We are a sourcing and technical procurement office in Shenzhen. We verify suppliers on site, run the samples, check the goods before they leave, and hand you the documents your customs broker actually needs. Fixed fees — and we take no commission from the factory, so our recommendation does not change with the price you end up paying.
None of them are about finding a supplier. There are ten thousand of those. They are about deciding which one is telling the truth.
Every listing shows the same photos and the same factory hall. Half are trading companies reselling the other half. The catalogue tells you nothing about which one can actually make your part.
Samples are made carefully by an engineer. Production is made quickly by whoever is on shift. Without an inspection before the goods leave, you find out at your own dock — after the balance is paid.
In specialty materials one line in a test report decides whether the part works. Quoted parameters are sometimes a copy of a competitor's sheet, and sometimes simply optimistic.
The printed MOQ is set for the factory's convenience, not its capability. It is negotiable far more often than buyers assume — but only if someone asks in the right way.
Most clients begin with a verification report or a sourcing sprint. Ongoing support only makes sense once there is something to support.
On site, with photographs. We visit the address on the business licence, walk the floor, and check the machines against the process your part requires. You get a written report: real capability, real capacity, what they are weak at, and whether they manufacture or resell.
Best when: you have a candidate and need to know if it is real.
From a drawing to three real quotes. We shortlist manufacturers, send your specification, collect quotations on a comparable basis, and get samples made. You receive a comparison table that separates price from what is actually included.
Best when: you have a specification and no supplier.
For materials where the datasheet is the product. Ferrofluid, custom litz wire, magnetic materials, specialty coatings. We read the test data rather than forward it, and we tell you when a quoted figure is not physically plausible.
Best when: two suppliers quote the same number and only one is believable.
Your person in Shenzhen, part-time. Order follow-up, pre-shipment inspection, sample retention, chasing the factory that stopped answering, and the export documents your broker asks for. Monthly, cancellable any month.
Best when: you are ordering regularly and cannot fly over each time.
Introductory rates for the first clients — we are a small office building a reference list, and we price accordingly. Quoted in US dollars, payable before the work starts.
| Service | Fee | Turnaround | What is included |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supplier verification | US$390 | 5 working days | Site visit, photo and video record, licence and scope check, written report with a recommendation |
| Sourcing sprint | US$890 | 2–3 weeks | Shortlist, specification sent to 5–8 factories, 3 comparable quotations, sample coordination, comparison table |
| Technical sourcing | from US$650 | 1–3 weeks | Material review, supplier technical assessment, sample testing coordination, alternative-grade proposal |
| Ongoing support | US$1,200 / month | Monthly | Order follow-up, pre-shipment inspection, document coordination, up to 20 hours; cancel any month |
| # | Step | Who does it | What you receive |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brief | You + us, 30 min call | A written restatement of your requirement, and an honest answer on whether it is worth sourcing at all |
| 2 | Shortlist | Us | 3–6 candidates with a one-line reason for each, and the ones we rejected |
| 3 | Verify or sample | Us on site, you on the bench | Verification report, or samples in your hands with the factory's process notes |
| 4 | Inspect before shipment | Us | Photographs, measured values against your spec, and a go / hold decision you make |
| 5 | Documents | Us + your broker | Commercial invoice, packing list, HS code proposal, certificate of origin where applicable |
Most disappointments in this business come from a scope that was never stated. Here is ours, in plain terms.
No sole-agency agreements, no territory lock-in, no clause that stops you from going direct. If a factory in your shortlist is one you could work with yourself, work with them yourself — we would rather lose the retainer than hold your supply chain hostage.
No commissions, no rebates, no "introduction fees" paid by the supplier. This is the single largest source of biased advice in Chinese sourcing, and the reason our fees are published.
You pay the factory directly, from your account to theirs. We never hold your money in the middle. It protects you from the obvious risk, and it protects us from becoming a party to any dispute.
CE, UKCA, FDA, REACH, UL — these are issued by accredited bodies, not by a sourcing agent. We can tell you which one applies and introduce a testing house, but a certificate we arranged is still a certificate from someone else.
A supplier can fail you after a perfect inspection — that is the nature of manufacturing. What we guarantee is the record: photographs, measurements, retained samples and a written specification you approved. That record is what makes a claim winnable.
Export-controlled materials, weapons-related components and items requiring Chinese dual-use licences are outside our scope. If your part falls into that category we will say so at the brief stage rather than after you have paid.
We also supply specialty materials ourselves, which changes what we can tell you.
Commercial sourcing agents compare price, lead time and payment terms. That is enough for commodity goods. It is not enough for materials where two suppliers quote an identical figure and only one of them can be right.
Because we buy and sell ferrofluid, custom litz wire and magnetic materials, we already know what these things cost to make, which parameters are customarily published and which are quietly omitted, and where the physical limits sit. So when a supplier offers 500 Gs at a viscosity that cannot carry it, or quotes a strand count that cannot fit through the window you have, we can say so before you commit.
This is also why we will sometimes tell you not to buy. A material that is wrong for the application is more expensive at any price.
Commission agents charge 3–10% of order value and are usually paid by the factory — so their income rises with the price you pay. Fixed-fee agents charge per deliverable: a verification report typically US$300–800, a full sourcing sprint US$800–1,500, ongoing support US$800–2,500 per month. Below roughly US$20,000 of annual order value, a fixed fee is almost always cheaper than commission, and it removes the conflict of interest entirely.
Yes, and most small buyers do. You need four things: a supplier willing to invoice a foreign entity, a payment route, an exporter who clears Chinese customs, and an importer of record in your own country. What you cannot expect is for the Chinese factory to handle your import side — that is your broker's job. The common failure is not the legal structure, it is assuming the supplier will solve problems they have never seen.
Three checks. The business licence scope should include manufacturing of your product category, not merely sales. The registered address should be an industrial building, not a serviced-office suite. And the bank account name on the invoice must match the licence name exactly. Then ask for a live video call with the line running — recorded factory tours are marketing material. A trading company is not automatically a bad supplier, but you should know which one you are dealing with before paying a deposit.
Usually lower than the catalogue says. Printed MOQs are set for the factory's convenience: a smaller run costs more per unit but is rarely impossible. For machined or assembled parts, 50–200 pieces is commonly negotiable once you accept a separate setup charge. For wire and textile products the MOQ is expressed in kilograms or metres and can often be halved by accepting a standard specification. The question that works is: what is the smallest run you would accept if I pay the setup cost separately?
That is most of our clients. Small orders are where the supplier relationship is decided, and where a buyer without a local presence is most exposed. What we cannot do is make a US$2,000 order economic to inspect in person on another continent — for those we propose a combined inspection across several orders, or a document-only check.
Pre-shipment inspection exists so that this is decided before the balance is paid, not after arrival: we check against the specification you approved, photograph everything, and you make the go / hold call. If a defect appears later, our value is evidence — photos, retained samples, written records of what was agreed. We do not compensate for the loss and no honest agent can. We make the claim winnable.
Tell us what you are trying to buy. If we are the wrong people for it, we will say so in the reply.
Fields marked * are required. A rough description is enough to start.