Sourcing Support
Beyond cost: build the supply chain your business can stand on.
Explore our reference library or view all services.
Where It Usually Hurts
- Can’t find products that are genuinely new, interesting, or different
- Importing into the US is a headache — duties, compliance, paperwork
- The true total cost stays fuzzy until the shipment lands
- Managing an overseas supplier across language, time zone, and culture
The Way We See It
Sourcing is the quiet work behind every product — and it goes far beyond cost. It’s the foundation your product, your brand, and your survival sit on.
And it isn’t just the product. You need packaging, a website builder, legal advice, freight, fulfillment — your success is the collective work of a lot of experts. In a big company, those experts are called departments, each with its own team. As an SME founder, you’re all of them at once.
The internet, marketplaces, and AI have made finding suppliers faster. But the crux of sourcing has never been finding — it’s trust. We don’t guarantee or endorse anyone. We give you the tools and methods to evaluate and verify for yourself, and where our network can help, we’ll point you to people we know.
Our Services
- Resource assessment
What you can already do in-house, and what has to be bought in before you commit to a supplier.
- Make-or-buy analysis
Whether to produce, assemble or buy finished, weighed on cost, control and how fast you need to move.
- Vendor system design
The checklist, background check and scorecard you’ll apply to every supplier, so verification is repeatable.
- Total cost calculation
Cost modeled to your door, duty paid — the invoice price is where it starts, not where it ends.
- Sourcing & supplier visits
Factory floors, market halls and expos, with our people in the time zone where your product is made.
Ready to find your supplier?
Start with a free discovery call — we’ll take it from there. Contact us.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Do I need a supplier in mind already?
- No. The make-or-buy analysis comes before supplier selection — we help you decide where and how to source first, then move on to finding and vetting actual suppliers.
- Should I buy or make, locally or overseas?
- It depends on your product, volume, margins, and risk tolerance. Every sourcing decision sits on a two-by-two — make or buy, local or overseas — and for most small retailers the practical starting point is buying overseas. We wrote a full breakdown of the framework in this post.
- How does the sample box work?
- You tell us your product idea, your cost range, and what you want to evaluate. We source and consolidate samples from a curated set of vendors and deliver the box to your door at cost — so you can compare quality and price without opening supplier accounts one by one.
- What do you offer for the sourcing trip?
- We have people on the ground in China — the heart of the manufacturing hubs, whether that’s Yiwu or an industry cluster. Explore on your own or use our assistance. We’ll step in to help you negotiate the contract and set up ongoing supply. And if you want to build in a detour for sightseeing, we can arrange that too.
- Can you help if I already have a supplier but want alternatives?
- Yes. We often work with clients pressure-testing an existing supplier — because costs rose, quality slipped, or tariff exposure changed. We model the alternatives alongside your current setup so you can decide whether to switch, diversify, or stay put.