Whether you're stocking a single clinic or buying in bulk to resell, a rapid test kit is only as good as the supply chain behind it. These are the questions worth asking any supplier, not just us, before you commit to an order.
1. What's the regulatory status, and can they show it?
Any diagnostic product sold in South Africa should carry the appropriate regulatory registration for its category. Ask for the documentation directly rather than taking a claim at face value. A supplier who can produce it immediately is a good sign; one who can't or won't is worth pausing on.
2. How is it stored, and how was it shipped?
Most rapid test kits have defined storage temperature ranges, and going outside them, even temporarily, even during transit, can affect performance without any visible sign that it happened. Ask how product is stored in the supplier's own facility and how it's shipped to you. "We don't know" is a real answer, and a useful one to get before you order rather than after.
3. What's the actual shelf life left on the batch you'll receive?
A kit with 18 months of shelf life printed on the box isn't much use if the batch you receive has three months left. For bulk orders especially, ask for the manufacture date and expiry of the specific batch being shipped, not just the product's general shelf-life spec.
4. Can they document the lot and batch for every shipment?
If a batch is later recalled or flagged, you need to know quickly whether it's in your stock. Lot and batch traceability on every shipment isn't a nice-to-have; it's what makes that kind of response possible at all.
5. What are the real lead times, not the best-case ones?
"In stock" and "shipping this week" are different claims. For import-dependent categories especially, ask what happens if there's a delay upstream: is there buffer stock, an alternative supplier relationship, or are you simply told to wait.
6. Who do you actually talk to when something goes wrong?
A generic support inbox is not the same as a real point of contact who can act quickly. For a bulk buyer, knowing exactly who to WhatsApp or call when a shipment is late or a batch looks wrong is worth confirming before you're in that situation, not during it.
Why we're publishing this ourselves
We'd rather a buyer ask us these six questions and get straight answers than assume every supplier in this market is interchangeable. They're not, and the difference usually shows up exactly in the answers above.