How to Find the Best China Sourcing Agent to Expand Your Business?

Find out why successful companies work with specialized sourcing agents in order to streamline production and expand their business and how you can benefit!

Sourcing products from China is becoming common practice for all kinds and sizes of businesses. With the cost benefits, excellent quality, and a greater quantity of production of China-made products, it is becoming a highly competitive and challenging task to find the best sourcing agent for yourself. It is also becoming crucial for businesses to hire a reliable sourcing agent, considering the increasing trend and the endless benefits of sourcing products from China.

Fortunately enough, as the competition in the market is rising, it is also true that technology is drastically advancing and widely becoming accessible. With the use of the internet and digital platforms for communication, it has become easier for businesses to find needed resources like sourcing agents without having to spend a lot of their finances and time.

Therefore, whether you are a new small startup or a large-sized well-established business, technology can surely pave your way towards finding the best sourcing agent in China.

Here are some tips for you to find the best China sourcing agent:

Freelancing and employment websites

Employment websites like LinkedIn connect companies, individuals, and groups of people with one another for employment purposes. You can find lots of potential individual agents who will be able to find you reliable and good quality product suppliers from China on similar websites.

Exhibitions and trade fairs

Business events, fairs, and shows are as important for you to attend as any other meeting with a client. These trade shows are packed with potential agents that are looking for businesses and companies to work for. Plus, good PR is always beneficial for your business. One of the bigger ones is the Canton Fair, which is held in Guangdong province twice a year, in spring and autumn.

Search engines

Do some research on your own and put use to brilliant search engine platforms like Google. Entering keywords, such as required qualifications or amount of experience, can get you specific results that might interest you. Google can pull up all the required information, and it costs nothing! If you are in doubt, there are always specialised link building services, which create fantastic niche-relevant content for your business and get you the Google rankings you need.

How can my business benefit from sourcing products from China?

If you're still not convinced that you actually want to source your products from China, then here are some benefits of China sourcing your products:

Cost benefits

As of now, China has the world’s cheapest labor costs in the manufacturing sector. As a result, labor costs are one of the many costs that you don’t have to worry about when manufacturing your products in China.

Other than that, with highly qualified labor that is able to operate high-tech machines, the training costs are also very less. Plus, China is the world’s top manufacturers of machinery and raw materials, which means that the machines they use for manufacturing products are already made domestically. This reduces their overall equipment costs as well.

As a consequence, China-made products are therefore cheaper and cost-efficient than manufacturing in America or a European country.

Trade-friendly import and export facilities

China has emerged as one of the biggest manufacturers in the world. In fact, China has been lately giving a tough competition to USA’s economy. Even the biggest, most successful USA-based brands such as Apple now get their products assembled in China. While the trade war between the two is leading to many Americans being unhappy and dissatisfied with the increase in importing from China, some business sectors like Wall Street have benefited hugely from China’s growing trade power.

To keep up with its production capabilities and trade activities, China has developed some of the best, smoothest, and most reliable infrastructure that makes transportation of goods highly convenient. Therefore, importing goods to and from China has become convenient for both suppliers and consumers.

Greater production capacity

Because Chinese factories produce goods for global trade, they have achieved large economies of scale and have expanded their operations drastically. As a result, they have much greater production capabilities and capacities. These are time-tested factories that produce goods on a mass level and are able to deliver great quality on time.

What can the China sourcing agent deliver?

Usually there are a number of ways to locate suppliers from China all by yourself. Using B2B e-commerce platforms such as Alibaba is one example. However, it is a challenging and crucial task, which requires lots of experience and care.

You will need to consider a range of factors when trying to locate your own supplier. Therefore, businesses switch to a sourcing agent for help. Here is what a China Sourcing agent can deliver to you:

Lightweight and high quality metal products

China, right now, is packed with manufacturers that produce high-quality metals and steel-like brass, aluminum, stainless steel, and zinc metals. These products are highly lightweight and strong and have the capacity to last a long time and withstand different conditions. A sourcing agent can deliver such products with ease.

Thorough market research

Sourcing agents are experienced individuals or even companies that go to all extents to find you the best product supplier from China. They have extensive experience at hand, which helps them in understanding and working with the dynamics of the Chinese manufacturing market.

This knowledge, when shared with you, also helps you make your decisions and choices better. For example, if you want to source plastic shells from China, a sourcing agent will know how many manufacturers there are, what prices they offer and what their production capabilities are. This way, you will be able to get better quality plastic shells at a better lead time.

Customized products

Lamps, lighting products, metal housing, cans, containers, and the list goes on. These are some widely customizable products that your sourcing agent can deliver. They are cost-friendly, and therefore highly recommended for startup businesses.

Import and export responsibilities

The biggest obstacle faced by businesses sourcing products from another country is the shipment process, tariffs, and other transportation issues. A sourcing agent has the required skills and qualifications to deal with the shipment issues, order processes, and delivery regulations, taking the burden off of your shoulders.

Quality assurance

Because the agents are able to be on-site where your products are being manufactured, they can make sure that the quality of products delivered to you is perfect. They can keep a check of the production rate, and also take control of the on-site quality inspection. Taking the example of plastic shells, an agent can ensure that the supplier is producing the correct size, quality, and thickness of plastic shells that you ordered. Without this quality assurance and interference from the agent, the wrong product will be delivered to you, and it will just be a waste of resources and time.

Die casting and plastic molding suppliers - which are the most popular ones?

Die casting and plastic molding are two of the most specialized types of manufactured goods that you can find in China. Sourcing agents are now specializing in delivering such products to their businesses since these are highly cost-efficient and made with high-tech in China. Die casting and plastic molding are two different manufacturing processes, but each is popular for its own unique features. Let’s understand what each of it is and how popular it is.

Die casting

Another word used to refer to die casting is “forging.” As the word forging suggests, the process includes forcing and putting pressure on molten metal to mold it into the desired shape. The molds are created by adding the molten metal into a mold cavity.

You will find a wide range of sourcing agents that specialize in finding the most cost-efficient metal products that include bathroom parts, brass, aluminum, and stainless steel products. Globally, China is the leading manufacturer of casting metal. It casts a 45% portion of the total world’s casting production and is known to produce up to 45.6 million tons of casted metal in 2015.

Plastic molding

A majority of plastic molding manufacturers in China use CAD and even advanced 3D technology prints to manufacture plastic molds. The use of heavy-duty machinery and advanced technology allows manufacturers to produce customized plastic molds for their customers.

In 2017, China saw a drastic increase and development in its molding manufacturing industry. It is a recently established industry and specialization in China. With about 200 billion Yuan sales of plastic molds in 2017, China became a leading manufacturer in this field.

Summing it up

In conclusion, you can find the best sourcing agent in China by judging their abilities on the basis of qualification, experience, communication skills, and understanding of quality.

While metal casts manufacturing is a well-established specialization in China for a long time, plastic molding has only recently emerged as a specialization. Therefore, you can find high-quality metal casts and plastic products like plastic shells fully customized to your needs.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes.