Buying locally in the UAE runs on the telephone. Buying from China does not. A cold call from a foreign number to a factory sales office is unlikely to be picked up, is four hours out of step with your working day, and asks someone to quote in their second language without time to check a price list. Email and WhatsApp are how export trade with China actually works, and the buyers who get good quotes are the ones who treat that as the method rather than a fallback.
Finding factories that want foreign buyers
Search in English. That sounds like a limitation and is the opposite: a manufacturer that publishes an English website with an email address and a WhatsApp number is telling you it exports and will read an English enquiry. A domestic supplier found through a Chinese-language search may have a better price on paper and no way to sell it to you.
The B2B marketplaces are a useful place to see who makes what, but a marketplace listing is often a trading company standing in front of several factories. That is not necessarily bad — a good trading company handles quality checks and consolidation — but it is worth knowing which you are talking to, and the factory's own website usually settles it.
What to put in the first message
The first email decides whether a supplier replies with a price or with a list of questions. Make it answerable in one reply:
- The exact product, with the specification that changes the price: material, grade, size, finish, standard. A photo or a drawing removes a round of questions.
- The quantity, and whether it is a one-off or a repeat order. Factories price repeat business differently, and they will ask.
- Where it needs to arrive — Jebel Ali, a warehouse in Dubai, a site in Abu Dhabi — and when.
- Which price you want: ex-works, FOB a Chinese port, or delivered (CIF or to your door). If you leave this out, every supplier picks their own and nothing compares.
- The currency you want the quote in. Most will quote in US dollars; say so if you need something else.
Keep it short and plain. A clear six-line enquiry gets a better reply than a polished page, because the person reading it is often going to run it through a translation tool before answering.
Minimum orders, samples and the price that matters
Expect a minimum order quantity in almost every reply. It is usually negotiable for a first order, especially if the product is something the factory already makes rather than a custom run. Ask for a sample before a large order, and expect to pay for it and for the courier — a factory that refuses a paid sample outright is telling you something.
Then compare like with like. A unit price ex-works in Shenzhen is not comparable with a delivered price from a Dubai trader until you add freight, insurance, the customs duty charged on most imports into the UAE and VAT, and the cost of waiting several weeks. China is often still cheaper; it is just cheaper by less than the first number suggests.
The factory price is where the comparison starts, not where it ends.
Waiting for the reply
A local supplier who has not answered in an hour probably will not. A factory that has not answered in a day is perfectly normal. Replies arrive the next morning their time, after a weekend, or a week late around Chinese New Year and the October Golden Week holidays, when many factories close. Give a cold enquiry three working days before writing again, and one short reminder is enough.
How PurchoSmart handles international sourcing
International requests in our AI procurement platform work the way export trade does — by writing, not calling. It searches for export-facing suppliers in the country you choose, reads each company's own website for an email address and a WhatsApp number, and checks that the email address is real before anything is sent. You can add suppliers you already know as well.
Nothing is sent until you approve the message. You see the draft that will go to suppliers, edit it if you want, and approve it once for the whole request. It then goes out by email, and by WhatsApp where a supplier publishes a number — from your own mailbox if you connect one. Each supplier gets a link to quote against your specification, the request waits up to three days for replies, and quotes in different currencies are converted to yours at the rate on the day they were given.
International sourcing is included on the Standard and Pro plans — see plans and prices. For suppliers inside the UAE, the agent calls instead; where the suppliers you never called are covers that side.