How to vet a supplier in South Africa
Sourcing offline usually means one phone number, a name someone mentioned, and a leap of faith. On Tradeora you get several real signals before you ever pick up the phone — here's how to actually use them.
Start with the verification level
Every profile carries one of four levels, and they mean specific things, not just a vague "trust score":
- Basic — email and phone confirmed. Anyone can reach this level just by signing up; it's not a vetting signal on its own.
- Verified — our team has actually checked the company information behind the profile.
- Trusted — verified, plus a real transaction history on the platform. This is the level where you know other buyers have actually used them and it went well enough to leave a paper trail.
- Premium — trusted, with a strong customer satisfaction record and additional checks.
For anything above a small, low-stakes job, "Verified" or higher is worth favoring over "Basic" — it's the difference between "signed up" and "someone actually looked."
Read the rating, don't just glance at the stars
Reviews on Tradeora score four separate things — communication, price, quality, and delivery — not one blended number. A supplier who's strong on quality and communication but weaker on delivery time might be exactly right for a job where being late by a day doesn't matter and the work needs to be right the first time. Read a few of the written comments too, not just the average.
Check response time and completed jobs
A supplier's average response time tells you what to expect once you're mid-project and need an answer fast. Completed jobs on the platform is a simple but honest signal: it's the difference between a profile that was set up and forgotten, and one that's actually doing business.
For anything formal, ask for the registration number
Registered businesses can show a CIPC registration number on their profile. If you're procuring for a company that needs a paper trail — an invoice, a formal quote on letterhead, proof for your own books — this is worth checking before you commit, not after.
Compare quotes side by side, on more than price
When quotes come in on your request, price is only one column. A quote that's 10% higher from a Trusted supplier with a strong quality rating is very often the cheaper choice once you account for the odds of redoing the job. See our guide to writing an RFQ for how to get quotes worth comparing in the first place.