The buyer wants a deposit before the Trade Assurance order

Bottom line:

If the buyer says they will transfer money to open a mould or buy material, that transfer is not inside a Trade Assurance order yet. The record the platform uses on that order does not cover it.
There is no platform-wide deposit percentage. Thirty percent is his habit, not a clause.
Personal accounts, WeChat and cash stop. If you take the money, write what it buys and what happens if the bulk order never comes, and leave one line in the Alibaba.com thread. The money goes to the Hong Kong company account bound to the store.

The drawing is on WhatsApp. The buyer says: start the mould, I will send 30%. The floor asks if the machine goes on today. Sales wants the money in so the deal does not walk.

Do not collapse those three into “just start.” A deposit, a Trade Assurance order and the membership fee are three different payments.

1. The deposit is not that Trade Assurance order

If the order does not exist yet, or it exists and this money did not go into that order, the file the platform uses for a dispute on the order does not contain this transfer. If the buyer later says they were only asking, and all you hold is a screenshot of a personal receipt, the mould already cut is hard to explain.

When the first bulk order does go through Trade Assurance, check it from placement to release in that playbook. A deposit screenshot is not an order.

The membership fee is a different payment, to ALIBABA.COM HONG KONG LIMITED. Corpable does not collect it. The deposit is mould money or goods money the buyer pays your company, into the Hong Kong corporate account. Do not merge the two slips.

2. There is no set percentage

Thirty percent, half, or the full amount is a number the two sides write down. Do not print “30% as required by Alibaba.com” on the quote. There is no such rule. If you write it, the buyer will ask the platform and you will not have an answer.

A sample deposit and a mould deposit are not the same payment. How you charge for samples and when the spec freezes is in the sample policy. A mould is a larger amount. The stop-loss has to be written on its own.

3. If you take it, write four things first

Write this	If you do not
Whether the money buys a mould, material, or a credit against the bulk goods	He calls it a sample fee, you call it a mould
If the bulk order never comes: who keeps the mould, whether money comes back, and to which account	The mould is in your shop, the steel is already cut, and each side says the other defaulted
Which day the lead time starts: receipt, drawing approval, or the Trade Assurance order	He is still changing the drawing while you count from “deposit received”
Currency and account: US dollars or Hong Kong dollars into the corporate account, matching the invoice title	The money is in a salesperson’s personal account and not on the company books

Which day the lead time starts is the same problem as the promise on the listing. See lead-time promises. The four lines you agreed on WhatsApp or email have to be written back into the site thread. See write off-site terms back onto Alibaba.com. One line on the site is not the same as a Trade Assurance order. Do both.

4. Where the money goes

It goes to the Hong Kong company account bound to the store. A salesperson’s personal account, WeChat, a personal Alipay, or cash: stop. If the payee does not match what you wrote, do not cut the mould and do not ship.

How a Hong Kong company gets paid in US dollars, by Trade Assurance, telegraphic transfer or letter of credit, is in Trade Assurance, TT or L/C. If the deposit is a wire, the payer on the bank slip has to match the line you left on the site. If it does not, the machine stays off.

5. The mould is already running and the site thread is empty

Add one line on the site: the amount, the account, and what the money bought. Keep the bank slip. That line puts the fact back on the company account. It does not turn the transfer into a Trade Assurance order.

If the bulk order later moves onto Trade Assurance, check price, how the deposit is credited, and which day the lead time starts, on the new order. Write the credit on the order. Do not assume the platform can see “30% already paid” in WeChat.

Questions teams actually ask

Does Alibaba.com require a 30% deposit?

No. There is no platform-wide percentage. Thirty percent is a habit many buyers have. It is not a clause that appears in your contract on its own. The percentage, what the money buys, and what happens if the bulk order never comes all have to be written by both sides.

If the deposit is not on Trade Assurance, is it useless later?

The file the platform uses for a dispute on that order does not include a transfer outside the order. Keep the bank slip, write what the money was for, and leave one line on the site so your company and the buyer are looking at the same fact. That still does not create a Trade Assurance order.

The buyer wants to pay the salesperson’s personal account because the company account is slow.

Stop. Do not take a personal account, WeChat or cash. A few slow days cost less than money in an account that leaves with an employee. Goods money goes to the corporate account bound to the store.

Can the deposit and the membership fee share one transfer?

No. The membership fee goes to ALIBABA.COM HONG KONG LIMITED. The deposit is mould money or goods money the buyer pays your Hong Kong company. Two payees, two slips. Corpable collects neither.