China sourcing · open-book

Sourcing from China,
with the invoice
in plain sight.

SourcioX is a Hangzhou-based sourcing partner for optical, photonics and semiconductor buyers. We verify the factory, negotiate in Mandarin, inspect before you release the balance — and hand you the factory's own invoice, with our fee as a separate line.

Book a 30-min sourcing call See how we price
  • No obligation
  • Reply within one business day
  • GMT+8, covering EU & US hours
Open-book quotation SX-2611-07
Factory invoice ex-works, 3 SKUs $18,420.00
SourcioX fee 5.5% of invoice $1,013.10
Third-party inspection at cost, AQL 2.5 $340.00
Total payable $19,773.10
Factory invoice attached · no margin inside the unit price

What we source

Standards we work to

  • ISO 10110
  • MIL-PRF-13830B
  • SEMI
  • RoHS
  • REACH
  • ISO 9001
  • AQL 2.5

What we source

Five categories.
One buyer-side process.

Concentrated on purpose. Every category below is one where we can read the drawing, name the failure modes and check the measurement method — rather than forward an enquiry to ten factories and wait.

Working on something adjacent — a coating, a custom assembly, a material not listed? Send the drawing. If we cannot read it well enough to be useful, we will say so.

01The problem

Most sourcing problems start
before the factory is even chosen.

Three failures account for almost every bad first order from China. None of them are quality problems. They are information problems.

01 / Price

A price you can't audit

When an agent's margin is baked into the unit price, every quote looks the same and you never learn what the factory actually charges. You cannot benchmark, and you cannot tell a good deal from a good story.

02 / Identity

A factory you've never seen

A polished catalogue and a convincing website are not a production line. Business licence, factory ownership versus trading company, real capacity and the bank beneficiary on the invoice all have to be checked — separately.

03 / Timing

A defect you find too late

Once a container is sealed, a 3% defect rate stops being a negotiation and becomes a write-off. The cheapest inspection is the one done while the goods can still be reworked.

02Services

Five links in one chain.
Choose the whole chain, or one link.

Most clients start with a single service — a verification, a second quote, an inspection — and expand once the reporting proves itself. You are never locked into a package.

01

Supplier discovery & verification

We shortlist against your specification, then verify what actually matters: business licence, factory ownership versus trading company, production capacity, export history, and the bank beneficiary named on the invoice.

  • 5–8 candidates screened per brief
  • 2–3 verified, with evidence on file
  • Red flags reported, not smoothed over
02

Negotiation & open-book quoting

We quote and counter-quote in Mandarin, line by line — material, tooling, packaging, payment terms. Then you receive the factory's own invoice with our service fee as a separate line on top.

  • Cost breakdown, not a single number
  • Factory invoice shown on request
  • No supplier rebates, no hidden margin
03

Sampling & product development

Sample rounds, spec sheets, tolerance checks and revision tracking. We tell you when a factory's "yes" means "probably" — before you commit to tooling or a first production run.

  • Sample rounds tracked against spec
  • Measurement data, not just photos
  • Tooling and DFM questions raised early
04

Production QC & inspection

Pre-production, during-production and pre-shipment inspection to AQL 2.5, with a photo report and a clear pass, hold or rework recommendation you can act on the same day.

  • PPI · DUPRO · PSI · loading check
  • Photo evidence and defect classification
  • Balance released only on your say-so
05

Consolidation & export logistics

Multi-factory consolidation, carton and label checks, export documents and booking under FOB, DDP or DAP — whichever your forwarder, marketplace or customs broker needs.

  • Carton, label and barcode verification
  • 3PL, fab-in and warehouse handoff formats
  • One shipment, several factories

Not sure which one you need?

Send the product link, target price and order quantity. We will tell you which single step carries the most risk — even if that means quoting you less work than you asked for.

Send a brief

03Process

From brief to container,
in five checkpoints.

Every checkpoint has a named deliverable. If a checkpoint produces nothing you can read, we have not finished it.

  1. Day 0–201

    Brief & scoping

    Specification, target price, MOQ, compliance requirements and destination market. We agree what "good" means before anyone quotes.

    Deliverable — sourcing brief & fee proposal, in writing

  2. Day 3–1002

    Shortlist & verification

    Five to eight candidates, two to three surviving verification. Licence, ownership, capacity and beneficiary checked against each other.

    Deliverable — verification dossier per shortlisted factory

  3. Week 2–403

    Sampling & open-book quote

    Samples in your hands, measured against spec. The final quotation arrives as the factory invoice plus our fee line — nothing folded in.

    Deliverable — sample report, factory invoice, fee line

  4. Week 4–1004

    Production & quality control

    Weekly photo and video updates from the line, milestone payments tied to progress, and a pre-shipment inspection to AQL 2.5.

    Deliverable — weekly updates, PSI report, release decision

  5. Week 10+05

    Shipment & handover

    Documents, consolidation, booking and loading supervision. You keep a complete order file — reusable for the next run, or for a second supplier.

    Deliverable — shipment file & supplier record

04Why SourcioX

Four commitments that are
easy to check.

We deliberately avoid the claims our competitors lead with — "5,000 verified factories", "40% savings", "99% quality rate". Numbers like those cannot be audited by you, so they are not worth much.

A

The factory invoice, on request

Our fee sits on top of a price you can verify, not inside it. Ask for the invoice for any order we place and we send it — that single document settles most arguments about who is being paid by whom.

B

No supplier rebates. Ever.

We are paid by the buyer only. If a factory offers a referral fee or rebate, we tell you, and it is credited against your price rather than kept.

C

One fee line, agreed in writing

Commission, project fee or retainer — quoted before we start, with what is included and what is billed at cost. No change orders for phone calls and factory visits.

