Buying household goods wholesale in Thailand: 7 checks before your first order

Household goods is a very wide category — scissors, nail clippers, glassware and kitchenware, but also air fresheners, cleaning products and small electrical appliances. Each kind falls under a different set of rules. Check these seven things before your first order. 1. Know which rules apply — everyday goods such as scissors or glasses usually need no registration number, but some electrical appliances must carry the TIS mark and some cleaners and insecticides must be registered with the Thai FDA. Ask the seller plainly which numbers each item needs, and ask to see them. 2. Electrical goods: the TIS mark — the Thai Industrial Standards Institute (TISI) makes many products controlled goods, such as power strips, rice cookers, electric pans and hair dryers, and regularly acts against online sellers of goods without the TIS mark. If you take on this kind of stock, ask for the licence number and check it with TISI yourself. 3. Cleaners and insecticides: the hazardous-substance registration — the Thai FDA advises checking the registration number inside the FDA frame on the label and verifying it via the QR code, and has taken action against sellers of unregistered drain cleaner. Do not take on products with no number, or with a label that does not name the manufacturer. 4. Air fresheners, reed diffusers and camphor — ask the seller whether the product must be notified or registered with any agency, and if so ask for the number. Ask for the ingredient list or the safety data sheet (SDS), and ask which carriers can ship it: alcohol-based fragrance is flammable and some carriers refuse it. 5. A Thai label — some product types are label-controlled goods under the Office of the Consumer Protection Board (OCPB). Ask whether the goods already carry a Thai label giving the product name, the manufacturer’s or importer’s name and address, directions and warnings, especially for imports with a foreign-language label only. 6. Brands and copies — for well-known brands, ask whether the seller is a dealer or buys straight from the importer. Goods that use someone else’s name or logo without permission break trademark law, for the seller and for anyone who resells them. 7. Packing, minimums and breakage — ask how many pieces come per pack and per carton, whether you can mix designs or colours in one carton, and how the price steps down with quantity. For glass or ceramics, ask who is responsible if goods break in transit, ask for photos before packing, and keep every chat and quotation. Browse sellers in the household goods category on Trust Gate and request a quote with the checklist above directly. The agreement and payment are between you and the seller.