Home / What we do / China sourcing
Sourcing from China
A separate service, engaged on its own terms. If you already have a supplier you are happy with, you do not need this and we will not push it.
In short
Let us be clear about what this is and is not. It is a standalone sourcing-agent service, with its own agreement and its own fee, sitting entirely apart from our TikTok Shop agency work. It is not something we bundle into a retainer, and it is not an attempt to get between you and a manufacturer you already trust. Most brands come to us with a supplier they are happy with, and that is exactly how it should be. Where we can help is the narrower case: your current factory cannot scale to the volume TikTok demand creates, your landed cost leaves no room for creator commission, or you want a second source so one factory is not a single point of failure. One of our principals has more than twenty years of relationships with Chinese manufacturers and serves as a vice president of the Shenzhen Chinese Commerce Association.
What's included
- Factory identification and vetting, including capability and capacity assessment
- Sample runs and iteration
- Price negotiation against real market benchmarks rather than a first quote
- Landed cost modeling: unit cost, freight, duty and the current tariff position
- Lead time planning against forecast demand
- Pre-shipment quality inspection
- Import coordination into our own Thousand Oaks facilities
- Handoff into US contract packaging where a category needs domestic finishing
How it works
Specify
What the product is, what it has to cost to leave room for commission and ad spend, and what volume you need within what window.
Source
Candidate factories identified and vetted for capability, capacity and reliability, not just price.
Sample
Samples produced and iterated until the product is right. This is where most of the time goes and where rushing is most expensive.
Cost
A landed cost model you can actually plan margin against — unit price, freight, duty and tariff, delivered to California.
Produce and inspect
Production runs against an agreed specification with pre-shipment inspection before anything leaves.
Land
Goods arrive into Thousand Oaks and can go straight into packaging and fulfillment if you want them to.
This sits alongside the agency work, not inside it.
Separate agreement, separate fee, separate decision. Brands who already have a supplier they trust should keep it, and we will say so on the first call rather than the third.
Common questions
We already have a manufacturer. Why would we talk to you?
Quite possibly you would not, and that is a fine answer. Three situations where brands do: your current factory cannot scale fast enough for TikTok demand, your landed cost is leaving no room for creator commission, or you want a second source so a single factory is not a single point of failure. If none of those describe you, keep your supplier. We are not trying to displace it.
Is this part of the agency engagement?
No. Sourcing is contracted separately, with its own scope and fee, and it has no bearing on the TikTok Shop work. You can engage us for one, the other, both or neither.
Do you take a margin on the goods?
We are direct about how we are paid on any sourcing engagement before it starts. What we do not do is quote you a product price without telling you what sits inside it.
How long does sourcing take?
For an existing product being re-sourced, first samples in two to four weeks is typical, with production lead times on top. New product development takes considerably longer and depends entirely on the category and tooling.
What about tariffs, duties and compliance?
Landed cost modeling includes duty, freight and the current tariff position, because the factory price on its own tells you very little. Product compliance requirements vary by category and get handled before production, not after.
Does the product have to be made in China?
No. China is where our depth is, but the honest answer for some categories and some tariff positions is that it should be made elsewhere or domestically. Our US contract packaging operation exists partly for that reason.
Tell us what you sell.
A short call is enough to tell whether TikTok Shop is a fit for your category and what the first ninety days would look like.