Good Chinese Sourcing Agents?

[ChinaImports]

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Hi all,

I’m setting up a sourcing, purchasing, QC, shipping etc. consultancy for businesses wanting to import from China.

I’m looking for a reputable, qualified and quality Chinese sourcing and freight agent who I can partner with. I will be based in Australia, with regular visits to China.

I would value anyone’s good or bad experiences so that I know who to steer clear of or contact directly!

[Brooke Curline]

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ChinaImports, post: 173278 wrote:

Hi all,

I’m setting up a sourcing, purchasing, QC, shipping etc. consultancy for businesses wanting to import from China.

I’m looking for a reputable, qualified and quality Chinese sourcing and freight agent who I can partner with. I will be based in Australia, with regular visits to China.

I would value anyone’s good or bad experiences so that I know who to steer clear of or contact directly!

Hi !
I am looking for a new sourcing company ! Please contact me directly when you are up and running !
Kind Regards
Brooke Curline
Sales Agent

[tim_davies]

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Brooke Curline, post: 173649 wrote:

Hi !
I am looking for a new sourcing company ! Please contact me directly when you are up and running !
Kind Regards
Brooke Curline
Sales Agent
Hi Brooke,

You want to work with someone that has long term established relationships with a network on the ground in China, if you’re going to partner with anyone in Australia to assist with importing. You wouldn’t want to bear the cost of working with someone that can’t cover all bases, or hasn’t worked with partners in China over tonnes of orders already. All spoken with deep, specific experience.

Not to say this poster doesn’t have those well established relationships, but from the questions in the original post it doesnt seem the case.

ChinaImports: if you don’t already have the answer to that, I’d imagine the best way to get it is to head over the China to meet with some suppliers of those services, establish relationships and then go from there.

Best of luck both.

[Brooke Curline]

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tim_davies, post: 174185 wrote:

Hi Brooke,

You want to work with someone that has long term established relationships with a network on the ground in China, if you’re going to partner with anyone in Australia to assist with importing. You wouldn’t want to bear the cost of working with someone that can’t cover all bases, or hasn’t worked with partners in China over tonnes of orders already. All spoken with deep, specific experience.

Not to say this poster doesn’t have those well established relationships, but from the questions in the original post it doesnt seem the case.

ChinaImports: if you don’t already have the answer to that, I’d imagine the best way to get it is to head over the China to meet with some suppliers of those services, establish relationships and then go from there.

Best of luck both.

Hi Tim,
Are you established ? If yes, I would be keen to talk to you also.
Please let me know.
Kind Regards
Brooke

[tim_davies]

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Hi Brooke,

I set up a business doing exactly what you’re probably looking for help with, in the past. Its still running, in the capable hands of a good friend of mine and old flying solo contributing writer, Matt Edwards.

It usually only suits established businesses to use services like import consultants.

However; what I noticed is, there are tonnes of start up business trying to learn how to import, and furthermore, how to start an import business. Which is so much more than just ‘how to import’.

You know – sourcing, planning, packaging, artwork, managing production, moving the goods…etc etc. There’s heaps to learn.

So I’m genuinely focused now on just pumping out the best content I can to help new importers learn the ropes, mitigate risk and hopefullly start on the right foot.

I work with some businesses from a business advisory perspective but don’t actually work with my network in China anymore. I’d refer that to my good friend and established service provider.

I’m not the ‘selly selly’ type. I just hope that one day I can grow a band of start up importers and hopefully package my content into a few courses. Long way off though, but for the time being, there’s already heaps there for newbies to learn.

If it resonates with you, feel free to hire-tims-brain for a session together. If you sent an outline of the leadership you needed, I could give you a clear idea if an hour or more together would be of significant benefit to you. If I couldn’t give at least 5X the value of the hour together, I’d be up front, but I may still be able to point you in the right direction.

[Johny]

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Sourcing agents in China are a dime a dozen. Everyone will tell you anything you want to hear, they can source anything, they can do anything you need to have done, they can find the cheapest/best product etc.

So it can be very difficult to wade through all the rubbish.

I always think that if you are looking for someone to be involved in the sourcing of your products you need to look at it along the lines of having a partner. Maybe not officially, but to a similar level of dependence. Afterall, you will be trusting them with your reputation for delivering good quality products and not being ripped off.

Therefore, a large part of it is:-

a) Knowing what you want out of that “partner” and
b) Knowing what that “partner” can really do that will be of benefit to both you and them

I would certainly be looking to address that before even considering any visit. Without having done any initial homework, there is not much point in jumping on a plane because you have no idea about the people you are going to see.

You need to know some examples of what they have done, how long they have been in business, how they get paid etc., but the kicker is that you will never really know how and what they can do until you have used them. I am yet to see anyone suggest that their products and service are rubbish, but invariably many are.

