China Sourcing Services: The 5 steps to sourcing success – Part 1

At CPG, we implement our Sourcing Solution to achieve optimal China sourcing services for you, the importer. Our solution provides your own branch office in China—full of dedicated staff and experienced specialists to execute your sourcing vision responsibly—without the management burden. 

What are the steps to getting started? Implementing the Solution comprises the following five steps, each of which we will break down in more detail in a series of blogs.   

• Step 1: Understanding the Vision
• Step 2: Getting Your China Sourcing Team
• Step 3: Mission Definition
• Step 4: Execution
• Step 5: Measuring Results 

In this blog, we’ll cover Step 1 and Step 2. 

China Sourcing Services Step 1: Understanding the Vision 

Understanding the vision involves understanding the product(s) you want to be sourced from China, and what you want to do with them.  

The Product 

First off, we pride ourselves on being product-agnostic—meaning we handle all products using any kind of materials. Despite this, sourcing still requires a great focus on the product and detailed knowledge about it is not only necessary but must be clearly and unambiguously expressed to the manufacturer. Moreover, specifics about the type of product and its maturity in the market are important because this influences both the timeline to complete your project and the investment required (in man-hours and money). For example, is your product off the shelf, customized, made-to-order, or one that needs to be developed? See more on Product Categorization in our Sourcing Manager, Coral Li’s, blog on The Importance of Product Categorization. To source your product exactly to your requirements, CPG leverages its extensive sourcing experience and the expertise of our engineering and sourcing specialist teams. These teams always ask the right questions. 

The Vision 

Next, we must understand your China sourcing vision. This includes your immediate needs, deliverables, and timetable, as well as your long-term objectives. When defining these goals, it’s important to be very clear about which aspects of the supply chain matter the most for your products. Some of the key priorities include the lowest costs, quality assurance, supplier reliability, benchmarking, speed to market, and intellectual property protection.  

China Sourcing Services Step 2: Getting Your Sourcing Team 

Resource Requirements 

After understanding your vision, our Beijing team estimates the resource requirements (i.e., man-hours) needed to achieve your objectives. In addition to the number of hours, the second key aspect is the amount of time (i.e., calendar days) that will be needed to complete the project from start to finish and get the product into your hands. Some projects require a lot of back-and-forth, pushing and pulling. A slow reaction time between the buyer and seller might take three months to complete from beginning to end. Other projects can be completed more quickly. Based on the number of hours needed to complete your project in conjunction with the timeline, CPG will recommend the best-fit sourcing solution to meet your needs. Most of our clients start with a Sourcing Package (a 3-month project), but we also offer flexible, on-demand resources. See more on our Pricing page.  

Confirm CPG Team Availability and Start Time 

Once CPG determines the best sourcing solution to meet your needs, we must ensure we have the resources available (i.e., the right-sized sourcing team) to begin work on your chosen start date. Most of the time this is not a problem since we have a robust 50-person team in Beijing. But it’s always good to confirm!  

Meeting your Sourcing Team 

Upon choosing CPG, executing a signed agreement, and collecting payment, your CPG team is officially activated! This process happens quickly, and you’ll get to meet your sourcing team right away. Your sourcing team typically includes the following people:  

China-based: 

• Team Leader
• One or more Sourcing Specialists and Engineers

U.S.- based:

• Client Success Manager 

It’s always exciting to connect you, the importer, with your own team on the ground in China. Imagine that, having a team that gets to work right away—your own China office—responding efficiently to the Mission you set out for them!  

We’ll cover the Mission Definition in next week’s blog – stay tuned! 

Editor’s Note: This blog was originally published in May 2022.