Sourcing agent vs UK wholesaler vs online platform
Three ways to buy from China, and the real trade-offs in price, risk and effort for each.
Three routes to the same goods
Most products a UK SME buys from China can be bought three ways: from a UK wholesaler who has already imported them, from an online B2B platform where you deal with the Chinese seller yourself, or through a sourcing agent who buys on your behalf.
The goods can be identical. What differs is the unit price, how much work lands on you, and, in a way most comparisons never mention, who carries the legal responsibility when something is wrong with the product. That last one is worth understanding before you choose, because it does not change with how careful you are.
Buying from a UK wholesaler
The simplest route. You buy in pounds from a UK company, on UK terms, with UK consumer and contract law behind you. There is no customs entry to make, no duty to calculate, no container to book, and if the goods are faulty your dispute is with a business you can reach.
You pay for that in unit price, and you give up control of the specification. You get whatever they chose to import, in their packaging, at their minimum. If it sells well you cannot easily make it yours, and if their supply stops you have no relationship with the factory behind it.
This is the right route for testing a product, for topping up stock quickly, and for anyone whose margin can carry it. It is the wrong route once volume grows, because the same margin you are paying is the money that would have funded going direct.
Buying on an online B2B platform
You deal with the Chinese seller yourself. The unit price is the lowest of the three and the platform is genuinely useful for discovering who makes what. For simple, low-risk, low-value goods it can be all you need.
The work, though, moves onto you: verifying the supplier is who they say, writing a specification precise enough to be enforceable, arranging inspection, booking freight, and making the customs entry. So does the risk. Platform protections generally cover what the order says, so a shipment that matches a vague specification is not a failed order in the platform's eyes even when it is useless to you.
It is also worth being clear-eyed about distance. When something goes wrong at the factory, you are managing it by message across an eight-hour time difference, in a second language, with no leverage other than the money you have not yet paid.
Using a sourcing agent
An agent buys on your behalf: finds and vets suppliers, negotiates, holds the specification, inspects before shipment, and manages freight and paperwork. You pay a fee or a commission for that, and the honest way to judge it is total landed cost plus your own time, not the fee in isolation.
The case for an agent is strongest where the cost of a mistake is high relative to the order: bespoke products, anything regulated, anything where a container of unsellable stock would hurt. It is weakest on small, simple, repeat purchases where there is nothing much to get wrong.
The thing an agent really sells is a shorter feedback loop. Someone can be at the factory this week, look at the goods before they are packed, and tell you the truth about them while there is still time to fix it.
The part most comparisons leave out: who is the importer
If you buy from a UK wholesaler, they imported the goods. They carry the importer's obligations, and the compliance evidence is theirs to hold.
If you buy on a platform or through an agent, you are the importer. The customs declaration is made in your name, the duty and import VAT are yours, and the product compliance obligations are yours: keeping the technical documentation, being able to evidence conformity, and answering for the UKCA marking. If you sell under your own brand you are usually treated as the manufacturer on top of that.
A good agent helps you gather and check that evidence. What no agent can do is take the obligation off you, and you should be wary of anyone who implies otherwise. The responsibility follows the import and the brand, not the invoice.
Comparing them properly
Compare landed cost, not unit price. Take the unit price, add freight and insurance to the UK, add duty and any anti-dumping duty, add clearance and delivery to your door, add tooling or samples spread over the run, add the cost of the units you expect to write off, and add a realistic value for your own hours. Then divide by the units you can actually sell.
Done that way, the ranking often changes. The platform price that looked half the wholesaler's stops looking that way once a rejected batch and forty hours of your time are in the column. Equally, an agent's fee can look expensive next to a unit price and cheap next to a container of the wrong thing.
As a starting point: wholesaler while you are testing demand, platform for simple low-risk goods where you have time to manage it, agent when the order is large enough, bespoke enough or regulated enough that being wrong is expensive.
Frequently asked questions
Is a platform cheaper than an agent?
On unit price, almost always. On landed cost it depends on what goes wrong. Add freight, duty, inspection, rejected stock and your own hours, and the gap narrows sharply; on a bespoke or regulated product it can reverse.
Do I need an agent for small orders?
Usually not. For small, simple, low-risk goods the fee is hard to justify. The point at which an agent starts paying for itself is when the order is big enough that a bad one hurts, or complex enough that a written specification is doing real work.
If I use an agent, who is the importer of record?
You are, unless you have specifically agreed otherwise. The declaration is in your name, the duty and import VAT are yours, and so are the product compliance obligations. An agent can help you assemble and verify the evidence, but cannot take the legal responsibility off you.
Can I start with a wholesaler and move to importing later?
That is a sensible progression. Use the wholesaler to prove the product sells, then go direct once volume makes the margin worth the admin. Everything you learn about defects and customer complaints in phase one becomes your specification in phase two.
What should I compare when I get quotes?
Landed cost per sellable unit. Unit price, freight and insurance to the UK, duty, clearance and delivery, tooling and samples spread across the run, expected write-offs, and your own time. Comparing unit prices alone is how importers talk themselves into the most expensive option.