A good sourcing agent saves you time, money, and stress. A bad one can cost you both your order and your trust in importing. Before you sign anything, ask these 10 questions — and expect clear, specific answers.
1. How Long Have You Been in Business, and What Results Can You Show?
Look for real experience and concrete case studies: products sourced, factories managed, problems solved. Anyone can claim experience — ask for evidence.
2. Which Products and Industries Do You Specialize In?
A generalist can handle anything and master nothing. An agent with experience in your product category knows the right factories, realistic prices, and the common quality pitfalls of that category.
3. Do You Work Directly with Factories or Through Middlemen?
Direct factory relationships usually mean better prices and faster problem-solving. Ask how many factories they work with directly and whether they can name them.
4. How Do You Charge?
Common models are a commission on the order (5–10%), a fixed project fee, or a mix. Ask for everything in writing, including who pays for samples, inspections, and travel. Transparency here prevents ugly surprises later.
5. How Do You Handle Quality Control?
Do they do pre-production checks, inline inspections, and pre-shipment inspection? Do they use AQL standards? An agent who only forwards order confirmations is a middleman, not a sourcing partner.
6. Can You Verify Licenses and Audit Factories?
Your agent should be able to check business licenses, confirm production capacity, and visit factories on your behalf — with photos, videos, and written reports.
7. How Do Payments Work?
A trustworthy agent never insists on collecting all funds personally. Standard practice: you pay the factory directly or through a protected arrangement, with the agent overseeing the terms.
8. What Happens If There Is a Quality Problem?
Ask for the exact procedure: who inspects, who renegotiates, who handles rework or returns, and what happens if the goods are rejected. Get the policy in the contract, not in promises.
9. Do You Handle Shipping and Customs?
Many agents coordinate freight, customs clearance, and even DDP door delivery. Having one responsible party for the whole supply chain is much easier to manage than five separate vendors.
10. Can You Provide Client References?
Contact at least two past or current clients, ideally in a similar business. Ask about communication speed, honesty about problems, and whether they would work with the agent again.
Red Flags to Avoid
- Refuses to sign a written contract
- Guarantees prices that are suspiciously low
- Asks for large upfront payments before doing any work
- Over-promises with no evidence to back it up
validsourcing is happy to answer all 10 questions ourselves. Get in touch and ask us anything.