D

A named person, not a ticket queue

One sourcing manager from brief to shipment, working your timezone's overlap hours. The person who quotes you is the person standing on the factory floor.

A note on what we are not. We are not a marketplace, not a trading company, and not a one-stop shop for every category. We work on a limited number of active projects so that each one gets a real factory visit list and a real inspection calendar.

05What you receive

Three documents, before
you release the balance.

We are a new firm, so we will not show you a wall of client logos — we would have to invent it. What a first order can actually be judged on is paperwork: three documents you hold, and can check, before money moves.

Document 01VER

Supplier verification dossier

Issued before any deposit. One page per factory, with the evidence attached rather than summarised.

  • Business licence and registered capital
  • Factory ownership versus trading company
  • Bank beneficiary matched to the licence name
  • Stated capacity, checked against export history

Day 3–10 · before sampling

Document 02FAI

Sample & first-article report

Measurements against your specification, not photographs with a thumbs-up in the caption.

  • Dimensional and tolerance results
  • Material grade, flatness and surface quality confirmed
  • Dated photos of the actual sample
  • Open points the factory still owes you

Week 2–4 · before tooling

Document 03PSI

Pre-shipment inspection report

AQL 2.5 sampling, defects classified, and one clear recommendation: pass, hold or rework.

  • Sample size and AQL level stated on the page
  • Defects graded critical / major / minor
  • Photo evidence for every defect cited
  • Release advice — the balance stays yours until you agree

Before the container is sealed

Standards and coverage — things you can check, not things we claim

Inspection
AQL 2.5 sampling to ISO 2859-1 · dimensional, flatness and scratch-dig checks · PPI / DUPRO / PSI
Trade terms
FOB · DDP · DAP · EXW, documents issued per Incoterms 2020
Certification
ISO 10110 · MIL-PRF-13830B · SEMI · RoHS · REACH — third-party labs, reports issued in your name
On-site reach
Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Shandong — factory visits scheduled in writing

No client logos, no project counters, no "99.2% quality rate". We started in 2026 and will publish case studies when clients agree to be named — until then, the three documents above are what you can hold us to. Ask for a redacted sample of any of them before you brief us.

06Fees

Three ways to buy.
All of them published.

Published bands, not "contact us for pricing". The exact number depends on order size and scope, but you will never be surprised by the shape of the bill.

Project

from $600/ project

A single search, verification or audit — for buyers testing a category, or checking a supplier they already found.

  • 5–8 suppliers screened
  • 2–3 verified candidates
  • Written verification dossier

Commission Most chosen

4–8%of factory invoice

Full service from brief to shipment. The band narrows as order value rises, and the factory invoice is always visible.

  • Order under $50k — 6–8%
  • $50k–$500k — 4.5–6%
  • Above $500k — 4–4.5%

Retainer

from $1,200/ month

For multi-SKU programmes and repeat buying across several factories, with a standing inspection calendar.

  • Up to 3 active SKU families
  • Weekly production reporting
  • Priority factory visit slots

Billed at cost, never marked up

Third-party inspection ($150–400 per visit), samples and courier, lab testing and certification, and travel for factory visits outside Hangzhou or Zhejiang. These appear as separate lines, with the vendor's own receipt attached.

What sits outside a commission

A minimum fee applies below $5,000 in goods value, because the work does not shrink with the order. We will recommend a project fee instead of a commission whenever that is cheaper for you — and say so before you sign.

07FAQ

The questions buyers
actually ask.

If yours is not here, ask it directly — we answer before the call, not after the deposit.

Ask a question
Do you work for the factory or for me?

For you. SourcioX is paid by the buyer only. We do not accept commission, rebates or referral fees from suppliers — and if a factory offers one, we disclose it and credit it against your price.

Will I really see the factory invoice?

Yes, on request for any order we place. It shows the ex-works price the factory charges; our fee is quoted as a separate line on top. If a supplier refuses to issue a proper invoice, that is itself a finding worth knowing about.

What is the minimum order size?

Roughly $5,000 in goods value for commission work. Below that, a flat project fee usually makes more sense — and we will tell you so rather than sell you a retainer you do not need.

Which categories do you cover?

Our five categories: precision optics and quartz glass — windows, lenses, prisms, substrates; piezoelectric and scintillation crystals; semiconductor wafers and substrates — silicon, sapphire, SiC, GaAs; precision ceramics, both plates and machined parts; and wafer handling consumables such as cassettes, wafer carriers and cleaning baskets. We decline categories where we cannot add real verification value.

How are deposits and payments handled?

Wherever possible you contract and pay the factory directly. Where a domestic payment channel is needed, every transfer is documented, the beneficiary name is kept on file, and the amount is reconciled against the factory invoice before production starts.

What happens if the goods fail inspection?

Inspection ends in a pass, hold or rework recommendation. On a hold we do not release the balance: you get a defect report with photo evidence, and we manage rework or replacement with the factory before a second inspection.

How fast can you start?

A scoping call within two business days, a shortlist in seven to ten days for most categories. Tooling-heavy or regulated products take longer, and we will give you a realistic date rather than an optimistic one.

08Contact

Send the brief.
Get a straight answer.

Tell us the product, the target price and the quantity. You will get a reply from a sourcing manager — not a form letter — within one business day.

  • Emailhello@sourciox.com
  • BaseNo. 401, Hongxing Road, Qiaonan Block, Economic & Technological Development Zone, Xiaoshan District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
  • Phone+86 190 1276 8816
  • Hours09:00–19:00 GMT+8 · EU mornings, US evenings
  • Call30-minute scoping call, by appointment

We reply to every serious enquiry. If your project is outside our categories, we will say so and point you to someone better placed.

By sending this you agree to be contacted about your enquiry. We do not share your details or add you to a mailing list.