Buyer Guide · Sourcing Brief
What should you send a China sourcing agent before supplier research begins?
You do not need a perfect engineering specification to make an enquiry. But a useful sourcing brief should give enough product, quantity, market, timing, and priority information for supplier candidates and quotations to be judged against the same buyer need.
Minimum useful brief
A product photo and quantity can start the conversation—but clarity improves the search.
If a requirement is missing, the sourcing provider or supplier has to guess. Different guesses produce different products, quotations, MOQs, packaging assumptions, and lead times.
The first brief does not need to answer everything. It should distinguish what you know, what is flexible, and what still needs research.
Information worth sending first
Use what you already have. A spreadsheet, photos, links, drawings, old quotations, and notes can all be useful inputs.
✓ Product name and a short description of what it must do
✓ Photo, product link, drawing, catalogue reference, or existing supplier link
✓ Important dimensions, material, finish, configuration, or other specifications
✓ Estimated order quantity or volume range
✓ Destination country or market
✓ Target timing or decision deadline
✓ Packaging, branding, labeling, customization, or documentation requirements where known
✓ Existing suppliers, quotations, samples, or product references if you already have them
Priorities
Tell the sourcing provider what matters more when suppliers cannot meet everything at once.
✓ What is fixed and cannot change
✓ What is preferred but negotiable
✓ What you do not yet know and want the sourcing process to clarify
✓ Whether price, MOQ, lead time, customization, documentation, or supplier type matters most
✓ What decision you want to make at the end of the first sourcing stage
If you already have suppliers
Send the existing supplier context instead of restarting from zero.
Supplier names, contact details, quotations, catalogues, samples, unanswered questions, and previous promises can help define whether the next job is comparison, follow-up, verification, or alternative-supplier research.
If you have several products
Use one master product list, but keep each item as its own sourcing track.
Different products may need different factories, MOQs, lead times, sample conditions, and evidence. Keep those differences visible rather than forcing every product into one supplier assumption.
Sephalis intake
You can start with incomplete information.
Send the product list, photos, links, specifications, estimated quantities, destination market, and any supplier information you already have. Sephalis reviews whether the request fits the current buyer-side sourcing scope before paid work begins.