Why local sourcing agent?

Management of sourcing that spread over continents and time zones is challenging even for the experienced ones. Understanding difficulties when sourcing in Vietnam, you will see how extremely necessary to have a Vietnamese partner to help you in achieving efficient sourcing.

With just more than two decades of economic reforms and opening to world market, Vietnamese suppliers are not so familiar with international business practices, not so responsive and not so good in communication. Few of them are doing any form of international marketing. Manufacturing in Vietnam is fragmented, lack of supportive industries, and depends very much on imported materials. These shortcomings make it harder for Buyers to identify right suppliers.  It is difficult and time-consuming to find out who is really doing what and where.  Being alone, it very difficult and costly for you to achieve anything here. Face-to-face meetings between sourcing teams and suppliers, or audits, are critical. You think you are dealing with a factory when in fact it is just a go-between. Thus, finding a local company that you can trust and develop a long term business relationship is the key to success. A trustworthy Sourcing/Buying Agent will ensure you to access the original genuine supplies.

You will also face with challenges of small scale factories and limited capacities available. It is a complicated and costly to consolidate different suppliers yourselves instead of recruiting local partner specialized in dealing with all those things. A Buying Agent that has a broad network of contacts over the country and strong team available which each division specialized in certain products will enable the controlling and consolidation much more efficient.

Without support from a party who understand deeply about international trade practices and rules, only few Vietnamese suppliers are capable of giving complete quotation with samples or sales kits. In many case you will only be advised on true costs of product when really placing order. The poor net-work connection between suppliers themselves is also big obstacle for one supplier to give adequate offer.  A Sourcing/ Buying Agent will help to communicate and enable smooth connection from Buyer to Supplier, Supplier to Sub-Supplier to get the completed offer package for Buyers' inquiries at minimized cost and time. A Sourcing/Buying Agent could also support suppliers to access resources that enable them to give Buyer comprehensive supplies.

Most Vietnamese Manufacturers have very little experience directly with the final foreign buying demands and expectations regarding product quality, performance and packaging to understand fully the impact when the product is not made and prepared to 100% of the Purchase Order Specifications.  Nowadays, many Vietnamese Factories hire English speaking personnel, however the communication between the Buyer and the Factory can break down easily when it comes to artwork, printing, packaging, measurements, materials, compliance laws and regulatory laws from the Buyer’s country. It is not only language but also experience and capability matter. A professional Sourcing/ Buying Agent will ensure to get all those demands and expectations to be understood and implemented correctly.

As Vietnam is still a developing country, a lot of things that have been being taken for granted in more developed countries may not be available here. Nonetheless, barriers may be non-issue for the locals. That is why it is critical to utilize local partner strengths. Few suppliers have all the safety certifications or social compliances that international buyers need as first conditions for successful sourcing. However a Sourcing Agent can resolve it by having qualified specialists to consult suppliers in process of applying for and auditing to gain requested norms and standards.

It is not new lesson that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure! The best insurance policy oversea Buyers can take is paying for QA and QC services. Having a local Agent to manage the Purchase Order oversight ensures no surprises when Buyer opens the shipment of goods. Having qualified team taking care of every step in productions line with eyes, ears and boots on the ground, a Sourcing/ Buying Agent will ensure the compliance with Buyer's norms and standards.