How do you find the factory source of a product you saw online?

Start from the product’s photo or its link, and search 1688, China’s wholesale marketplace, by image: it finds the listings that use the same or a similar picture. Rabbit does it for you. Send it a photo or a link, it searches 1688 and shows what a piece costs; when its search finds nothing, a person in China searches.

By Hussayn Delli, founder of Rabbit · Updated November 9, 2026.

What do you need to start?

• A photo of the product: a picture you took, or a screenshot of a listing or a video.
• Or a link to the product page where you saw it: a store, AliExpress, Amazon (the link the Amazon app shares works too).

A link to a video or an article is not a product page. Rabbit says so, “This link doesn’t lead to a product”, and you send a photo instead.

What are the steps, and what does Rabbit do at each one?

1. Send the photo or the link. In the app, at rabbitimport.com/en: the field “Product photo or link”. In Claude or ChatGPT, an image attached to the chat doesn’t reach Rabbit: ask for a photo link. Rabbit gives you one, single use, valid 30 minutes, no sign-in. The public web address of an image works too.
2. Rabbit reads the page. From a link, it takes the product’s title and main photo.
3. It searches 1688 by image. The raw order of an image search often puts accessories ahead of the product itself, so Rabbit re-ranks the results by comparing them with your photo.
4. If nothing looks alike, it searches by words. The product’s name from the page, or what the photo shows.
5. You get a list of 1688 products, with titles in English and what a piece costs you.
6. Open one. You see its photos, the seller’s video when there is one, its variants, its specs and its weight. Ask for a quote: the cost delivered to you and your estimated profit, before you order.

What happens when nothing is found?

• When the image search finds nothing, Rabbit says it, “No product found from the image. Try describing the product.”, and the search doesn’t count against your searches.
• When Rabbit can’t open a link, it asks for a photo, and that attempt doesn’t count either.
• When neither works, a person in China searches for you: in the app, “Agent in China”, then “New request”, then “Find a product”. The answer arrives in “Agent in China”. These requests are counted in your plan.

How do you know it is the same product?

A matching photo is a lead, not a proof: a listing can reuse a picture of something else. Compare the variants, the specs and the weight with the product you saw, then order a sample before a batch. Why photos travel, and a real case where the same photo hid a different product: why the same product photo is everywhere. Then how to order a sample from 1688.

What about branded products and counterfeits?

If the product you saw carries a brand, the cheap match you find on 1688 may be a copy. U.S. Customs and Border Protection says it “targets and seizes imports of counterfeit and pirated goods entering the United States”. And the importer is you.

What Rabbit does about it, and where it stops:

• In Claude and ChatGPT, Rabbit doesn’t return a product whose title says it is a replica, a counterfeit, a “1:1 copy” or a “first copy”, nor products from banned families such as weapons, vapes or adult products.
• When the seller or the title signals a brand or a replica, Rabbit’s verdict is never “Go for it”: at best “It works, to be confirmed”. The resale price it sees is often the price of the real brand.
• Our US catalog leaves out licensed products and big brands. On November 9, 2026, we removed a product because its photo carried a brand name.
• A list of words can’t see a copy whose title doesn’t say so. It is a barrier, not a guarantee: a well-known brand, logo or design on the product is your signal to stop.

For your exact situation: your accountant or a customs broker.