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China Sourcing

Product Sourcing & Supplier Selection

Anyone can send you a supplier list. The value is in what happens next: confirming the company is a manufacturer rather than a reseller, getting quotes that can actually be compared, and holding a sample in your hand before a deposit leaves your account.

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What you get
  • Manufacturer verified, not just contacted
  • Quotes normalised so they are comparable
  • Samples from more than one candidate
  • Staff on the ground rather than email-only
The operational problem

The trading company problem

A large share of the suppliers that answer an enquiry are trading companies presenting themselves as factories. That is not automatically bad, a good trading company can be genuinely useful on small volumes or across multiple product types. It is bad when you are paying a factory margin for a middleman, and worse when a quality problem arises and the party you are talking to cannot walk onto the production floor.

So the first job is establishing what a supplier actually is. Being physically present in China is what makes that possible: a visit, a look at the production line, and a conversation with the people who run it settle in an afternoon what months of email cannot.

Making quotes comparable

Three quotes for the same product are routinely not comparable, because each rests on assumptions the quote does not state. Normalising them is where a real price comparison happens.

Specification

The same materials, dimensions and tolerances in each quote

Quantity break

A unit price is meaningless without the volume it assumes

Incoterms

Ex-works and delivered are different numbers for the same goods

Tooling and setup

One-off costs stated separately from unit price

Sample cost

And whether it is credited against a production order

Lead time

Quoted from deposit or from artwork approval, which is not the same date

Payment terms

Deposit percentage and what triggers the balance

Sampling before commitment

Samples from at least two candidates, assessed against the written specification rather than against each other. Comparing samples only to one another tells you which is better; comparing them to the specification tells you whether either is acceptable.

Sample cost is small and sample time is the stage under most pressure to be skipped. It is also the last point at which discovering a problem is cheap. Once a deposit is paid against a production run, the options narrow to accepting the goods or losing the deposit.

Questions

Product Sourcing & Supplier Selection FAQs

How do you know a supplier is a real manufacturer?
By going there. Business licences and platform badges are worth checking and are routinely misleading; a visit to the production line is not. That is the practical reason for having staff based in China rather than sourcing by email.
How is sourcing charged?
As a percentage of order value, with the factory price shown to you separately from our fee, so you can see both numbers. The percentage depends on the size and complexity of the order and is confirmed before you commit.
Do I get samples before ordering?
Yes, and from more than one candidate where the product allows it. Samples are assessed against your written specification, because that is the only comparison that tells you whether a supplier is acceptable rather than merely better than the alternative.
Can you source a product I have only seen a photo of?
Usually, though a photo alone leaves materials, dimensions and tolerances undefined, which is exactly where quotes stop being comparable. Expect the first stage to be turning that photo into a written specification.

Ready to hand over fulfillment?

Tell us your daily order volume and main markets. We come back with the routes and the per-order price your actual profile needs.

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