1. Is there a specific area of China that your agency has more experience sourcing? Or are you familiar with all parts of China?

We are familiar with most parts of China depending on the products. For instance, kitchenware from Yangjiang, hareware from Yongkang, office supplies from Anji and Hebei, textiles and fabrics from Nantong and Keqiao, sanitary items from Foshan, artificial flowers from Tianjin and so on.

2. Which product categories do you source most frequently?

Products we deal most frequently include daily commodity, baby products, kitchenware, hardware, office supplies, artificial jewelry or flowers, fabrics and textiles, outdoor and sports items and so on. I.e, we can source most of the products, except some dangerous items like chemical or flammable and combustible items.

3. What is your pricing model? Commission or fixed price?

We charge customers commission (2-4%) based on the product value of each order as below:

4. Besides commission, do I have other extra costs?

It depends, the commission is just our service fees, and in our invoice the prices are usually based on EXW term, so you might need to pay other extra costs if using FOB term:

1) Inland charge (from our warehouse to NINGBO PORT), which is $800-$1200/container.

2) Inspection fee $300/container( charged by China Entry-Exit Inspection & Quarantine Bureau.

3) $50 for CO(certificate of origin) if required .

4) Sea freight/or air freight cost, dependent on the shipping channels and destination.

5) Other potential costs if you have some special requirements such as fumigation and so on.

5. If we keep re-ordering the same products from the same supplier, what will be the pricing model after the first order?

It's still depending on the product value. Each month we can keep updating a single order to increase the order value, so as to save the cost in commission for customers.
Example, if in June.10th you order $7,000 products, and in 20th June you order an amount of $10,000, and then in 30th you order $90,000, we in the end just charge you 2% commission, rather than $300, 4%, and 3% separately.

6. What is your procedure for sourcing goods? Do you have a step by step process?

Upon receiving the inquiry, we will transfer the details to our sourcing team. We will assemble all the results into a pricelist and send to you. If you are interested in some of the items, we can start with samples. For samples we don't charge you any commission. Sometimes, you might need to pay the sample fee yourself cause some suppliers don't offer samples for free.

7. What is the average amount of time we should expect to get results after submitting a buy brief to your agency?

On average we can revert our customers within 2-3 working days. If the products is common and not many or you need urgently, 1 day is enough as well.

8. Will your agency be able to visit the factories before/during production? How often?

Usually we don't visit the factory unless we load form there directly, because the factories will deliver the goods to us and we do the inspection in our warehouse. It’s to avoid situation of cases that the goods are good in the factory when we visit but bad or broken when delivered to our warehouse. If some products you have special requirements upon, we can go to the factory in the middle of the production. Usually to ensure the process in production, we contact the factories frequently to keep us informed.

9. How often will we receive a progress report or status update on production?

Usually every week we will inform customers the production status, by checking with the factory, sending production pictures Etc.

10. How do you determine if a supplier has good quality standards?

There are many ways to judge the suppliers: to check their products they exhibit directly; to check their reputation from government website; consult customers who have already purchased from them before.

11. If you find a supplier that has the lowest price for a target item, how do you measure the price against the quality? For example, if you found an item from a supplier that is $1.00 cheaper than all of the other suppliers you have spoken to, how can you make sure that it is $1.00 less expensive, but is the same quality as the other suppliers who are $1.00 more expensive?

Every potter praises his pot, it's a bit hard to judge which one is good and which is not, but we have some clues that is we can look over the detailed info of the goods like the difference of material, technics, finishing, packaging and so on. And we will check and compare among the samples first in most cases. Usually when all other suppliers ask $5, but there is one claiming $4, there might be something wrong with his products, cause it’s easy to make some tiny changes in materials so as to make a difference in prices. What’s more, when we place an order to the supplier, we will definitely sign a contract with him to make our order secured by law. When they deliver to our warehouse, we will compare the goods with our preproduction sample carefully. If it's not as sample, we will reject asking the factory to redo it or claim for compensation.

12. Does your agency do quality inspections by yourselves? Or do you hand off quality inspections to a specialized third-party? Will we be getting a quality report for every order?

Yes we do the inspection ourselves and the charge is included in our commission, but of course our inspection is mainly focusing on the product quality, thus might not be as professional as a third party. For samples, we will have a sample testing report. For bulk production we will have an inspection report as well.  If you need professional inspection/test report, it’s easy for us to find a third-party to do for us.

13. Does your agency offer any guarantees in case a supplier is dishonest or delivers poor products? Or if a supplier is late on a purchase order?

As mentioned above, we will sign contract with the suppliers, which includes at least the product quality and delivery time.
If anything goes wrong with the quality or delivery time, we have the right to cancel the order and claim compensation.