How to Verify a Wholesale Supplier in India: GST & Trust Checklist
A practical checklist to check a wholesale supplier before you pay: GSTIN lookup, matching business details, invoices, samples, payment terms and returns.
Why verification matters
Most wholesale problems — goods never dispatched, wrong quality, no invoice for your GST claim — come from suppliers who were never checked. Ten minutes of verification before a first order avoids almost all of them.
1. Check the GSTIN
Ask for the supplier's GSTIN and look it up with the 'Search Taxpayer' tool on the GST portal (gst.gov.in). Confirm that:
- The registration status is Active, not cancelled or suspended.
- The legal or trade name matches the name on the supplier's invoices and bank account.
- The state of registration matches where the supplier says it ships from.
- The nature of business fits — a manufacturer or wholesaler of textiles, not something unrelated.
2. Match the business details
The name on the GST record, the invoice and the bank account receiving your money should all be the same business. A payment request to a personal account or a differently named company is the single most common sign of a scam.
3. Ask for a proper tax invoice
A valid GST invoice shows the supplier's GSTIN, your GSTIN if you are registered, the HSN code, the taxable value and the GST charged. Without it you cannot claim input tax credit, which can wipe out much of your margin on a wholesale order.
4. Start with a sample or small order
Before a large order, buy a sample or the minimum quantity. Check fabric, stitching, colour against the photos, and that the sizes are true. A supplier who will not sell a small first order is asking you to take all the risk.
5. Use payment terms that protect you
Avoid 100% advance payments to new suppliers. Cash on delivery with a part advance, or payment held in escrow until delivery, means the supplier is paid for goods you actually received.
6. Get the returns policy in writing
Agree beforehand what happens with damaged, missing or wrong items, and how quickly you must report them. Photograph parcels as you open them — that evidence settles most disputes.
How ForWholesaler handles this
Every supplier on ForWholesaler is checked against GST and business registration records before they can list. Listings show whether they come with a GST invoice and the GST rate that applies. You can pay online or by cash on delivery with a 20% advance; escrow-backed orders hold your payment until the release conditions on the order are met, and raising a return with photographs puts that escrow into dispute so funds are not released while it is resolved.
Shop from checked suppliers: Browse wholesale products.