response time and rate
- 6. Factory or trading company
- Putting the six together
- What the profile cannot tell you
- A two minute vetting routine
- What the profile cannot see, and how to cover it
- A shortlist worksheet
- The first order as a test
- Questions people ask
A 1688 shop page is a wall of Chinese text with numbers scattered through it. Most foreign buyers skip it and go straight to price, which is exactly backwards. The shop page is where you find out whether the price is real.
Six signals carry almost all of the useful information. Here is what each one means and what a bad value looks like.
1. Repurchase rate
What it is. The percentage of buyers who placed another order after their first.
Why it matters more than anything else. 1688 buyers are Chinese businesses buying to resell. They are not sentimental, they have alternatives, and switching supplier costs them nothing. If a large share of them come back, the supplier is delivering what was promised at a price that works. It is very hard to fake, because it requires real repeat transactions.
Reading it. Below ten percent, be cautious. Ten to twenty, ordinary. Twenty to thirty, good. Above thirty, strong.
The nuance. Some categories naturally repurchase less. A supplier of one-off seasonal novelty items will never post the rate a basics manufacturer posts. Compare within a category, not across them.
2. Transaction volume
What it is. Total sales through the shop, usually shown over a rolling window.
What it tells you. Capacity and stability. A shop moving serious volume has stock, has staff, and is unlikely to vanish mid-order. It also means your small order is not going to be their priority, which is a real trade-off.
The trap. High volume with low repurchase is a warning, not a reassurance. It means a lot of buyers tried them once. That pattern often shows up on shops competing purely on price.
3. Years trading
What it is. How long the shop has operated on the platform.
What it tells you. Survival. Chinese wholesale is brutally competitive and margins are thin. A shop that has traded five years has survived at least one bad season, one difficult customer and one supply shock.
Reading it. Under one year, treat as unproven regardless of other numbers. Two to four, established. Five or more, and the repurchase rate holds up, that is a supplier worth building a relationship with.
4. Dispute and refund rate
What it is. The proportion of transactions that ended in a dispute or a refund. Published, and generally ignored by foreign buyers.
Why it deserves attention. Star ratings are soft. Disputes are not. A buyer who opens a dispute has decided the problem was worth the effort of a formal process, which means it was a real problem.
Reading it. Very low is what you want. A visibly elevated rate against comparable shops in the same category is a reason to move on, even if everything else looks good.
5. Response time and rate
What it is. How fast and how consistently the shop replies to buyer messages.
Why it matters even if you never message them. It is a proxy for whether anyone is actually running the shop. A supplier who does not answer messages before you order will certainly not answer them after something goes wrong.
The practical use. If you or your agent will need to ask about stock, colour or a size run, this number predicts how that will go.
6. Factory or trading company
What it is. 1688 tags manufacturers, and the tag is worth checking. It is also worth verifying independently, because tags can be generous.
How to verify without asking. Look at the product range. A factory makes a narrow set of related things, because that is what its machines and workers do. If a shop lists bags, shoes, watches, kitchenware and children’s clothing, it is a trading company regardless of what the tag says. Then check the detail gallery for workshop photos: real production floor images, equipment, staff working. Trading companies rarely have them because they do not have a factory.
Which is better. Neither, and it depends on your order. Factories give you the best price on a single product at reasonable volume and are inflexible about anything unusual. Trading companies handle mixed orders, small quantities and awkward requests, and charge for it. The full comparison is here.
Putting the six together
| Pattern | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| High volume, high repurchase, 4+ years | A serious supplier. Your small order will be low priority but will be handled correctly. |
| Low volume, high repurchase, 3+ years | A small specialist. Often the best experience for a small buyer. |
| High volume, low repurchase | Competing on price. People try them once. |
| New shop, high volume | Either a genuine breakout or a rebranded shop with history it would rather you did not see. |
| Good numbers, elevated dispute rate | Something in the process is failing. Move on. |
| Everything average | Fine. Most suppliers are fine. Compare on price and MOQ. |
What the profile cannot tell you
Three things, and they matter.
