Track record in your specific product category
An agent with deep experience in hospitality casegoods isn't automatically strong at sourcing outdoor rattan or children's furniture — each category has its own specialist factory network and compliance requirements. Asking for examples specific to your category matters more than general years-in-business.
Where they're actually based
An agent physically based in Foshan, walking factory floors regularly, generally has faster response times and better on-the-ground relationships than one operating remotely from another city or country, even within China — proximity to the factories themselves is a real operational advantage.
How they handle problems, not just how they handle sales
Any agent can describe their process when things go well — the more revealing question is how they've handled a failed inspection or a late shipment in the past. Ask for a specific example, not a general assurance.
Transparency as a proxy for overall quality
An agent willing to show real FOB pricing, name specific factories, and describe their inspection process in detail tends to be more reliable across the board than one who stays vague on these points — transparency is one of the more reliable single signals available before you've worked with someone directly.
References from buyers in your own market
A reference from a buyer in Vietnam or Thailand, ordering a similar product category to yours, tells you more than a generic testimonial — worth asking directly whether an agent can connect you with a comparable past client.
What a low fee usually signals
Fee structure is the one number where an implausibly cheap quote should stop you. Some agents advertise a very low percentage because their real income comes from a trading margin on the goods, which means they are not working for you — they are working for the factory. Others quote low and recover it through inflated inspection or freight charges. The honest comparison is the all-in figure: factory price plus agent fee plus inspection plus freight, and the agent fee should sit as a visible line between the first two.
A flat fee for a defined scope is the cleanest arrangement at lower volumes, because the buyer's cost is knowable before the order starts. Percentage arrangements suit larger orders where the work genuinely scales, provided the percentage is agreed in advance rather than negotiated after the goods are already committed.
Questions worth asking before you commit
Ask what happens if the first sample fails and the factory refuses to re-cut it — a serious agent already has an answer, because it will happen on most projects at least once. Ask whether they hold the payment until inspection passes, and whether the inspection is done by their own team or subcontracted. Neither answer is decisive on its own, but an evasive one is meaningful.
Ask for the factory's name rather than a photograph of it, and ask whether they will introduce you directly once the relationship is established. An agent who is confident in their network has no reason to remain the only point of contact, and the willingness to step aside is itself a sign the relationship is real rather than dependent on you not looking elsewhere.
What to do in the first month
Treat the first order as a trial run with a deliberately modest scope, even if the eventual plan is much larger. The purpose is to find out how the agent communicates, how they handle a problem and how accurately their timelines turn out to be — information that is worth far more at the size of a small order than the money you would save by going straight in at full volume. Once that first cycle has run cleanly, scaling up is a low-risk decision rather than a leap of faith.