China sourcing and purchasing agent for Singapore buyers

1Tell us what you need, or about your supplier

2When a sourcing or purchasing agent helps

Dealing with a Chinese supplier from Singapore is hard work. Replies are slow, details change and dates slip. You usually see the goods only after you have paid for them. We have a hub in China, we talk to the supplier for you, and every carton passes through the hub before it ships.

Shiplet is a China to Singapore freight forwarder and a Registered Declaring Agent with Singapore Customs, so we handle the goods from the moment they reach our hub in China until they are at your door. Buying retail on Taobao, JD or Douyin instead? The buying service page covers that. Based outside Singapore, with your own forwarder? See the China sourcing agent page for overseas buyers.

3Finding a supplier for you

If you don't have a supplier yet, or want an alternative to the one you have, send us:

• Photos, a drawing or a link to something close, with sizes, materials and colours.
• The quantity for the first order and roughly how often you would reorder.
• The price you are aiming for, and when you need the goods in Singapore.
• Any logo, labels or retail packaging you want.

We look on 1688 and among other suppliers, ask each one for a price, a minimum order, a lead time and a carton size, and set the answers out next to each other with the freight added. You pick one. A first sample can come through our hub, so you see the product before committing to a full order. How 1688 prices are put together is on the 1688 buying agent page.

4Working with your supplier

Before production starts, we send the supplier the full order in Chinese: model, materials, colour, quantity, how each unit is packed, how many to a carton, and any labels or logo. They confirm it in writing. If the goods arrive different, that message is what both sides go back to. The checklist of questions for a 1688 supplier works for any supplier.

5Have the supplier deliver to our hub

Ask for a price delivered to our hub. Delivery within China is cheap for a supplier, and from the hub on, freight, the import permit, clearance and delivery are on one all-in price from us. Sea cargo goes to Foshan, below; air cargo goes to our Shenzhen air freight warehouse, whose address comes with your booking. The Incoterms guide for buying from China explains why this usually works out better than an FOB or CIF price.

6When the goods reach the hub

Cartons are counted against the packing list and opened for a look at the goods: damage, wrong items, short quantities. Problems go to the supplier while the goods are still in China. If a balance is due after delivery, the check comes before it is paid, whichever of us pays it. If your product needs a factory audit or a lab test, that has to be arranged separately.

7Invoice, packing list and HS code

Customs needs a commercial invoice and a packing list for every shipment, and suppliers often send them late or with gaps. We chase them, check them against the goods and lodge the permit as your Declaring Agent. What a commercial invoice and packing list need to show has the detail. Each product also needs an HS code, which we help you find; see the HS code guide.

8What you pay, and to whom

The goods are paid to the supplier on the terms agreed, either by you or by us for you. Our fee for finding or managing the supplier and checking the goods starts from S$50, and you know the figure before we begin. Freight is S$82 per CBM by sea, minimum 1 CBM, or from S$6.50 per kg by air, paid when the goods reach Singapore, with GST at 9% on the same bill. Ask the supplier for carton sizes and try them in the calculator below or on the CBM calculator page.

For sea, air and GST in full, read the complete guide to shipping from China to Singapore; for what a forwarder does, the freight forwarder guide. For freight on its own, the quote form gives you an instant quote.