Look, finding overseas suppliers you can really trust can be daunting. Who can you trust, how do you know what they can do or not do, etc? What if something goes wrong, then what? Some of the key issues that our clients had were concerns over lead times, concerns over controlling quality, and the uncertainty if something ever went wrong.

Regardless of the industry or product we were sourcing, 100% of the time these core criteria mattered most. We built our rating system around them and they are in no particular order.

We needed to know how up-to-date the equipment a factory had, what type of capacity it could take on, could they do small trial orders, massive orders, even samples. But just as important, we needed to really look at the cleanliness of the factory, could we communicate with decision makers at a moment's notice if necessary and we had to know, without a doubt, were their Quality Certificates authentic and verified.

So many companies try to source by themselves or are willing to trust hundreds of thousands of dollars to someone they've never met before (except online) and that never ever ends well.

Find an overseas partner, preferably one based in the US, who not only has your best interests in mind but has the staff overseas...on the ground...to get you what you want when and where you need it.