A good China distributor search brief fits on one page. It gives your category and price band, the channels you want, your stage in China, the registrations you hold, your budget for the first year and what you’ve already tried. With those six answers in hand, a partner can start matching names on the first call.
Sources quoted here were checked November 9, 2026.
The same page works whether you need an importing distributor, a Tmall Partner (TP) to run a Tmall Global store or a Douyin Partner (DP) for a Douyin shop. Each one reads it for a different reason. A distributor wants to know if your goods fit the shelves it already reaches. A TP or DP looks hardest at the budget, since the store’s own costs come out of it before any fee does.
Our own Compass searches start from this page too. A shortlist usually takes two to three weeks from the brief and runs to three to five names (from Compass, as published on this site). Those weeks should go into checking partners, and a vague brief spends some of them on questions the brand could have answered on paper.
Print the one-page China partner search brief and fill it in before the first call.
What goes in a China distributor search brief
The brief has seven fields: the six above, plus timing and who decides. The example answers are for an invented skincare brand.
| Brief field | Why a partner needs it | Example answer |
|---|---|---|
| Category and price band | The retail price decides the route: a single cross-border order is capped at 5,000 RMB | Face serum, 30 ml, 420 RMB retail, refill 260 RMB |
| Channels wanted | Tmall Global, Douyin and offline shelves need different partners | Tmall Global first, Douyin cross-border in year two, no supermarkets yet |
| Stage in China | Entering, replacing and adding are different searches | Already selling, replacing a TP that stopped delivering |
| Registrations held | The trademark and product filings decide which routes are open now | China trademark filed in class 3, no NMPA filing, cross-border only |
| First-year budget | Platform deposits and stock tie up cash before the first order | About 3 million RMB in year one, media included |
| What has been tried | Store history and old contracts limit what can reopen, and when | Tmall Global flagship 2023 to 2025, run by a TP, closed in March |
| Timing and who decides | A partner can plan to a date, and needs to know who signs | Partner signed by June, the export director decides |
Price band and channels: the route comes first
Put the price first. It sorts partners faster than any other answer, because China caps what a shopper can buy through cross-border retail.
A single cross-border retail import order is capped at 5,000 RMB and a shopper’s annual total at 26,000 RMB, in force since January 1, 2019. Source: Ministry of Finance, General Administration of Customs and State Taxation Administration (财政部 海关总署 税务总局), Caiguanshui 2018 No. 49, November 2018. https://policy.mofcom.gov.cn/claw/clawContent.shtml?id=65769
Inside those caps, a TP or DP can sell your goods through a bonded warehouse. Above them, or for shelves in physical stores, you need a general-trade importer or distributor. Give the price as the shopper sees it, in RMB, for your hero product and your cheapest one.
Name the channels in order, too. The platform sets who can open a store.
Tmall Global admits merchants with a company outside mainland China and an overseas registered trademark, and requires them to declare the agent operator (代理运营商) that runs the store. Source: Tmall Global (天猫国际), Merchant Acceptance Standards, in force March 2025. https://rule.tmall.hk/?type=detail&ruleId=11003210&cId=624#/rule/detail?ruleId=11003210&cId=624
Under that rule the store sits with your overseas company, and the TP is declared as its operator. If a partner offers to open the store in its own name, ask whose company would hold it. How the three partner types split the work is in TP, DP or distributor: who to hire first in China.
Registrations held: what a partner can sell on day one
List what’s filed in China, with dates and numbers. The trademark comes first, because China rewards whoever files first.
When two applicants file identical or similar marks for the same or similar goods, the earlier application is approved and published. Source: China National Intellectual Property Administration (国家知识产权局), Trademark Law of the People’s Republic of China, 2019 amendment, article 31, July 2019. https://www.cnipa.gov.cn/art/2019/7/30/art_95_28179.html
Then the product filings. Cross-border goods ship as personal imports.
Cross-border retail imports are supervised as goods for personal use and are exempt from first-import license, registration and filing requirements. The overseas seller must appoint a company registered in mainland China, which bears joint civil liability. Source: Ministry of Commerce (商务部) and five agencies, Shangcaifa 2018 No. 486, November 2018. https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/2018-12/31/content_5437823.htm
General trade works the other way. A distributor that buys your cosmetics has to check their paperwork before it can sell them.
Cosmetics sellers must check and record each supplier’s business registration, the product’s registration or filing, and its factory inspection certificate. Source: State Council (国务院), Cosmetics Supervision and Administration Regulation, Decree No. 727, article 38, June 2020. https://www.gov.cn/gongbao/content/2020/content_5525087.htm
Food has its own gate at the factory end.
Overseas manufacturers of imported food must register with the General Administration of Customs, and registration is valid for five years. Decree 280 took effect June 1, 2026. Source: General Administration of Customs (海关总署), Decree No. 280, October 2025, via the Ministry of Commerce. https://is.mofcom.gov.cn/zcfb/art/2026/art_5fb27bef1cf84bbcb06e0b061201a288.html
A brand with no filings isn’t stuck. It’s simply a cross-border brand for now, and the brief should say so. Check any partner’s own paperwork before you meet: how to read a Chinese company report walks through the business license and court records.
Budget for the first year: put a number on it
“Flexible” isn’t a budget. No partner can size a plan around it, and the store’s fixed costs arrive before any sales do.
At the defaults in our Tmall Global calculator, a food or skincare store needs 505,000 RMB before its first order: a 50,000 RMB platform deposit, a 30,000 RMB annual fee, 25,000 RMB of store setup, a 100,000 RMB bonded warehouse deposit and 300,000 RMB of prepaid tax. Of that, 450,000 RMB is refundable, but it still leaves your account (TheChinaPath calculator data, November 2026).
Give one figure for the year, and say if it includes media and stock. Run your own numbers in the Tmall Global setup and running cost calculator before you write it down.
What has been tried: the history a partner will find anyway
Write down every past distributor, store and agency, with dates and how each one ended. A partner will check the store record. Better it reads your version first.
Some history sets the calendar.
A merchant that leaves Tmall Global voluntarily twice in one calendar year cannot reopen the store, under the same or a changed entity, for six months from the exit. Source: Tmall Global (天猫国际), Merchant Acceptance Standards, in force March 2025. https://rule.tmall.hk/?type=detail&ruleId=11003210&cId=624#/rule/detail?ruleId=11003210&cId=624
Add any exclusivity still running and any stock still sitting with an old partner. Both decide when a new one can start selling.
FAQ
How long should a China partner search brief be?
One page. Seven fields, each answered in a line or two: category and price band, channels, stage, registrations, first-year budget, what has been tried, and timing. A partner who needs more will ask on the first call. Longer briefs tend to bury the price and the budget, the two answers that sort partners fastest.
Should I send the same brief to every distributor?
Yes. The same page to every candidate makes the answers comparable, and it stops a partner from shaping the brief around what it already sells. Keep the budget figure identical across copies, and note which proposals skip a field.
What if I don’t know my first-year budget yet?
Give a range and say what it covers. Run the platform calculators first, so the range starts from real deposits and fees. A partner can work with “2 to 3 million RMB, media included”. It can’t work with “to be decided”, and it will usually assume the low end.
Does the brief change for a Tmall Partner or Douyin Partner?
The fields stay the same. A TP or DP reads the budget and the store history most closely, because its fee comes after the platform’s deposit. A distributor reads price band and registrations first, because it buys the stock and has to clear it.
Our guides to finding a distributor, a Tmall Partner or a Douyin Partner set out what to check once the names arrive, and Compass holds the partners we have met in person.
Updated November 9, 2026
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