The questions buyers actually ask
Fifteen objections, answered the way we would answer them on a call — including the four where the honest answer is that we are not the right fit for what you are doing.
If an answer below reads like a sales page, ignore it. These are the questions that decide whether an order happens, so the answers are written to be checkable rather than persuasive. Where our position is weak, the weakness is in the answer.
On price
“10% is double what a local agent charges.”
It usually is, and the comparison only means something if both quotes cover the same work. A 3–5% quote typically covers sourcing and freight coordination. It does not usually include a workshop shortlist you can visit, a sample that is measured and reported on, a pre-shipment inspection against a written checklist, or anyone who will push a workshop to rework a failed batch while the goods are still in China. If your other quote includes all four, take it — seriously. If it covers two, you are comparing a 10% service with a 4% service, and the percentage is not the interesting number.
“I can find these factories on Alibaba myself.”
You can, and for commodity items you probably should. The gap is not access, it is judgement: which of twelve listings is a workshop and which is a trading company reselling the same three factories; whether the photograph is the product or a render; whether the quoted price is for the grade you actually need. We are not a better search engine. We are the person who goes there and looks.
“Just give me the factory name and I'll deal with them directly.”
After the first order, if you want — and most clients do eventually. Before that, the shortlist is the work you are paying for. There is also a practical point: a workshop approached directly by a buyer will often quote that buyer a retail-leaning price, while the same workshop approached by an agent quotes the agent's price. Removing us does not reliably make the goods cheaper. It changes who is doing the negotiating.
“Your fee is on goods value, so you want the price to go up.”
That is the correct reading of the incentive, and it is one reason we publish the rate instead of burying it in freight. On a US$10,400 order the fee is US$1,040. A goods price 10% higher would earn us US$104 more and cost you US$1,040. The incentive is real and it is small — but you should not have to work that out yourself, so here it is. What protects you more is the other half: we tell you when a cheaper workshop quoted a lower grade.
On control
“I don't want someone else talking to my supplier.”
Then do not use an agent for that supplier. Where this works is the stage before you have one: we are talking to eight workshops you have never met, and the objective is to get you to two that you want to keep and deal with yourself. If you already have a factory you trust, the useful thing we can do is inspect and consolidate, not renegotiate.
“How do I know you're not taking a commission from the workshop?”
From the outside, you don't. Two things make it checkable rather than a promise: the workshop invoices you directly for the goods, and our fee is a separate invoice at a published rate. If we were taking a side payment, the workshop's price to you would be inflated to cover it — which is why we ask for quotations to be issued to you, in your name, from the first round.
“I need to approve the factory before you order.”
Yes, and that is the normal sequence. The sample stage exists precisely so that approval happens before a production order exists. What we do not do is send you a factory and wait: the sample is the approval, and it is measured, photographed and reported against the brief rather than sent as a nice picture.
“Who owns the tooling and the artwork?”
You do, and it needs to be in writing before anything is cut. Moulds, blocks, screens, embroidery programmes and artwork files are the cheapest thing to fix at the start of an order and close to impossible to fix at the end. We ask about ownership in the first email, not in the contract stage.
On risk
“What if the goods arrive wrong or damaged?”
We inspect before they ship, against a checklist you approve, and report with photographs and a defect count rather than an opinion. If the batch fails, the leverage is that the goods are still in China and the balance has not been paid. After the goods leave, the risk sits with the workshop under your contract — we are not the importer and we do not carry the goods. Our own liability is capped at the fee we charged. That is a narrow promise and it is deliberately narrow.
“What if the workshop takes my deposit and disappears?”
Deposits go to a workshop we have physically visited and have shipped with before, and the first payment is staged rather than paid in full. That is not a guarantee — it is a shorter list of ways to lose money. Anyone who tells you a deposit is risk-free is describing a bank, not a supply chain.
“You're new. Why should I trust you with a US$40,000 order?”
You shouldn't, on the first order. Start with a sample, or with an order small enough that losing it would annoy you rather than hurt you. That is also how we would rather start: the first order tells both sides more than any number of calls, and it costs less to find out.
“What if you go out of business mid-order?”
Then you hold the workshop's contract, the workshop's contact, the deposit receipt and the inspection report — all in your name, not ours. That is a design decision rather than an accident. An agency that keeps the paperwork is an agency you cannot get out of.
On execution
“How long does this actually take?”
First shortlist in about two business days. Samples in seven to fifteen days, depending on the craft. Production depends entirely on the family — carved lacquer runs to months, print runs to weeks, and no amount of urgency changes either. The sourcing calendar sets out the Chinese holiday windows that stop everything, because those catch more buyers than any production problem.
“Can you handle small orders?”
Yes, with a caveat we would rather say now than at the invoice: below US$3,000 of goods the fee has a US$300 floor, so the effective rate is higher than 10%. On a US$1,000 order it is 30%. If that is the shape of your order, say so in the first email — we will tell you honestly whether we are worth it at that size, and sometimes the answer is no.
“Do you understand our market?”
Partly. We know what works in museum shops and hotel gift programmes at the level of “what a buyer can put on a shelf at this price, with this much story”. We do not know your customers. The brief works because you supply the shelf, the price point and the narrative, and we translate that into a workshop that can actually make it.
Something not on this list? Ask it directly — the awkward ones are usually the useful ones, and we would rather answer them before an order than after. Send the question.
Still deciding whether an agent is worth 10%?
Send the brief you would send a factory. The first shortlist is free, and it will tell you more about whether we are useful than this page can.
Send a sourcing request