TRADE ASSURANCE is not credit insurance. It is not Marine Insurance. Very simply it is contract Assurance. It is assurance that the buyer got what was ordered, when it was ordered for. It is also assurance that the seller does not find out after delivery that the buyer ordered something else. So it is firstly assurance that there will not be a dispute. But unlike retail sales, a B2B transaction is more complex and the disputes are seldom cut and dry. Trade assurance bridges this complexity by providing a guarantee that the interest of the buyer and the seller is financially protected as long as certain conditions are met. These conditions are generally assured through inspections by an independent third party that the specifications, quality and quantity are as agreed.

Trade Assurance is more like a surety bond, where the seller still retains some or all of the responsibility and typically indemnifies the provider of the Surety Bond. In the case of Trade Assurance one or more of 5 things are assured: (i) Specifications; (ii) Quality; (iv) Quantity; (iv) Price and (v) Timeliness. Sometime the Buyer also shares some of this risk with the provider of the Surety Bond as will be seen in some of the examples on this page.

Alibaba Trade Assurance is a free service that is designed to help create enough trust between buyers and suppliers so as to enable B2B eCommerce transactions to proceed. Trade Assurance protects against shipping, quantity or quality differences between what had been promised and what in the event is delivered. Ali Baba’s trade assurance coverage can be Pre-shipment or Post-delivery. For Pre-shipment, the order quality is covered before the shipment. An inspection is suggested before shipping and the initial payment for the order is covered by Trade Assurance. For Post-delivery, the product can be inspected after receipt and a quality dispute can be started 15 days after customs clearance or 90 days after shipping but the total payment is covered. Trade Assurance is available only for those suppliers that are certified by Ali Bab as being Trade Assurance suppliers. For terms of the certification Ali Baba Trade Assurance should be contacted.

Catering to public and strong private companies, Chubb also has a product that could be deemed to be analogous to Trade Assurance. These are their Commercial Surety products cover mainly service providers’ performance but also include supply from manufacturers. Although the application has mostly been in the construction related spheres, coverage of supplier performance may also be viewed as a possible trade assurance product. Their international surety products covering multinationals in wide range of countries also provides coverage for commercial contracts, specialized contracts and advance payments. Chubb also has small business products, but these are primarily for liability rather than contract performance including their International Advantage.NET product. The nexus of contract performance and small business would need to be explored further with the company.

Zurich Supply Chain Risk Assessment & Insurance provides a coordinated approach to help companies deal with business interruptions occurring due to disruptions experienced by key suppliers. An in-depth supply chain assessment helps evaluate the risks represented by key suppliers – including over-reliance on one or two vendors – to help customers better understand and mitigate supply chain interruption risks. (i) Zurich Supply Chain Insurance provides  “all risks” business interruption cover which is not restricted to property damage and focuses on incidents outside the insured’s control. (ii) The product allows customers to transfer supply chain risks for named suppliers and specific, named supplies or components you need to operate your business, with very few exclusions. Supply Chain Risk Assessment & Insurance is part of the overall business resiliency services Zurich provides to customers on a global basis. One or more of the 4 trade assurance needs can be covered by this program.

This Amazon Pay program may have been discontinued as of April 2017 and is provided here only by way of historical information. The Amazon A-to-z Guarantee provided buyers with an opportunity to obtain a full reimbursement for their purchase or cancel their authorized payment if they were not satisfied with a purchase made on a third-party site using Amazon Payments. Under this program, Buyers could file an A-to-z Guarantee claim when one of the following conditions applied: (i) Items not received; (ii) Late Delivery; (iii) defective or damaged items, missing parts, or not as depicted in Sellers description; (iv) Non-reimbursement for, or non- acceptance of, returns; (v) Wrong invoice amount; (vi) The payment is not made via the Send Money or Request Money features (Person-to-Person or P2P payments) on the Amazon Pay platform. The guarantee provided confidence and trust when buyers shopped from the universe of sellers who use the Amazon Pay service.