FAQ

We provide a comprehensive sourcing service from China that includes:

• Finding products you want and giving you a quote

• Placing orders and tracking production progress

• Inspecting quality when products are ready

• Sending you a report for approval

• Handling export formalities

• Advising you on import matters

• Assisting you when you visit China

• Cooperating with you on other export businesses

Our advantages are:

Experience: Our service team has over 11 years of experience in sourcing products. They are familiar with the market and can find the right suppliers quickly. We have served clients from all over the world, such as America, Brazil, Venezuela, Dubai, Sudan, South Africa, Albania, Uzbekistan, Kazakstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgizistan and so on. We have received great feedback and we are motivated to keep improving.

Location: Our company is based in Shanghai, China. There are many manufacturers for all kinds of products you need here. We have good relationships with most of the factories and we can get competitive prices for you. It is also easy for us to find reliable suppliers. And it is convenient for you to travel to different cities when you visit Shanghai.

Low service fee: We aim for long-term cooperation. Our original intention is to help small and medium businesses grow. Therefore, we offer high quality service at a reasonable fee as low as 4%.

Third party support: We have been exporting for years and we have many partners such as shipping companies, trailer companies, express companies and so on. They give us better prices and exclusive service than others. As a result, we can offer lower shipping costs for you.

The products you need will determine the type of suppliers we choose.

If you can order enough to meet the factories’ minimum quantity, we will prioritize working with factories.

If you can’t order that much, we will try to persuade the factories to lower their minimum quantity.

If the factories won’t budge, we will look for some large wholesalers who have good prices and quantities.

It varies.

If the factories have enough inventory, we can take your order;

If they don’t have enough inventory, they will require a minimum order quantity for new production.

Sometimes we can also join your orders with the factories’ big customers, and they can produce them together. In this case, we can accept small orders.

Whether you want to buy products for resale or personal use, we care about your needs.

Just send us an email and we will arrange the delivery to your country.

Usually we will prioritize those suppliers who have worked well with us before because they have proven to offer good quality and price.

For those products we have not bought before, we follow these steps.

First, we identify the industrial areas where your products are made, such as toys in Shantou, electronic products in Shenzhen, small products in Yiwu.

Second, we look for the suitable factories or large wholesalers based on your needs and quantity.

Third, we request quotes and samples for evaluation. You can ask us to send you the samples (you need to pay for the sample cost and shipping fee).

We provide shipping by sea, air, truck or rail for full container or less than container load orders. Air freight is a good option for small but valuable products.

We have three terms to choose from:

EXW (Ex Works) Your agent needs to collect the goods from our warehouse and deliver them to your specified location.

FOB (Free on Board) You pay for FOB shipping fee, which includes all costs to transport and load the goods on the ship.

CIF (Cost Insurance and Freight) You pay for CIF shipping fee, which covers all costs to ship the goods to your destination port.

It depends on what you need.

Suppliers on the B2B platforms may be factories, trading companies, or middlemen of different levels. There are many different prices for the same product, and it is very difficult to tell who they are by looking at their website.

As you may know if you have bought from China before, there is always a lower price in China, but not necessarily the best quality or service. When we source products for our clients, we focus on getting the best value for money rather than the cheapest price.

We guarantee that the price we quote is the same as the supplier’s and there are no hidden fees. (For more details, please check Our Price page). Our price is moderate compared to the suppliers on the B2B platforms, but we offer you a simpler way to buy products from different suppliers who may be in different cities. This is something that the B2B platform suppliers cannot do, because they usually only specialize in one type of product. For example, those who sell tiles may not know much about the lighting market, or those who sell sanitary wares may not know where to find a good supplier for toys. Even if they can give you a price for what they find, they usually still search on Alibaba or Made in China Platforms.

Sure. We can help you even if you buy from the supplier directly. If you are concerned about the supplier’s reliability or quality, we can be your assistant to monitor production, inspect quality, arrange loading, handle exportation, customs declaration and after-sales service.

Our service fee is flexible and negotiable.

You may wonder what to do if the shipping cost is higher than the value of the goods. We have two suggestions for you.

One option is to buy more items instead of a small quantity. Since we can source many kinds of goods for you, you can ask your friends or others to split the shipping cost with you if they also want to buy things from China.

Another option is to buy from your local market if the quantity is small and you can’t find anyone to share the cost with you. Sometimes, the local price may be lower than what you pay for buying from China because the retailers import large quantities at once.

You don’t have to pay anything for our sourcing service until you place your first order.

We will do our best to find more suppliers for you and offer the best price. You only need to pay us a certain service fee in the final payment. The service fee is based on the total order amount, ranging from 5% to 10% of the total product value. For more details, please visit: SHOPTIMA Sourcing - Price

Our service fee depends on how much involvement you need from us:

If you buy from your own supplier and handle the production process yourself, we only charge 5% for quality inspection and shipping arrangement. We also assist you in resolving any quality issues with the supplier.

If you want us to communicate with the supplier throughout the production process, such as making samples or producing, we charge 5%-10% based on product value. This applies whether you find the supplier yourself or we find it for you. We also take care of quality inspection and shipping arrangement. We act as your representative and negotiate with the supplier if there are any quality problems.

The second service may cost you more, but it will save you a lot of time and hassle in dealing with suppliers. We will ensure that your products meet your expectations and arrive on time.

We provide the following services: sourcing products and suppliers from China, offering the best prices to customers, negotiating with suppliers for samples, production and packaging, customizing logo and packaging, quality control, and shipping to FBA. We may also consolidate goods with other customers to the same destination to save shipping costs.

We offer free sample checking. We will request samples from suppliers after customers approve the quotation. Then, we will send them to customers for quality verification, and customers can decide whether to place a bulk order.

We offer several payment options: PayPal (for amounts under $500, usually for samples), Wire Transfer, Western Union, and MoneyGram (for amounts over $500). WeChat Pay and Alipay also available.

We source multiple suppliers for each item and choose the best one or two to quote to customers.

We don’t share our supplier information with customers, because our business model is to work as a bridge between customers and suppliers.

Another reason is that most of our suppliers can’t communicate with foreign customers directly, as they lack English skills. Our service fee covers not only finding suppliers, but also negotiating with them effectively to save time and money for customers.

Each item has a minimum product value of $1000, which means customers need to buy at least $1000 worth of one item. The order quantity will vary depending on the unit price. (This is because most of our suppliers are factories and they have similar MOQs.)

For orders below $3000, you need to pay the full amount before production.

For orders over $3000, you need to pay a 30% deposit before production and the remaining 70% before shipping.