The Basic Guide: How to Find Agent in Yiwu?
Having been in Yiwu exporting business since 2013, this how to find a good agent in Yiwu article can help buyers make good decisions to appoint a proper Yiwu agent for their business right from the beginning.
Table of Contents
Which is the Best Agent in Yiwu?
The agent in Yiwu and the product sourcing agent still have some differences. The agent in Yiwu is mainly responsible for the docking and delivery of existing suppliers mainly in the Yiwu market, while the product sourcing service is mainly for customized single product sourcing.
A severe and trustworthy Yiwu agent can always stay after the following filtration:
Nowadays, almost every agent in Yiwu has their own website. Some agents even have a lot. A website is an excellent way to understand the people behind the website.
In fact, that is the only way for you to get information before contacting anyone. It would be best if you were careful with the following:
1. Be Aware Talking-Rubbish Agents
These agents usually say on their sites that they’re the “Top 1”, or “Top 3”, “No.1”, or “Best…” “Most…” “Official” Yiwu agent.
Let me show you 2 extreme cases:
-One agent only keeps an average of 1.5 staff since 2009, claiming they’re the “TOP 3” Yiwu agent on their sites.
-Another agent claiming they’re the “Official Yiwu Market Agent” has nothing to do with the official company running the Yiwu market.
Yiwu market is built by the local government and run by CCC Group. Only the CCC group can say they’re official to run the Yiwu market. The rest of the Yiwu agents have NOTHING to do with the “Yiwu market official site.”
When these Yiwu agents are trying to catch eyeballs by talking rubbish everywhere, they lose their trustworthiness simultaneously.
2. Be Aware No Promising-miracles Agents
Many agents say they only charge a 1% commission, or they offer FREE service, free cars, and free everything. Or they cleverly say charge “low to 1% commission”. (very misleading.)
This is too bad for the entire export agent business in Yiwu. I mentioned this earlier on the Yiwu agent commission rate. 1% is just too good to be true. Even the biggest agents charge 3 – 4% with lots of “but” and “if”.
When it comes to service, PEOPLE matter. Companies offering better opportunities and salaries usually have better and more experienced staff. The fact is that all your work will be done by staff. Not the general manager or boss.
If a company can’t have reasonable profit, they can’t offer a decent salary. Then they can’t keep good staff. Quick change of staff is a disaster for service agents’ business.
For the longest, the companies who keep the best experienced and professional staff resources can be the BEST agent in Yiwu.
3. Be Aware Don’t-have-rules Agents
Many agents in Yiwu don’t have a clear and straightforward way with their service and charges but want you to contact or chat with them.
This is a waste of everyone’s time. Of course, if you save some time with one guy, you will have a different time for another guy. You have 24 hours a day.
Usually, these people who clearly state all their services and terms at the beginning have a better “awareness of rules” than those who don’t say anything but want you to discuss it with them.
Believe it or not, many agents in Yiwu don’t have any rules, both as a company and as individual staff. Companies add extra costs to customers; staff earn kickbacks from suppliers. Of course, the customer will pay all the bills in the end…
4. Be Aware Taking-Shortcuts Agents
If a website respects its visitors enough, they should be very careful about what they say on the web pages. Provide the visitors indeed USEFUL and FRESH information, as much as possible, in a responsible way.
If you come across a website that just puts on lots of “junk”, copies and pastes other people’s work on their site, or just changes a bit here and there. You already have an idea of what kind of person you are there behind.
Are you ready to put your business in such “take shortcuts and get-rich-fast” agents? I guess not!
Having the above info in mind, you can adequately filter out lots of noises, and now it’s time to select a few and talk:
How to Find Agent in Yiwu?
Check Their Responding Time
Here, of course, you will have different ways to find out if someone is right for you. Are they honestly telling about what they can do? Are they able to communicate well via emails? Are they doing what they’re saying?
Ask for a Reference from Their Site
Some companies now put a reference on their site publicly. This is good to see what other customers say about them.
But you need to see if these reviews are REAL.
You can ask them to offer contact information about their customers who wrote the review, then go and find out.
You have more ways here, so let’s skip to the next step.
By above 2 steps of checking their sites and talking to them. Now comes to the big step:
Visit them to Find Out.
Here is my advice: always select 2 or 3 potential agents in Yiwu, NOT ONLY ONE!
Meet them and talk to them. Walk with them for one day in the market. Then point out your finger for the winner.
- From meeting them and walking with them, you will have a clear picture of what they are doing, what they are saying on their website and what they told you previously in emails.
- Walking in the market for one day (only for browsing market purposes), you will find out who seems to care about you more and who is putting more extra cost on you.
…
Let Them Show Their ID
Check their Chinese name on the name card.
Not only the English name.
You can find million of Jack, or Julie, or Lisa, or Mike…
These are not their real names.
If Jack runs away with your money.
You call China policeman:
-“Jack in Yiwu, run away with my money.”
-“Sorry, but we don’t know any Jack. Our system only has Chinese names”
– “… …”
Check their business license, tax registration, and company ID and make copies to ensure they’re legally registered in Yiwu/Zhejiang/China. NOT in HK or somewhere on a small island.
China police won’t travel that far for your 200,000 USD criminal report. For sure!
After going through the above steps, I’m sure you’re close to a trustworthy, serious, and reliable good Yiwu agent.
What is A Good Yiwu Agent?
A good Yiwu agent has trust first, experience and expertise second, and facilities third. No one can work a miracle to avoid these three factors.
A Good Yiwu Agent Need Professorial And Experienced
TRUST is No.1, EXPERIENCE and EXPERTISE will be No.2.
Many agents claim they can source thousands of different products for you from Yiwu market. This is true. But can they do a good job with thousands of different products?
Here is a big question mark:
An agent who is exporting a lot of plastic containers means nothing when they need to QC jewelry for “nickel free”.
An agent ships hundreds of containers to the US, which means they need to learn better Croatia or Fiji customs requirements.
You’d better find an agent that is specialized in your products or at least is familiar with your type of products. These people will be more confident with QC in the end. They can also talk to suppliers before placing orders.
Also because they’re more experienced with a specific type of products, they are more familiar with the suppliers. They probably know which supplier can deliver what they promise and which supplier may only provide air in the end.
A Good Yiwu Agent With Sufficient Facilities
TRUST No.1, EXPERIENCE and EXPERTISE No.2, FACILITY comes at No.3.
No one can do miracles.
The two most important facilities for an agent in Yiwu are the office and warehouse.
Office that is close to the market.
Almost every day, agents and staff need to go to market. A close location to the market means the staff won’t need to take a bus or get stuck in a traffic jam. This makes their life easier. They can also be more efficient with your work.
The Yiwu warehouse must be spacious.
Considering the fact that sometimes products need to be repacked or checked thoroughly. This job will only be possible if there is enough space.
Also, a good China warehouse should be easy for container loading if fragile items are carried up to the container door each time. There is a risk that these fragile cartons can fall off.
Of course, this can be found easily when you’re in Yiwu. You can drop by their office in the morning for 10 minutes and go to their warehouse in the after for another 10 minutes after a market visit.
In one word, get someone reliable agent in Yiwu to take care of your business. If you need Yiwu sourcing agent services, you can contact us directly.
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