Service fees // sourcing-agent commission

Choose the right sourcing scope before asking for a service fee.

There is no single percentage, and any agent who gives you one before seeing the order is quoting a slogan. Asking costs nothing. The fee is agreed in writing before work starts.

Scope fee review Plan service scope

Model

Fee logic

Scope

Work lane

Proof

Buyer file

RFQ

Next step

Buyer fit

Amazon and private-label sellers

Scope before price

Scope planner

Commercial clarity

Included work lanes

Buyer FAQ

Service fee scope review

Scope fee review

Buyer route

Choose the buyer route before the sourcing motion.

The same sourcing service has different risk controls for ecommerce, private-label, wholesale, and procurement buyers. Choose the buyer route before supplier search, samples, QC, and shipment work are scoped.

Ecommerce sellers

Check SKU margin, MOQ, samples, packaging, and replenishment risk.

View route

Private-label brands

Control product development, sample approval, packaging, and production brief.

View route

Wholesale buyers

Plan mixed SKUs, quote comparison, consolidation, and repeat supply.

View route

Procurement teams

Review supplier evidence, risk notes, QC gates, and internal approval needs.

View route

Buyer fit

Why the number depends on the job.

One container of one product from one factory is not the same work as a mixed load from eight suppliers with sampling and an inspection in the middle. Quoting both at the same rate means one of you is being overcharged. Usually the simple order subsidises the difficult one.

Amazon and private-label sellers

Selling under your own brand, where packaging errors cost more than the sourcing fee ever will.

Wholesale and distributors

Buying in volume, where a small difference in the supplier price matters more than the commission rate.

Brand, OEM, and procurement teams

Running a manufacturing programme, where the fee should be judged against tooling, audits and QC — not against a percentage someone quoted you elsewhere.

Scope before price

Ask before you commit to anything.

Send links, photos or a rough description and we will tell you whether it is worth doing. That screen carries no service fee. Once the product, quantity, destination and the work involved are clear, you get the fee and the third-party costs in writing — before anything starts.

Choose the service lane

Scope planner

We work out which lane you actually need. Often it is one piece rather than the whole route.

Normalize supplier quotes

Quote template

Quotes get put on the same basis, because factories quote different things under the same word.

Name the exclusions

Cost boundary

What the fee excludes is written down at the same time as what it includes. That half is what catches buyers out.

Send the scoped RFQ

Handoff file

The scope goes out as an RFQ with the fee attached to defined work rather than to a percentage.

Commercial clarity

The cheapest rate is not always the cheapest order.

A low commission is easy to offer if the supplier price is where the margin is hidden. What matters is whether you can see the basis of the quote and what is excluded from it. Goods are paid by bank transfer against written instructions issued for that specific order — never to an account someone messages you separately.

Included work lanes

Each lane can be scoped on its own. You are not obliged to buy the whole route to get one piece of it.

Excluded costs

Third-party costs are passed through as invoiced. We do not mark them up quietly and call it service.

Disclosure check

Ask any agent whether they also earn on the supplier side. The answer changes how you should read their quote.

Buyer FAQ

Questions buyers should ask before accepting a sourcing fee.

Tell us the product, the quantity and where it is going. Add supplier links if you already have them. You will get a fee tied to defined work, with what falls outside it written down as well.

How much should a China sourcing agent charge?

Anyone who answers that with one number has not asked what you are buying. A single product from one factory and a mixed programme with sampling and inspection are different amounts of work.

Is the lowest commission the safest choice?

Not by itself. A low commission is easy to offer when the margin is sitting inside the supplier price instead, where you cannot see it.

What should Aeonix include in a service-fee scope?

It should name what is included, what is not, and what happens next. If a scope does not say what is excluded, that is the part that will cost you later.

How should I decide whether a fee is reasonable?

Judge it against the work, not against a percentage you saw elsewhere. If you sell under your own brand, packaging control is worth more than a point of commission. If you buy in volume, the supplier price matters more than either.

Commercial clarity

Get a number against a real scope.

Tell us the product, the quantity and where it is going. Add supplier links if you already have them. You will get a fee tied to defined work, with what falls outside it written down as well.

Scope fee review Compare quote basis

Fee research handoff

Choose the next surface by what is still unclear.

A fee question should not dead-end in a generic contact form. If scope is unclear, plan the service work. If supplier quotes are hard to compare, normalize the quote basis. If freight assumptions affect margin, check shipping-rate expectations. If the buying brief is ready, send the RFQ with fee context and cost-boundary evidence attached.

Plan service scope

Use this when the buyer needs included work, excluded costs, and deliverables defined before a fee is quoted.

Send scoped RFQ

Use this when product, quantity, destination, and service needs are ready for an operator to price the work.

Review sourcing service

Use this when the fee question is really about supplier search, quote comparison, QC planning, or consolidation support.

Review product sourcing service

Use this when the buyer needs to understand what a controlled product sourcing file should contain before fee scope is confirmed.

Check trust proof

Use this when the buyer needs to see how Aeonix handles proof, limits, and decision evidence before commitment.

View sample sourcing file

Use this when the buyer wants to understand the file a sourcing fee should produce before supplier payment.

Compare supplier quotes

Use this before asking price when commission looks low but supplier quote basis, MOQ, payment terms, sample cost, tooling, or exclusions are not comparable yet.

Check shipping-rate expectations

Use this when the service fee depends on carton data, consolidation, forwarder handoff, destination charges, or landed-cost planning.