Philip Goguen
It is not possible to find all the expertise and experience you need for a successful company right in your home town. Not even in your home country really, as this is no longer the world we live in. Globalization has brought a lot of positives to how business is being done as we are now connected more than ever. Looking for remote workers in this day and age is how most businesses try to expand and find experienced professionals for their projects. We live in a world of information and technology which means that a lot of things that were once done in person can now be done remotely through the web. The internet has made us a part of one huge network and work can now be sourced and found in the furthest of places. But one thing that has always made sense still remains and that is to look East if you want to succeed. Entrepreneurs know it and they have sworn by it for more than two decades now.
Economy Boom and Modern China
As the second-biggest economy on the planet right behind the USA as the number one, there is nothing China is not involved in. Their GDP for the year 2023 was more than $15 trillion, which comes to around 16% of the total global gross domestic product. The US is still in front of them with 24%, but China has done incredibly well in a shorter time span of about 20 years, considering their GDP in 2001 was only $1.3 trillion. All of this is partially because modern china is the main manufacturer and exporter of textiles, clothes, shoes, toys, cosmetics, furniture, and basically any other commodity you can think of. However, the thing that has helped them and the rest of the planet in terms of businesses the low cost of quality labor in the country. Nowhere else in the world can you find such highly skilled workforce, superior to many other regions, with such amazing infrastructure to back it up.
And this is why the foreigners, mainly the westerners, look to China for their sourcing agent needs. If you are in need of an individual who is great at communication between you and the suppliers and partners you deal with, you should seriously consider the Chinese. Price negotiations, production management, quality control, supervising, document preparation, and shipping are the crucial areas a good sourcing agent helps with.
Why Consider the East?
There are many benefits of going with the Chinese when you require a sourcing agent, particularly if you lack experience on your end. If there is no prior experience in-house regrind sourcing and importing goods from the East, this is the money move. The same goes if you need your inventory of goods to be bigger, or if you have a business that requires the sourcing of multiple different products. Choosing the right sourcing agent for the needs of your organization can either make it or break it. This makes the process very challenging. Luckily, you can rest assured that every good sourcing agent from China brings nothing but benefits to your company. They have a local presence in the form of an office or a whole team, they are fluent in English, they have a lot of experience in the most competitive and diverse market on the planet, and their sourcing expertise is rivaled by few. Learn more about finding the right professional by visiting maplesourcing.com.
How Much They Charge
Now that you know a bit more about the whole sourcing agent deal, it is time to talk about how much the agents charge in China. There are two different types of fees and commissions however, and it depends on what you need from your agent. There are mainly one-time fees for finding suppliers, and continuous production management fees that can either be flat fees or commissions. The scope of their services and how long you will require them directly influence the final costs.
One-time fees for finding suppliers include finding the right supplier in China and verifying the credentials. They evaluate everything about them including the supply of the product, their location, and their operation model. Finally, they present them with your requirements and complete the deal. This is what you pay for through the one-time fee, a middleman who finished the job and gives you a supplier in China.
Continuous production management fee goes one step further from just finding a supplier and completing the deal. If you need someone to take care of basically everything about the sourcing of your product, this is what you pay the agent to do. It involves control, negotiations, shipping, problem-solving, sampling, tooling, and anything else. The fees here are calculated through either a flat fee or a commission. The flat fee is calculated either for a certain period, or per-product. The commission is a percentage of the total value of the order. The average commission Chinese sourcing agents take vary from five to ten percent, which is favorable when considering the commissions of other professionals especially in the West.
Conclusion and Takeaways
Before we conclude, it has to be said that it is not really possible to come up with a number to describe how much the agents make. We cannot give you an amount in dollars because the commission depends on the product and the size of the order. It may also depend on which supplier they take meaning it is not always just the agent that you pay for. This means that it can be different between every agent and supplier combination out there. The more you order and the more difficult the product is to source and ship, the more you will have to pay. In terms of some rough mounts in US dollars, you can expect to pay between a few hundred dollars to over a thousand per month.
But you may not need a flat fee or commission to last a month. And even if you do, it would be better to make an annual contract and pay less. One-time fees will always be the most expensive when you calculate a single sourcing job. There is not a one specific sourcing agent type or fee. It all depends on the requirements of their clients, and it is not possible to put a value expressed in dollars on such a broad business. It is always best to look for the best and most experienced professional you can find who will ensure that the job is done well and within a timely manner. The price comes second to a well-done job by a true expert in the market.
