Now finally to the part that everyone CARES about. You may have heard a lot about the dark side of sourcing agent/company, such as accept kickback or bribe from the supplier, which make the buyers are afraid to use the sourcing agent. I will now reveal the common sourcing agent tricks in the following. Kickback and bribe from suppliers First of all, kickbacks or bribes happen to either individual sourcing agents or sourcing companies. If the buyer and sourcing agent/company have agreed on product price and supplier information transparency at the beginning of cooperation, the agent still asks the supplier for a kickback, it becomes illegal/unethical acts. For example, suppose now you get two equal prices from supplier A and supplier B, if the B supplier offer kickback to the sourcing agent, then the agent is likely to choose the B no matter if the product quality from B is good or not. If your sourcing agent accepts kickback, you may end up with the following situations: The goods you received are not to meet your quality requirements, or product that is in non-compliance with the certification requirements in your market and thus illegal to import and sell. If there is a dispute over product quality, your sourcing agent will not stand on your side or try to defend your interests for you, but more likely to excuse the supplier for various reasons. Objectively speaking, kickback usually happens in large orders with tens of thousands of dollars. For small orders with thousands of dollars, most sourcing agents will not bother to get involved in kickback or the bribe. The kickback phenomenon is much less now compared with 4-5 years ago, especially in the daily products industry. Because the buyers can find suppliers directly through many channels, such as B2B websites like Alibaba, Made in China, etc. They can make a comprehensive comparison on their own, and then weigh if the product price and service commission provided by the sourcing agent is reasonable. So, a good sourcing agent/company plays an important role in your supply chain management. In addition to helping you to obtain competitive product prices, they also devote to take care of the follow-up processes, because the good service is the core competitiveness of their business model. As to some individual sourcing agents who might do a one-time business, I can’t guarantee the service quality.