How to plan one sourcing day at Yiwu International Trade City District 3

District 3 stacks eyewear, stationery, sports goods and garment accessories into one building, one category band per floor. This guide sets out a one-day route that ends with your goods in one place.

Yiwu markets: Yiwu International Trade City District 3

Arriving and starting early

District 3 is the building of the Yiwu International Trade City complex that carries eyewear and paper products on the ground floor, office and sports goods on the second, and cosmetics and garment accessories on the third. Confirm current trading hours with the market or your suppliers before you travel, because opening patterns shift through the year.

Plan to start early in the day. Booth staff are freshest in the morning, and the time you get for specification conversations is noticeably better before the aisles fill. If you are driving, vehicles can reach every floor of the building, and parking sits at ground and roof level, which matters when you leave with cartons rather than samples.

The morning: floors 1 and 2

Start on floor 1 with eyewear if it is on your list, and let paper products be the unplanned adjacent category: notebooks, albums and gift stationery often sit with the same stallholders. Walk two or three aisles properly rather than sweeping the floor; a focused pass beats a shallow one.

Move up to floor 2 for office and study supplies and sports goods. Ask for a business card and a written price at each booth you shortlist, tied to a stated quantity. Cards and written quotes are what turn a day of walking into a supplier list you can work remotely later.

Lunch and the sample handover

Take a short lunch inside the market district rather than leaving the complex. Food areas serve the booths, so you stay close to your shortlist and can return to a stall between courses if a question needs settling.

Use the break to sort and label morning samples by stall name and booth number, then hand them to your agent or driver with a one-line note of what each sample is. Samples that reach the warehouse unlabelled are samples you will end up re-sourcing.

The afternoon: floor 3 and the upper floors

Floor 3 is the densest floor for garment-adjacent buying: cosmetics, mirrors and combs, buttons and zippers, and garment accessories. If you buy apparel anywhere, this is where trim suppliers sit, and neighbouring booths usually carry overlapping ranges, so price comparison is a matter of walking rather than commuting.

The upper floors change character: the standard booths downstairs are around 14 square metres, while the business booths of 80 to 100 square metres above house the factory direct-sales centre for cultural and sports goods, cosmetics, eyewear, buttons and zippers. Go up when you have volume and want to deal closer to the producer.

End with one consignment

Close the day at a single consolidation point rather than carrying parcels back to your hotel. Goods collected from booths into one market-area pickup, with one set of carton marks, are far easier to reconcile later than several loose drops.

Before you leave, confirm each shortlisted booth's replenishment terms and who pays for delivery to the consolidation warehouse. Our consolidation guide covers the market-to-forwarder flow in detail.

Trading hours, stall line-ups and floor layouts change; confirm with the market or your supplier before you travel.