Sourcing agent in Vietnam

What we actually do

Sourcing is four jobs that usually get split between four people who never speak to each other: finding candidates, checking they are real, agreeing terms, and making sure what arrives is what was agreed. We do all four, which is the only reason the last one tends to go right.

• Translate your specification into something a Vietnamese factory can quote against, including the tolerances and standards a foreign buyer assumes but rarely writes down.
• Build a shortlist from the trade directories, the industry associations and, more often than not, people we already know in that sector.
• Visit the serious candidates, so the quotation and the factory are known to belong together.
• Negotiate in Vietnamese, on price, payment terms, lead time and what happens when a batch fails inspection.
• Follow production: samples, in-process checks, pre-shipment inspection, and the photographs to go with each.
• Hand over to freight and documents, or run that too.

Why a local agent rather than a trading company

A trading company makes its money on the spread between what the factory charges and what you pay, which means it has a reason not to tell you either number. That is not dishonest by itself, but it does mean your interests and theirs point in different directions the moment something goes wrong.

We charge a fee you agree in advance, so it doesn't change based on which factory you pick. When we recommend walking away from one, that advice isn't shaped by what pays us more.

What it costs

Projects start from $100. A small, well-defined piece of work, such as checking three suppliers you already found, sits near that. A full sourcing project, from specification to first shipment, is quoted as a project with a fixed scope and price, or run on a monthly retainer if the flow of orders is continuous.

Either way you see the whole number before anything starts.

Sectors we know first-hand

Agriculture and food commodities, from purchasing through export paperwork, is where our founder spent the first years of this work. Machinery and industrial equipment came from two years inside a factory in China, on the side of the table that chooses the equipment.

Outside those, we say so. Taking on a category we do not understand well enough to judge a supplier in is the fastest way to be worth less than our fee.