Yiwu Sourcing Agent Fees and Commission

There are two ways to pay us, and you choose between them: a commission on each order, or a monthly fee for buyers we represent continuously. Yiwu sourcing agent fees vary across the industry and are not always explained clearly, so this page sets out both structures, what moves the commission rate, and what the fee does and does not cover. The number that matters to you, the exact rate or fee for your situation, is always confirmed in writing before any order proceeds.

Two structures, and how to choose

Option one is a commission per order. A percentage of the order value, tiered roughly between 4% and 10% depending on service level and order size, quoted per order. You pay only when you order. This suits a one off order, a first trial order, or any buying that comes in irregular bursts.

Option two is a monthly fee. This is for buyers with recurring orders and an ongoing relationship, where we work your account continuously as your representative in Yiwu rather than order by order. We do not publish a monthly figure, because there is no single one. The fee is quoted per client, in writing, based on how many suppliers you run, how many orders are usually open at once, and how much visit support is involved.

The deciding question is simple: is your buying one off or recurring, and do both sides want a long term arrangement? Irregular buying points to commission. Reordering through the year, several suppliers running at once, and wanting a person permanently on your account point to the monthly fee. Neither is cheaper by definition, and we will not pretend otherwise; they suit different patterns of buying. Which structure applies is agreed in writing before anything starts, and you can begin on one and move to the other as your volume changes.

The commission

Under the commission structure, our fee is a percentage of the order value, tiered roughly between 4% and 10%, depending on service level and order size. Larger, simpler orders sit towards the lower end. Smaller orders that need a lot of hands-on work sit towards the higher end. We quote the rate per order, in writing, and it does not change after you confirm.

We do not publish a rigid table of thresholds, and that is deliberate. Two orders of identical value can involve wildly different amounts of work, and a table pretending otherwise would either overcharge the easy order or undercharge the hard one. The quote is where the real number lives.

What moves the rate

When we work out where your order sits in the range, we are weighing a few practical things:

• Order size. A larger order spreads the fixed effort of sourcing, paperwork and coordination over more value, which is why bigger orders tend to land lower in the range.
• Number of suppliers. One product from one supplier is one negotiation, one payment, one delivery to chase. Forty products from eighteen booths is a different job entirely, even if the invoice totals match.
• Inspection depth. A carton count and visual check is quick. Piece-level checking against a detailed specification takes real hours, and that shows up in the service level.
• Warehouse handling. Straightforward receiving and loading is one thing. Repacking, relabelling, removing retail stickers, building mixed cartons or preparing goods for specific fulfilment requirements is another.
• Coordination load. Custom packaging, artwork approvals, tight deadlines, staged deliveries and multi-shipment plans all add rounds of communication, and communication is the actual raw material of this job.

What the commission includes

The commission covers our work as your agent in Yiwu: supplier search and quoting, negotiation, placing and documenting orders, making payments to suppliers from the funds you send, production follow-up, receiving goods into our warehouse, the agreed level of inspection, standard consolidation of your orders into one shipment, and preparing the shipment and its paperwork for handover to freight.

In other words, everything that is our time and our effort on the ground.

What it does not include

The commission does not include costs that belong to the goods or their journey. These are separate and are the buyer’s cost:

• The price of the goods themselves, paid to suppliers.
• Freight, whether sea, rail, air or express, and local haulage to the port.
• Import duties, taxes and customs charges in your country.
• Third party laboratory testing or certification, where you require it.
• Sample costs and courier charges for sending samples to you.
• Out-of-scope extras agreed separately, such as long-term storage beyond the normal consolidation window.

Where a third party cost passes through us, you see it as it is. We would rather have a slightly longer invoice that tells the truth than a short one hiding margins in freight.

How quoting works in practice

You send the enquiry, we ask our questions, and the quote you get back sets out the expected goods cost, the commission rate for that order, and estimates for the separate costs we can see at that point. Estimates for freight are estimates; rates move with the market and the final figure comes from the forwarder at booking. Nothing proceeds, and nothing is owed, until you confirm the quote in writing.

One thing we will not do is promise on this page that using an agent saves you a specific amount of money. Sometimes the negotiation and mistake-avoidance clearly pay for the fee many times over. Sometimes a simple reorder mostly buys you time and certainty rather than a lower unit price. Both are legitimate reasons to hire us, but they are different, and you deserve to know which one you are buying.

If you want a concrete number instead of a range, that takes one email. Send your product list, quantities and destination through the contact page and we will quote the order, rate included, in writing.