How to choose a product sourcing consultant in Australia

The first question to ask any sourcing company or consultant in Australia is simple: who pays you? A traditional sourcing agent is usually paid by the factory, as a commission on your FOB price or a markup on the quote. That is a structural conflict: the person helping you negotiate is paid more when you pay more. Buyer-side strategic sourcing is the opposite arrangement, where the consultant is paid only by you and passes every factory quote through untouched.

Strategic sourcing is more than finding a cheaper factory. It is writing a specification a factory can actually quote against, qualifying suppliers on capability, capacity, compliance and real minimums, running one comparable quote round, and negotiating price, MOQ, payment terms and lead time together. The output is a shortlist you own, with contacts that stay yours, not a single introduction you can never verify.

Good questions to ask before hiring: Do you take any commission or referral fee from factories or freight forwarders? Do the supplier contacts become mine? Have you bought from these countries first-hand, or only brokered? Will you give me the landed cost, not just the FOB? A consultant who answers those cleanly is worth far more than one who simply knows someone in Guangzhou.

Prox is a buyer-side product sourcing and procurement advisory in Melbourne, working across India, China, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Turkey and the UAE. No commission, no markup, every contact yours. Start with a free 20-minute fit call, or read how a shortened supply chain moved gross margin eight points on a $15M category.