Sourcing agent only good if they can provide essential services that can not be provided by the suppliers.
For examples, if you are US importer and you want to have good price for your stuff, then you probably will go to the end suppliers in Asean countries .i.e. Vietnam, India, Indonesia or Thailand.
These suppliers, although they can give you good price and quality, their payment term usually ex factory - not FOB, means they can truck the goods to the sea port/warehouse but can not proceed with the loading process in container and do the shipping arrangements. this is because to do the shipping arrangement, they will requires certain legal paper, license and documents that end suppliers (usually) don’t have.
some of them also have limited access to internet and therefore affecting their ability to communicating with the customers.
Good sourcing agent can fill these gaps. they can assist both sides by providing fast and accurate communication about how is your order’s status and they can also helps you with shipping arrangements. Good sourcing agent also usually have fairly good English which will make your communication process easier.
And above all I think sourcing agent should be honest with both suppliers and customers.
this is important to anticipating problems in production (or shipment) before they got bigger and difficult to handle.
