How purchasing through an agent in China works.

Formats differ. It can be your suppliers or my sourcing, one box or several containers, sea or air. The sequence below stays the same, and what changes is the scope, which is stated in writing before the work starts. At every step you can see who does the work, whose money moves and what you receive on record.

We settle what to buy, whose suppliers we work with — yours, or found by me — who stands as the seller on paper and what my fee is. The fee and the disclosure rules are fixed here as well, not discovered later (see Pricing & disclosure rules). I never skip this step, because it is what helps avoid a common situation, where the buyer is sure the agent answers for everything while the agent is sure he was hired for one limited task. The question I always ask early is what one deal actually looks like. One supplier or fifteen? A full container or a first trial batch? The answer defines the work.

If you don’t have suppliers yet, sourcing comes first. I search against your task, specs and requirements, compare the options that fit best and agree the final choice with you. Depending on the product and volumes, these can be factories or trading companies and wholesalers. What matters is that the choice is made deliberately, with prices and terms on the table.

Once the details are confirmed, I issue a proforma invoice. Its payment terms follow the suppliers’ terms. When there are several suppliers in a deal, they come together into one list and one proforma, so you place funds in one place instead of paying each supplier separately.

Supplier payments are made from funds you place first — I do not finance purchases and do not work on credit.

My fee is invoiced separately and is never inside the goods price.

I place and confirm the orders and pay the suppliers as agreed. From there I handle the entire process — follow-ups and clarifications, changes, lead time, the back-and-forth with the suppliers, and issues when they surface. You stay in control and adjust things as we go, with up-to-date execution records in hand. Paperwork is also part of this stage: contracts and invoices with the suppliers, counterparty details and payment purposes, kept in order so that the money flow and the goods flow match on paper. Payment records follow the disclosure rules of your tier.

Deliveries from the suppliers arrive at the consolidation warehouse — one arranged by me, or one you have found on your side. Each delivery is received against its packing list and order, and the condition of the cargo is checked on arrival. Deeper checks, down to quantities and piece-by-piece inspection, are run when we agree they are needed. Any damage or shortages are raised with the supplier by me, not by you. If shipping marks are wrong or missing, I redo them at the warehouse myself.

With ten or fifteen suppliers in one deal, dozens of separate deliveries have to become one correctly documented shipment, and that is what this stage is for.

As long as the export is on me, the preparation work stays mine — and so do the discrepancies. You receive the warehouse report.

Loading is arranged and controlled at the warehouse. Cargo placement in the container, packing and handover of air shipments, photos and videos along the way. Then you receive the loading report.

Export can sit on my side or on yours. If you have your own forwarder, I hand the cargo over to them the way you instruct and coordinate the handover. If you don’t, I take the export on myself and run it through my forwarders. We look at current offers, compare them and decide together how to ship.

The forwarders receive the prepared cargo data and details from me and run the export process and customs clearance on their side, while I stay on it, track each step and check that the documents come out correct. Depending on the format agreed at the start, the seller on paper is either your supplier or SinaFirst, with multiple purchases under one commercial invoice (see Seller of record). When everything is ready, I invoice the logistics. Once it is settled, the bill of lading or air waybill and the rest of the document set go to you.

I am not a freight forwarder myself. My side of the work ends at the export handover in China, and international freight with destination-side duties stays on yours. That is said plainly from the start.