Whether the product is right for Nigeria. A supplier with perfect metrics selling heavy polyester jackets is still selling something that will not work in Lagos. Metrics measure the seller, not the fit.
Whether the item in the photo is the item in the box. Colour drift, material substitution and a slightly different lining are all normal-supplier behaviours, not fraud. The only defence is somebody checking before it ships.
Whether they will still have it in three months. Fast fashion suppliers rotate ranges constantly. If you plan to reorder, ask about continuity before you build a listing around the product.
A two minute vetting routine
- Repurchase rate above twenty percent, or a clear reason why not.
- Two or more years trading.
- Dispute rate not visibly elevated against similar shops.
- Product range narrow enough to be plausible, or trading company acknowledged.
- Detail gallery includes close-ups, not only styled shots.
- Price table row for your quantity is within range of the other four shops you shortlisted.
Six checks, two minutes, and it removes most of the suppliers that would have wasted your money.
What the profile cannot see, and how to cover it
Metrics describe the shop. Three things they do not describe, and the substitute for each.
Whether this specific product is good. A shop with excellent metrics carries a range, and some items in it are better than others. The substitute is the detail gallery on that listing, and a pre-shipment check. What to look at.
Whether they will still have it in three months. Metrics are historical. The substitute is asking directly whether a product is a continuing line or a seasonal run, before you build a listing around it.
Whether it suits Nigeria. A supplier with perfect numbers selling heavy winter fabric is still selling something wrong for Lagos. The substitute is your own judgement about the product, which no metric replaces.
A shortlist worksheet
Five suppliers, seven columns, fifteen minutes. This is the whole vetting process.
| Column | Threshold |
|---|---|
| Repurchase rate | Above 20 percent |
| Years trading | 2 or more |
| Dispute rate | Not elevated against comparable shops |
| Response rate | High |
| Product range breadth | Narrow enough to be a plausible factory, or acknowledged as a trader |
| Detail gallery quality | Close-ups present, interior shown |
| Price for your variant and quantity | Within range of the other four |
A supplier failing two or more columns comes off the list. A supplier passing all seven is worth a first order.
The discipline that matters is filling this in before looking at price properly. Sorting by price first produces a shortlist of shops that opened last month. Building the shortlist.
The first order as a test
Metrics get you to a shortlist. The first order tells you the rest, and it is worth treating deliberately.
What to watch:
- Did they confirm stock accurately? The most common failure and the most predictive.
- Did they ship in the stated time?
- Did they substitute without telling anyone?
- Did the goods match the specification?
- How did they respond when something was raised?
Score those five after the first order and you know more than any profile could have told you. A supplier who passes all five is worth building on, and worth a second source anyway, because relationships end. Building the relationship.
Questions people ask
What is the most important number on a 1688 supplier profile?
Repurchase rate. It measures whether professional buyers came back, which is the hardest signal to manufacture and the most predictive of your own experience.
Is a high transaction volume a good sign?
Only alongside a healthy repurchase rate. High volume with low repurchase means a lot of buyers tried the supplier once and chose not to return.
How can I tell a factory from a trading company on 1688?
Check the breadth of the product range and look for workshop photos in the detail gallery. A factory makes a narrow related set of products. A shop listing bags, shoes and kitchenware is reselling.
Should I avoid new 1688 shops?
Treat them as unproven rather than bad. A new shop can be a genuine new business or an old one that restarted after problems. For a first order with money at stake, prefer established shops.
Do star ratings on 1688 mean anything?
Less than the behavioural numbers. Ratings cluster high across the platform. Repurchase rate, dispute rate and response consistency separate suppliers far more usefully.
Can a supplier with good metrics still send bad goods?
Yes. Metrics describe the business, not the specific batch. Colour and material substitution happen with reputable suppliers, which is why pre-shipment checking exists.
