How to Get Clear English Quotes from Chinese Factories

The quote that wasn’t a quote

You ask a factory on WeChat for a price. They reply: “Hello friend, price is very good, depends on quantity.” You ask for a formal English quote China factory style — unit price, MOQ, lead time, packaging. They send a photo of a handwritten note in Chinese and a thumbs-up emoji.

This happens because most factory salespeople chat in Chinese all day. Their English is often machine-translated, or copied from a template. The numbers might be right, but the *meaning* gets lost. And when you’re ordering 500 pieces of something, “depends on quantity” is not a quote — it’s a riddle.

We’re YueFetch, a sourcing concierge based in Huizhou and Shenzhen. We sit between overseas buyers and Chinese factories every week. Here’s how to turn fuzzy chat into a clean, comparable English quote.

Why factory WeChat English fails

WeChat is built for Chinese. Voice messages, stickers, quick replies. When a factory owner types English, they’re often translating in their head from a Chinese price sheet. Common results:

• “Price is 10 dollar” — but is that FOB Shenzhen, EXW Huizhou, or including a logo?
• “MOQ 1000” — maybe that’s per color, or per carton.
• “Delivery 30 days” — from deposit? From sample approval? From Chinese New Year?

None of this is malicious. It’s just that China sourcing communication runs on shorthand. A good China agent translation isn’t word-for-word — it’s context-for-context.

What a real English quote should include

Before you ask for a quote, decide what you need to compare. At minimum:

1. Unit price in USD, with Incoterm (EXW, FOB, CIF). 2. MOQ — and whether it’s per SKU, per color, or per size. 3. Lead time in days, from deposit received. 4. Sample cost and sample lead time. 5. Packaging — poly bag, color box, master carton dimensions. 6. Payment terms — 30% deposit / 70% before shipment is common, but confirm.

If the factory can’t answer these in English, you need a translator who understands manufacturing — not just language.

The 3-line WeChat message that works

Instead of “Please send quote,” try this structure in your first message:

> “Hi, we need a quote for [product]. Quantity: [X] pcs. Please send: unit price FOB Shenzhen, MOQ, lead time, sample cost. English please. Thank you.”

Short, specific, and easy to machine-translate. Factories respond better to bullet points than paragraphs. If they still send a Chinese voice note, that’s your cue to bring in a China agent translation — or ask us.

When to use a sourcing agent (and when not to)

If you’re ordering a simple, standard item — a plain tote bag, a basic cable — you can often get a usable English quote directly. But if the product has custom colors, logos, or packaging, the Chinese side gets complicated fast. That’s when a local agent saves you money.

We’re in Huizhou and Shenzhen, so we can walk into the factory if needed. We don’t invent quotes. We ask the factory for a written price sheet in Chinese, then translate and format it into a clean English quote with all the line items above. If a factory won’t put numbers in writing, that’s a red flag — and we’ll tell you.

A note on payments and freight

Most small factories won’t take PayPal for production orders — fees are high and they’re not set up for it. PayPal is sometimes okay for samples under a few hundred USD. For bulk, expect bank transfer (T/T). Freight from Shenzhen or Huizhou to the US or EU is usually arranged by a forwarder; we can introduce you to one we’ve worked with, but we don’t mark up freight.

If you need a sample shipped to your door, ask for the factory’s express account or use your own DHL/FedEx account. That keeps the quote clean.

What we won’t do

We won’t scrape Xiaohongshu or Amazon photos to reverse-engineer a product. We won’t promise a factory can make something without seeing a sample or tech pack. And we won’t give you a fake SKU weight — if we don’t have a scale weigh yet, we’ll say so.

How to get started

If you’re stuck with a factory that only chats in Chinese, send us the WeChat screenshots or the Chinese price sheet. We’ll turn it into an English quote you can actually compare. You can request a quote or read our sourcing guide for more on working with Chinese factories. We also have topic pages on communication and quotes if you want to dig deeper.

No pressure. Just email hello@yuefetch.com or message us on WhatsApp. We’ll reply in English — promise.

*YueFetch is a sourcing concierge in Huizhou & Shenzhen. We help small brands get clear quotes, real samples, and honest answers.*