If you want to purchase products from China, then you will definitely want to know about Chinese sourcing agents. In this article, I have made a brief introduction to China’s purchasing agents. Hope can help you get some understanding.
1. What is China Sourcing Agent？
A China sourcing agent means an individual or company that provides related services for customers from different countries or regions to import products from China. Personal China sourcing agents usually refer to people with extensive purchasing experience, and you can directly hire them to do some things for you. This article does not discuss personal sourcing agents for the time being. The sourcing agents mentioned in the following articles refer to sourcing agent companies.
1)Service Provided
- Sourcing Agent Service
China purchasing agents generally include procurement, product customization, packaging design, product quality inspection, provision of certificates, product shipments, customs clearance, etc.
- Life Service
Some purchasing agents will also provide airport pick-up, hotel booking, travel and other life services
2) Regional Distribution
Most of them are concentrated in cities such as Yiwu, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Because these cities are industrial clusters in China, foreigners who come to China to purchase in general will choose to go to these cities.
2. Why choose a China sourcing agent instead of a China factory?
1) China sourcing agents can help you find cheaper and better quality products
You can’t search all the factories on the Internet. There are only a part of the factories, which makes you can not able to find the cheapest price from internet usual. As a qualified china purchasing agent company, their factory resources must be more than what you see online. So china purchasing agents have more choices and can find the lowest price.
2) China sourcing agents can help you reduce your communication cost
When you are selecting factories, you need to communicate and compare with each factory. If you have several different products, you have to connect with multiple factories. This will not only cost you a lot of time and energy, but also prone to problems during docking. China purchasing agents can help you solve this problem. You only need to connect with one person to understand the situation of all aspects.
3) China sourcing agents can provide you with protection and reduce risks
When there are problems such as poor quality, delayed delivery, wrong styles, etc., it will cause large losses and you may miss business opportunities if you fail to find out in time. China purchasing agents can help you supervise every aspect of production to prevent problems. Of course you can only hire one person in China to help you supervise. But the cost will be very high, because it may take up to several months from production to shipment. This is definitely much higher than the commission of the china sourcing agent.
3. How does China's purchasing agent make a profit?
1) Charge a certain percentage of the order amount as a service fee
This is the most common charging method for sourcing agents in China, and the general ratio is 3%-10% of the order amount. The charging standards of each company are different, so you must confirm it clearly before cooperating. The service fee generally depends on the complexity and the amount of your order. If the amount of your order is larger and the purchase is simpler, the commission will generally be lower.
2) Profit from product price difference, no service fee
Generally, China sourcing agents who use this charging method can provide suppliers with very competitive prices. And you can’t find these suppliers by general way. They mainly attract customers through price, which may be lacking in other services.
3) Charge a fixed fee for the service
Some China sourcing agents charge a fixed fee for certain specific services. For example, there are separate costs for translation, product procurement, product packaging design, quality inspection, customs clearance, etc. The service fee you have to pay is the sum of service you enjoyed.
4. How to avoid finding unreliable purchasing agents?
1) Field trips
If you have an opportunity to visit China, you’d better go to a China sourcing agent for on-site inspections. Look at the scale of their company and the number of employees. Talk to them about their cooperation model and charging method. Some purchasing agents actually have only one person, but they will pretend to be a company. So field trips are very important
2) Visit company’s website
If you can’t come to China for field trips, visit company website is the best way for you to learn about the company. By viewing their company photos, group photos of employees, group photos of customers, etc. Then you can judge whether the content written on their official website is true.
3) By social media
The number of fans on a social media account does not represent the strength of the company, but only shows that the company’s marketing is very good. Because some companies used to rely on traditional methods to acquire customers, like offline exhibitions. Most of them only started online promotion after the outbreak of the COVID in 2019, so they did not have much fan accumulation, and they were not good at online marketing. But you must not underestimate these China sourcing agents, companies that can participate in the exhibition are very powerful.
If the social account of a company has a lot of fans, you can judge the authenticity of the social account through the content, likes, and comments. Then you will know whether this company is honest. Some accounts have a lot of fans, but they may not be true fans. So social media can only be used for reference.
For example, Union Chance is a professional China sourcing agent company with 16 years of purchasing experience, more than 300 employees, serving more than 5,000 customers, and just preparing to open up online channels.
If you are willing to get more information, please contact us.
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