What I have found over many years is that communication is key. Agents, buyers and suppliers often lack the attention span to either write or read anything longer than a few lines and therefore so much can be lost or misunderstood which results in problems. And everyone always blames the other party.

The truth is that there will be an amount of trial and error and with any relationship where sourcing goods from China is required, it will never be 100% smooth sailing.

[tim_davies]

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Johny, post: 174268 wrote:

Sourcing agents in China are a dime a dozen. Everyone will tell you anything you want to hear, they can source anything, they can do anything you need to have done, they can find the cheapest/best product etc.

So it can be very difficult to wade through all the rubbish.

I always think that if you are looking for someone to be involved in the sourcing of your products you need to look at it along the lines of having a partner. Maybe not officially, but to a similar level of dependence. Afterall, you will be trusting them with your reputation for delivering good quality products and not being ripped off.

Therefore, a large part of it is:-

a) Knowing what you want out of that “partner” and
b) Knowing what that “partner” can really do that will be of benefit to both you and them

I would certainly be looking to address that before even considering any visit. Without having done any initial homework, there is not much point in jumping on a plane because you have no idea about the people you are going to see.

You need to know some examples of what they have done, how long they have been in business, how they get paid etc., but the kicker is that you will never really know how and what they can do until you have used them. I am yet to see anyone suggest that their products and service are rubbish, but invariably many are.

What I have found over many years is that communication is key. Agents, buyers and suppliers often lack the attention span to either write or read anything longer than a few lines and therefore so much can be lost or misunderstood which results in problems. And everyone always blames the other party.

The truth is that there will be an amount of trial and error and with any relationship where sourcing goods from China is required, it will never be 100% smooth sailing.

Nice one Johny. There’s some real gold here for people reading.

“Knowing what that “partner” can really do that will be of benefit to both you and them” – I love that you mention ‘and them’. So many new importers don’t understand the value in partners in China winning in the deal as well. Whether that’s a 3rd party or the supplier. There’s so much benefit for your business when both parties feel the deal is fair, and valuable.

“The truth is that there will be an amount of trial and error and with any relationship where sourcing goods from China is required, it will never be 100% smooth sailing.” – couldn’t agree more. I wrote a blog article recently that said exactly the same thing. I’ve imported 100s of orders and have never found a magic formula to always avoid mistakes or quality issues. Experience helps you mitigate that risk, and have fewer suprises, for sure… but it still happens.

Its all about ‘communication and relationships’. Great value post.

Where are you at online? Website or other?

[Johny]

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Hi Tim,

I have to be a bit careful with my comments because I own a sourcing company in Hong Kong, so can’t be totally negative. Just trying to keep it real.

I do agree with your comments. I see it all the time where people talk about developing relationships, then go about looking for ways to exploit that relationship to save a few cents for a short term gain. They then complain when they get burnt, which is what can often happen when those relationships are one sided.

I’ve imported 100s of orders and have never found a magic formula to always avoid mistakes or quality issues. Experience helps you mitigate that risk, and have fewer suprises, for sure… but it still happens.

There isn’t one and I also agree that it is the experience that mitigates the risk, but doesn’t remove it completely.

The best pieces of advice I can offer anyone buying from China, whether using an agent or doing it themselves are:-

1. Spend the time at the beginning to establish the best people to work with, as it will save you time, money and heartache later

2. No one can offer you the ‘best product at the cheapest price”. Noone knows every supplier in China, so there is always someone cheaper or with better quality, that’s why it is important to have an idea of what you want, including target pricing

3. Don’t automatically trust that what should happen will happen, and never “set and forget”. Constant follow up is required in every part of the process from the initial sample to the goods arriving at your door.

4. Communicate clearly

Actually, can you believe I don’t even have a website for my company. Most of what we do has been OEM stuff or we directly approach potential customers in other ways which seems to work for us. Places like LinkedIn have been pretty good to me.

I do have a non profit website that offers some advice to people looking to buy from China (http://www.asiasupplierreview.com), but it doesn’t seem to be getting much attention because I can’t devote enough time to it, and I’m not really interested to put much money into it, so thinking about shutting it down.

[tim_davies]

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Johny, post: 174282 wrote:

Hi Tim,

I have to be a bit careful with my comments because I own a sourcing company in Hong Kong, so can’t be totally negative. Just trying to keep it real.

I do agree with your comments. I see it all the time where people talk about developing relationships, then go about looking for ways to exploit that relationship to save a few cents for a short term gain. They then complain when they get burnt, which is what can often happen when those relationships are one sided.

There isn’t one and I also agree that it is the experience that mitigates the risk, but doesn’t remove it completely.

