Verifying a factory in Vietnam takes 5 to 10 working days and costs $300 to $600. Skipping it is how a $25,000 deposit ends up with a trading company.
Why do buyers pick a factory in Vietnam?
Vietnam exported $405 billion of goods in 2025, the US and EU being its two largest markets. Samsung, Nike, Adidas, Foxconn and IKEA suppliers run plants in Bac Ninh, Binh Duong, Dong Nai and Hai Phong. Tier-2 factories around them take orders of 500 to 50,000 units.
The draw is cost plus tariff position. Vietnamese origin avoids the Section 301 duties of 25 percent that apply to most Chinese-made goods entering the US. Labor runs $250 to $400 per month in industrial provinces against $600 to $900 in Guangdong.
Seven checks on any Vietnamese factory
|
Check |
What to request |
Red flag |
|
Business licence (ERC) |
Enterprise Registration Certificate number, verify on dangkykinhdoanh.gov.vn |
Registered as “trading” or “services”, not manufacturing |
|
Export record |
Bills of lading from the last 12 months, buyer names redacted |
No exports, or exports only to Vietnamese traders |
|
Factory ownership |
Land-use certificate or lease, utility bills in company name |
Address is an office in District 1 or Thao Dien, not an industrial park |
|
Production capacity |
Machine list with brands and years, headcount by line |
Capacity claims 3 to 5 times the visible floor space |
|
Certifications |
Original ISO 9001, BSCI, FSC or CE certificates with audit numbers |
PDFs with cropped dates or a different company name |
|
Samples |
3 pre-production samples made on the actual line |
Samples arrive from a different province than the factory |
|
Payment terms |
30 percent deposit, 70 percent against inspection report or copy of B/L |
50 percent or more upfront, payment to a personal account |
ERC means Enterprise Registration Certificate. BSCI is the Business Social Compliance Initiative, FSC the Forest Stewardship Council. B/L is the bill of lading.
Trading company or real factory
Around 40 percent of the “manufacturers” answering Alibaba and Global Sources inquiries from Vietnam are trading companies. They add 15 to 30 percent to the factory price and hide the production site.
Three questions expose them in one call. Ask the name of the industrial park and the lot number. Ask which machine runs the process you care about, and its brand. Ask to video call the production floor within 24 hours. A factory answers all three without hesitation.
What does a factory audit in Vietnam cover?
|
Audit type |
Duration |
Cost (2026) |
Output |
|
Desk verification |
2 days |
$150 to $250 |
Licence, tax code, export history, court records |
|
On-site technical audit |
1 man-day |
$300 to $450 |
Floor photos, machine list, capacity estimate, QC process |
|
Social compliance audit (BSCI, SMETA) |
2 to 3 man-days |
$1,200 to $2,500 |
Full report accepted by EU and US retailers |
SMETA is the Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audit. For a first order under $50,000, the desk check plus one on-site audit is the right spend. The social audit only pays off when a retail customer demands it.
Who does the verification on the ground?
A buyer in Chicago or Rotterdam cannot walk into a plant in Binh Duong. A sourcing agent such as Primo Sourcing, based in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, runs the ERC check and visits the plant.
It films the line and benchmarks the quote against two other factories in the same park. The fee is flat per project, not a commission on the factory price.
Over the last 12 months the Primo Sourcing team audited 38 factories for foreign buyers. Nine were trading companies presenting a partner plant as their own, four had capacity claims that did not match the floor. All 13 would have passed a video call with the sales manager.
Deposit rules that protect the buyer
-
Pay only to a company bank account matching the ERC name, never to an individual.
-
Cap the deposit at 30 percent; put the balance against a third-party inspection report.
-
Write the packing spec, tolerance and AQL (Acceptable Quality Limit) into the proforma invoice.
-
Add a penalty clause for late delivery: 1 percent of order value per week is standard.
-
Keep the tooling in your name if you paid for the molds.