What’s the Commission Rate of Yiwu Agent?

This is the question all buyers have to ask in advance if they’re planning to buy from Yiwu with the help of an agent. But it’s so confusing that the quotes they get vary significantly from agent to agent, even from person to person within a same agent.

“How much should I pay an agent in Yiwu help me with sourcing?”

This article would offer you some basic ideas about the DIFFERENT commission rates here in Yiwu.

1% Yiwu Agent Commission Rate?

If you search on Google with a search query like “Yiwu agent”, you may find that many agents there are claiming that they only charge 1% commission.

Some of them even have a hint inside that their services are so cheap that you can almost get them ALL FOR FREE.

If you just have a 2nd though about those “miracles”, you would definitely have one questions like:

- “they even don't know what I buy and how much I buy, how they can offer a fixed commission rate?”

- “If I just buy a carton of socks worth 100 USD, are they happy to get a 1 USD as their commission?”

This is a typical “bait-and-switch” strategy: offer something that looks so irresistible that you can’t help clicking onto their site and contacting them… then you realize that you’ve been trapped, but it’s too late to step back.

This make me think of the flashing flying bait that fish men use in a fishing tournament.



If you think the “one carton socks” is something too puffed. Then let's look at one 40 feet container (15,000 USD-30,000 USD total values), 1% commission rate would be 150 USD-440USD.

One stuff monthly salary in Yiwu is about 300 USD; their employer also needs to pay about 147 USD for their insurance. Sourcing, collecting order, doing inspection, arrange shipping… for a 40 feet container would take one stuff at least 10 days.

Besides, company also needs to pay taxes, office rental, telephone bills, advertising… How can they even make the ends meet with a 1% commission?



Yes, they have to use other “smart” ways to make money.

One very common trick goes like this:

The shop quotes you 1.00 yuan(CNY)for a pack of tooth picks, the translator/agent people will either translate as 1.2 yuan per pack, or take notes as 1.2 yuan per pack in your order list.

During this simple transaction(less than 3 seconds), they already increased the price by 20%! But if you don't know any Chinese, you will have absolutely no way to find out what's happening. You will probably share with your family or friends that you have a nice cheap agent in Yiwu who only charges you 1% commission!!!

They can use body languages and write hints/signs at somewhere if you know some Chinese.

It's NOT something extraordinary that we see agents people lead buyers to the shops and directly tell the shop "add me 10 points"

If possible, I DO suggest you go to the market and look for products information by yourself before going with anyone else. The price can also be a bit different in this way, but i bet you can find out what's going on in most cases.



But for other tricks, it's not this easy at all:

They’re always interested in showing you products in their showroom, or leading you to a factory/shop that they claimed it’s their own factory/shop, or one of their relatives’ factory/shop.

They promise purple and blue that the prices you get from these factories/shops are the lowest because they have built “long-term-special” relationships...in this way, they can tell the factory in advance to increase the price, even by 50%!!

One TRUE Story:

One of my clients from UK contacted a big Yiwu agent (has 100+ employees and their ads are showing everywhere both online and offline). This agent was “so kind” to offer him a 10% commission(but they claimed only charge 1% commission, and 0% commission for a first trail order. They promised that their prices are the lowest because they own this topiary factory (my client was looking for artificial topiaries).

But this “clever” agent guy made a small mistake by telling my client that the factory owner (who was driving them to hotel) is the agent company’s full time driver. My client was clever enough to find out that the driver was not a real driver. So he told me this and wanted me offer some suggestions.

The next day, after spending 2 hours searching for a nearby factory zone, we parked our car outside of a factory and the boss who greeted us inside was the “so-called-driver” by the agent guy.



The “so-called-driver” was actually the owner of the topiary factory. My client was right!

Later on, we found that the agent had told the factory owner to add 10% more price if they introduce my clients to their factory. Guess what? The factory owner further lowered his price by 19%, with our help!



We helped our client saved 29%!



This is how the “smart” agencies are making money. They tell you a 1% commission first, and then make a 20+% commission either by taking “kick-backs” or/and increasing price behind you.

So What Is A Reasonable Yiwu Agent Commission Rate If NO“kick-backs” Or“deals-under-table”?

It’s a 3%-10% of your total purchase value, according to what you buy, how you buy and how much you buy.

I can’t go further to explain how these “3 HOWs” matter, because situation varies from case to case. But you can use your common sense here:

The commission rate for buying one container pencils from one supplier is definitely different from buying one container 100 different products from 30 suppliers.

If you need most of your products to be customized, the commission rate will definitely be higher.



Hope this article helps you understand why many Yiwu agents are offering 1% commission rate, but seem still make money quickly.