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I'm a purchasing agent in China. What factors will you consider when choosing a purchasing agent in China?

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Seriously guys, there was no reasons for two down-votes on this question. He did not even have a link to his website for promoting it. Help me vote this question up again. – David Jan 21 '11 at 21:06
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Seriously, he is running the same questions (2 stremams actually) over and over since i joined this site. Either it is "i am a translator, help me understand what I actually do" or "i want to make import or export but I have no clue what is involed, so help me get a business" style of questions. – NetTecture Jan 22 '11 at 8:52
Voting to close - Steven should know how to be a purchasing agent by now. – Brandon King Jun 14 '11 at 20:15

closed as too localized by Zuly Gonzalez♦ Jan 28 '12 at 6:12

This question is unlikely to help any future visitors; it is only relevant to a small geographic area, a specific moment in time, or an extraordinarily narrow situation that is not generally applicable to the worldwide audience of the internet. For help making this question more broadly applicable, see the FAQ.

4 Answers

up vote 3 down vote accepted

His professional attitude. Unless I can fly down, things like way of communication, respoinsiveness, clearness of contact and his ability not to go on my nerves are primary factory.

Btw., your question is a good part of how to collect negative points on my book:

What factors will you consider when choosing a purchasing agent in China?

See, the country is totally irrelevant. hina, Russia, Germany, US - same criteria everywhere. The ability of a protective agent to formulate precise questionsetc. is part of the selection process.

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up vote 2 down vote

What I usually consider is how quickly he will rip me off! chances are if you are an agent in china, you will sell a client, and then short them. Its the culture, and not going to change for a very long time.

Another factor i consider is my dislike for doing trade with china, and avoid it as a religion.

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The question is quite clear about hiring a purchasing agent in China. If you don't do business with china, there's no need to answer "I don't like to do business with you." The culture bit might be a good tip, though, I do not have experience there. Several friends, however, do or have done business there with no problems whatsoever. – tomeduarte Jan 21 '11 at 20:17
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The reason i am so bitter about china, is that not only have i experienced doing business with china from before it was trendy, but also because i udnerstand the economic devestation it causes in my home market. its an injustice to expect your american consumers to buy your products which you get from china. As business owners we have a responsibility to our consumers, not to rape them over with lower quality for lower price, and not to rape them by exporting their income to a country that does not that same. As for the question, i have tried working with china 3 times, 1 for software, 2 – Frank Jan 21 '11 at 23:33
for tangible items, and been bitten 3 times. Software venture found our developers messing around and doing side projects as often as they saw fit, stealing company resources and IP. For our two import attempts, both times we found our AGENT, working directly with OUR contract manufacturer to sell OUR PRODUCT, under their own brand to the chinese for much less than they were selling it to us for import in the USA. Whats worse is they were poorly attempting to import the product we created into the usa, and working with other us businesses to try and sell to them directly. We are no longer – Frank Jan 21 '11 at 23:35
in what was a lucrative business of selling pet supplies (toys, dog houses, etc), beacause the chinese that we introduced our product to have become wise, ripped off our concepts and sold them directly all over the world. So my advice, as glamourous and fun as it sounds to be global, multinational, or trim your expense reports, learn quickly who you are in bed with. I for one, realized that using american labor might cost more in dollars, but costs a lot less in losses. – Frank Jan 21 '11 at 23:37
I didn't mean you were being unreasonable with your comment, just out of topic. You have (as demonstrated) excellent points to justify your opinion and I have no experience dealing with them. The ones I know are import deals but I'm in Europe not USA so might be a difference there. Otherwise they might have some contact there I do not know about that gives such different outcomes. @Steven - you should look at Frank's comments and see how people are getting burned. You need to make sure you give solid proof to prospective customers that you are not this "kind" of purchasing agent. – tomeduarte Jan 21 '11 at 23:52
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up vote 1 down vote

The agent's English skills. It's a telltale sign of his/her experience in the field and international education.

Then, when it comes to substance, his/her openness and willingness to be transparent about ALL operating issues. No secrets, nothing to hide. And better if s/he can sign a contract for multiple jurisdictions with the same terms.

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up vote 0 down vote

To add some balance to the other comments, you can be successfully ripped off in every country in the world (I have been ripped off in a few). Contract law is unreliable and unpredictable in every country, the only consistent thing is the party with the most money will win.

Back to the question - how can you differentiate yourself from alibaba.com ?

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Help you find a good supplier, liaise, send samples, quality inspection, arrange shipping, etc. – Steven Jan 24 '11 at 9:13

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