how to buy from China market?

There are 300,000 global buyers come to China china every year, they export products from China market. How to buy from China market?

Related: How to do business in China?

China market is the world largest wholesale market for small commodities. Cheap price made it famous but crap quality made it notorious in the past.
How to buy from this "huge" China market is still not clear for many of its visitors.

Here is one example: G from Singapore, who represents a large company and plans to source some products from China. Before she came, she thought that China market is something like a fair or trade exhibition. She can easily import directly by speaking to the sellers there.

She was greatly disappointed to found out that 95% of the people in the market are not ready to export directly. They don't have export licenses, don'’t know anything about FOB price, and most of them even don't speak English!

How China market works?
Factories (or sheer agents) have their shops/showrooms set up inside the market. They sell the products they produce/ represent.
Usually two people are working inside the shops. One is "boss", the other is "assistant". In most cases, the "boss" is the factory owner’s wife, daughter, or close relatives, someone the factory owner can completely trust. The "assistant" is usually a girl they employed, who can speak some English and know how to use a computer.

"Boss" usually don't speak any English and knows little about foreign trade. Their job is to keep everything under control. To keep the overall cost down, the "shop assistant" is usually high school graduates or college graduates. They don't have much knowledge about foreign trade either.

So the shops here just put whatever available inside, and sell. That’s it. They are happy with this. To export directly to overseas buyers is not something they’re happy to do, or able to do. So here comes the question:
How to buy from China market?

In most cases, you have to use an China agent to assist you with all the sourcing activities. They can arrange your visit, accompany you to the market to browse, then collect orders, do inspection, and finally ship out your products.

Of course, agents will usually charge a commission from 1% – 5% of your total purchase value, according what you buy and how much you buy. >>China Sourcing Commission

*The good things about using an agent:

Obvious enough, an agent can make things much easier for you. Sourcing from China without an agent is nearly a "Mission Impossible". You have no warehouse (China Warehousing Services) to collect your orders, no title to ship out your containers, and no one do inspection.

And agents can also help you get cheaper prices sometimes because they have connections with suppliers. They buy a lot from suppliers and suppliers are also willing to offer a discount because agents help them sell.

*The bad things about using an agent:

This only comes when you stay with a "bad" agent. You may find that almost every agent's site promises MIRACLES. In fact, the reality is quite different. Most agents are inexperienced, incapable, have no connections, have no warehouses, tell lies, make mistakes, create additional costs, waste time, and choose slow cheap container lines….

Come to their office and warehouse to have a look before you choose them as your China agent.
 

<