China Product Sourcing – Do it Yourself or Hire an Agent? A good sourcing agent is a great asset to any company importing from China. However, hiring a China product sourcing agent is often too costly for start ups and small businesses.

A bad sourcing agent is not an asset, it’s a liability. Many sourcing agents receive kickbacks from the supplier they select for their client. This gives the Sourcing agent a strong incentive to select the supplier that pays the biggest commission – not the supplier that’s most qualified to manufacture the client’s product. Selecting Right Buyers

First you must define the product quality, performance and function. In other words, you need to draft a comprehensive product specification. Secondly, you need to verify that the supplier is actually capable to manufacture compliant products. The only way to determine if a supplier is qualified to do so is by verifying previous certificates and laboratory test reports, issued by third parties. Started With Sourcing Products in China

A Quality Management System is supposed to prevent this through a strict process that, at a minimum, involves the following steps: 1) Incoming material and component inspection / testing. 2) Product testing, during production. 3) Product testing, after production.

Getting a supplier’s attention is a major obstacle faced by small buyers. However, many suppliers have valid reasons for not bothering to respond to most inquiries. 1) Most small buyers don’t provide sufficient product information. It’s not possible to provide a quotation without clear product specifications. 2) Most inquires are dead ends. There are plenty of opportunists out there that are essentially sending RFQs for fun. Goodwill doesn’t pay the bills, and therefore suppliers are forced to be rather picky Making the supplier respond to your inquiries

Working with a large number of suppliers is critical. As I’ve already explained, getting the supplier’s attention is not to be taken for granted. To make the product sourcing process manageable, you need to store important information in a Spreadsheet. At a minimum, this file shall include the following data: Managing the sourcing process

Certification compliance Product specification compliance Pricing Product sample costs Production time Quality Management System Procedures

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