How it works

Five steps. The fourth one is where most of the work — and all of your risk — actually sits, so it is the one we describe in detail.

1. You send a list

   A spreadsheet, a photo of a catalogue page, or a few lines in a chat. Model numbers help but are not required — describe the item and we will find candidates. Tell us the destination country and the plug standard you need.

2. We quote, you confirm

   You get a quotation with every item priced on its own line, our commission shown separately, and freight estimated. Nothing is bundled into a single mystery unit price.

   Where a choice exists we quote two or three grades, with a plain explanation of what the price difference buys. Quotations are valid for 7 days — prices in Yiwu move.

3. You pay the deposit

   50% of the goods plus 100% of the commission on confirmation. The balance of the goods and the freight is due before shipment, after you have approved the inspection photos. Bank transfer (T/T).

4. We buy on site and inspect before we pay

   This is the step you are paying for. From the moment your deposit leaves your bank until your cargo leaves Yiwu, you cannot see anything — and that blind stretch is where sourcing goes wrong. Everything below exists to close it.

   Where your goods actually come from

   Yiwu International Trade City, District 2 and District 6.For equipment and consumables, we walk the aisles, open the cartons, and inspect the units in person before we buy.

   1688, China's domestic wholesale platform. It is effectively closed to foreign buyers: a mainland business account and a mainland bank card are required. But MOQs there run 2–50 pcs per item, against the 100–1,000 pcs typical on export platforms. This is what makes a 13-SKU salon order possible at all.

   Direct pickup at supplier warehouses in Yiwu. When a supplier holds stock off-market, we collect it ourselves.

   We inspect before we pay, not after

   An agent who forwards your order to a supplier and settles on your behalf has spent his leverage before he has seen the goods. We buy in person, which means the inspection happens while the money is still in our hand and the seller is still standing in front of us.

   Rejecting a carton at that moment costs a conversation. Rejecting it after it has been paid for, packed, and loaded costs your order.

   What we check, unit by unit

   • Voltage and plug type — every unit, not a sample.This is where nail equipment goes wrong most often: the same model leaves the same stall with a EU, UK, or US plug depending on which batch is in stock that week. One mismatched carton makes the whole line unsellable at destination.
   • Function test. Lamps switched on and timers cycled, drills run up to speed and listened to for bearing noise, wax warmers and steamers powered and brought up to temperature.
   • The model you asked for, not the lookalike beside it.This category is full of near-identical machines at very different prices. Where your list names a specific unit, we check the handpiece, the collet, and the control box — not the picture on the carton.
   • Colour and finish. Salons want the white cabinet. We confirm what is actually inside the carton and ask you before we substitute anything.
   • Count and accessories. Bits, cables, adapters, spare collets, manuals — the small things that go missing and that you only discover are missing after the container is opened.
   • Carton condition. Crushed or damp cartons are replaced before packing. In an LCL shipment your goods travel pressed against other people's cargo.

   The photo set, and your veto over it

   Before anything is sealed, you receive:

   • Every carton photographed with its contents visible and its number readable
   • One photo per SKU of the unit out of its box
   • A close-up of the rating plate and plug on every powered item
   • The packing list, so the photos and the numbers can be read against each other

   Nothing ships until you say go. The photos are not a progress update sent after the fact — they are a checkpoint. If we do not hear from you, nothing is sealed and nothing is booked. Silence is not approval, and we will chase you for an answer rather than assume one.

   If something is wrong

   You tell us at the photo stage, and you choose: we source the item again from another supplier, re-quote it at a different grade, or drop it and refund what you paid for it. No restocking charge. The goods are still in Yiwu and still our problem.

   Because our commission is fixed at quotation, dropping an item does not change what we earn. We have no financial reason to talk you out of rejecting something — which is the point of publishing the rate in the first place.

5. We consolidate, ship, and hand over the documents

   Goods from every supplier come to one consolidation point, get packed into a single shipment, and are booked with a freight forwarder — LCL sea freight for most salon orders, air or express when you need it faster.

   You receive:

   • Commercial invoice and packing list
   • Bill of lading
   • Certificate of origin, when your import requires one
   • The full carton photo set

   We track the shipment to arrival and stay reachable if your customs broker has questions.

   How long all of this takes: on the 13-SKU order on ourCases page, it was 15 days from deposit to cargo ready. Sailing schedules and transit time are the carrier's, not ours, and we will not quote you a delivery date we do not control.