Hazards in selecting sourcing agents in China and how to avoid it

The lack of professionalism in sourcing agents in China is a big problem for all the international buyers. It has been such a controversial problem that people have heated debate over the benefits and drawbacks of hiring a sourcing agent.

Various buying offices and sourcing agents in China themselves have a tendency to accuse the conduct of taking kickbacks, and after doing so they shift the attention of the purchasers to their own services and promote that they will never resort to unethical behavior. Nonetheless, it should be admitted that all of them are basically agents, and they all are likely to fall in this lapse, but some of them shed much light on the solutions to this problem. The problem is just due to human nature. For instance, some of them might have mixed feelings when they provide the quotes to their clients.

A common trend is that some suppliers readily provide sourcing consultants or translators an amount of hidden commission to win the order or the latter asks for kickbacks from the suppliers. Nonetheless, this trend is not only unprofessional and unethical, but also realistically unsustainable, as though unlikely someday the suppliers can tell the truth to the purchaser, the China product sourcing agent would find himself just a tool for the suppliers and in the worst case scenario, end up being no longer relied by the client.

The best and possibly the only solution is to alleviate a sustainable system that allows the China product sourcing agent to be completely incorporated into the virtual office of the purchaser. The client should treat the sourcing agent as a staff or colleague with complete sincerity, while the sourcing agent should treat his client as his staff with complete loyalty.

The sourcing agent may try some of these techniques below:

1. Provide payment proof for every transaction with the shippers and suppliers for shipping to FBA. This might comprise of bank slips, receipts, transfer screenshots, etc. Thus, the original complete cost in procuring the goods can be conveniently tracked and calculated. 

2. Present comprehensive contact details of all the shippers and suppliers to the client. Furthermore, when the client has to communicate with them for an clarification purpose, if the suppliers don’t understand English, the sourcing agent provide translation assistance to alleviate the clarification procedure.

The purchaser may try some of the techniques below:

1. Offer an affordable sourcing fee.

2. If possible, assist the agent to create an email ID in the name of the company of the employer so he can more convincingly represent the purchaser in dealing with the suppliers. Similarly, the creation of a business card can also do the same purpose.  

3. Cover the expenses including the cost generated in travelling expenses, domestic shipping cost, packaging etc at the agent’s end. 

4. Motivation measures: As the cooperation reaches a highly mature and stable level, it can worth consideration to provide retainer fee or performance bonus to the agent based on savings accomplished.