Chinese products offer plenty of price competitiveness, but finding and contracting with reliable manufacturers and suppliers on the ground in China remains difficult for Korean companies. The hurdles range from language barriers to quality verification, logistics and customs clearance. Sourcing China runs a business that resolves these difficulties for Korean firms, drawing on its local network and expertise in China.
Lee Hong-mae, chief executive of Sourcing China, said in an interview with Seoul Economic Daily on the 6th that while working at a Korean company operating in China, the CEO saw many cases in which firms struggled with local sourcing because of language problems and a lack of local networks. "I judged that solving these problems mattered, so I founded the company in 2020," Lee said. Unlike other firms that support sourcing in China, Sourcing China covers the entire process — finding suppliers, negotiating prices, receiving samples, inspecting quality, repackaging, logistics and customs clearance.
The company first offers products from 1688, China's largest business-to-business trading platform, through an official website built with Cafe24's managed WordPress. Customers no longer need to visit 1688 themselves, search for products and send links separately to a sourcing agent, because a proprietary application programming interface links the website directly to 1688. "From the customer's perspective, everything from searching for products to placing orders has become far simpler, and from our side, we can verify product information more accurately as we work," Lee said. "Since 1688 is currently the largest B2B trading platform in China, you can find just about anything there."
Lee's Chinese nationality and the local network the CEO has built are also cited as differentiated strengths. "We operate a local branch in Yiwu, known as China's largest wholesale market, where we identify production lines and manage the supply chain directly," Lee said. "Our China branch proactively obtained ISO 9001 quality management system certification, so we systematically manage the workflow that runs from sourcing to inspection, packaging and shipment."
That has translated into revenue growth for clients. "In the early days many of our clients were sole proprietors, but as they grew alongside the company, many have become small and medium-sized enterprises," Lee said. "One client that has been with us since the beginning has now established itself as a company with more than 10 billion won in annual revenue."
The company is expanding beyond purchasing agency work into original equipment manufacturing and original design manufacturing. "We receive many inquiries from affiliates of large corporations about OEM and ODM production for their own private-label goods," Lee said. "Our next goal is to become a full-stack partner that starts by opening the first door to business in China and then works with clients through product planning, production, logistics and distribution."