The best pieces of advice I can offer anyone buying from China, whether using an agent or doing it themselves are:-

1. Spend the time at the beginning to establish the best people to work with, as it will save you time, money and heartache later

2. No one can offer you the ‘best product at the cheapest price”. Noone knows every supplier in China, so there is always someone cheaper or with better quality, that’s why it is important to have an idea of what you want, including target pricing

3. Don’t automatically trust that what should happen will happen, and never “set and forget”. Constant follow up is required in every part of the process from the initial sample to the goods arriving at your door.

4. Communicate clearly

Actually, can you believe I don’t even have a website for my company. Most of what we do has been OEM stuff or we directly approach potential customers in other ways which seems to work for us. Places like LinkedIn have been pretty good to me.

I do have a non profit website that offers some advice to people looking to buy from China (http://www.asiasupplierreview.com), but it doesn’t seem to be getting much attention because I can’t devote enough time to it, and I’m not really interested to put much money into it, so thinking about shutting it down.
You’re another one making the internet a better place. Love your work Johny.

I’m keen to take the conversation off line with you just to stay in touch. I’ll be starting to interview people for my site in the near future to start rolling out podcast on ‘how to start an import business’; all the juicy details for new importers.

There are a few people on the ground in China and here in Australia that I have on my list to interview, but I’m always looking for others with suitable depth of knowledge. Could be fun…? Its sounds like you have some experieince and insight that my audience would really love.

PM me if you’re interested, or drop me a connect on LinkedIn / Twitter. @_timdavies or au.linkedin.com/in/timdav/. We’ll start the conversation from there.

[b.machin]

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ChinaImports, post: 173278, member: 50727 wrote:

Hi all,

I’m setting up a sourcing, purchasing, QC, shipping etc. consultancy for businesses wanting to import from China.

I’m looking for a reputable, qualified and quality Chinese sourcing and freight agent who I can partner with. I will be based in Australia, with regular visits to China.

I would value anyone’s good or bad experiences so that I know who to steer clear of or contact directly!

Hi,
Did you end up finding a reputable agent?
I’d love to find out how you went.
Thanks
Ben

[b.machin]

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tim_davies, post: 174582, member: 49072 wrote:

You’re another one making the internet a better place. Love your work Johny.

I’m keen to take the conversation off line with you just to stay in touch. I’ll be starting to interview people for my site in the near future to start rolling out podcast on ‘how to start an import business’; all the juicy details for new importers.

There are a few people on the ground in China and here in Australia that I have on my list to interview, but I’m always looking for others with suitable depth of knowledge. Could be fun…? Its sounds like you have some experieince and insight that my audience would really love.

PM me if you’re interested, or drop me a connect on LinkedIn / Twitter. @_timdavies or au.linkedin.com/in/timdav/. We’ll start the conversation from there.

Hi Tim,
I went to your website only to find the domain is for sale, was definitely disappointed because I got my hopes up thinking I had finally come across someone who genuinely had an interest in providing quality info(I wasn’t expecting a freebie).

What happened between 2013 and now?

Would love to have a chat if you had he time some day.

Thanks
Ben

[b.machin]

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Johny, post: 174282, member: 34822 wrote:

Hi Tim,

I have to be a bit careful with my comments because I own a sourcing company in Hong Kong, so can’t be totally negative. Just trying to keep it real.

I do agree with your comments. I see it all the time where people talk about developing relationships, then go about looking for ways to exploit that relationship to save a few cents for a short term gain. They then complain when they get burnt, which is what can often happen when those relationships are one sided.

There isn’t one and I also agree that it is the experience that mitigates the risk, but doesn’t remove it completely.

The best pieces of advice I can offer anyone buying from China, whether using an agent or doing it themselves are:-

1. Spend the time at the beginning to establish the best people to work with, as it will save you time, money and heartache later

2. No one can offer you the ‘best product at the cheapest price”. Noone knows every supplier in China, so there is always someone cheaper or with better quality, that’s why it is important to have an idea of what you want, including target pricing

3. Don’t automatically trust that what should happen will happen, and never “set and forget”. Constant follow up is required in every part of the process from the initial sample to the goods arriving at your door.

4. Communicate clearly

Actually, can you believe I don’t even have a website for my company. Most of what we do has been OEM stuff or we directly approach potential customers in other ways which seems to work for us. Places like LinkedIn have been pretty good to me.

I do have a non profit website that offers some advice to people looking to buy from China (http://www.asiasupplierreview.com), but it doesn’t seem to be getting much attention because I can’t devote enough time to it, and I’m not really interested to put much money into it, so thinking about shutting it down.

Hi Johnny,
I would have loved to have given your website a read. Are you still working as a sourcing agent?
Would be great to have a chat if you’re free some time.
Regards
Ben

[Acostar Logistics]

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If you have questions for sea freight transportation, just let me know! We are a company based in Melbourne.. However, I do have extensive knowledge on the transport side of things.

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