Services · 01 Sourcing

We find the factory.
We buy the goods.
You stay focused.

zentralk's sourcing team operates like your extended procurement department — in Shenzhen, Hanoi, Dhaka, Istanbul and San José. We find qualified suppliers, audit the floor, negotiate terms, and manage your PO from sample to ship.

Modern factory floor
How it works

From spec
to sample
to ship.

A six-step sourcing workflow run by a named account team in-region. No middle-man margin, no telephone game.

01

Intake & qualification.

You send us a spec, a photo, a sample or a link. We translate it into a buyable RFQ.

02

Shortlist & audit.

We shortlist 3–5 factories from our vetted network, do a factory visit, score them on capability, compliance and capacity.

03

Negotiate & sample.

We negotiate unit price, MOQ, lead time and payment terms. Get you a production sample you can sign off on.

04

Issue PO.

PO lives in the portal from day one. You approve, factory acknowledges, the clock starts.

05

Production monitoring & QC.

Weekly production updates. Pre-shipment inspection in-factory. Defect rate feedback loop back to you.

06

Pickup & handoff.

When goods are cleared for shipping, the same team books the freight. One hand-off — not five.

What's included

More than a buying agent.

Every sourcing engagement gets the whole stack — you only pay for what you use.

Scope

Supplier discovery, factory audit, price negotiation, PO lifecycle, QC inspection, payment settlement.

Our sourcing leads come from inside the categories they buy — they negotiate in the factory owners' language, not just the brochure.

Discuss your SKUs
Factory floor visit
Strong in

Categories we know deeply.

These are the categories where our bench is deepest. Outside of these, we'll tell you we're light — and refer you to someone better.

Apparel & footwear

Woven, knit, outerwear, leather. Buyer's consol out of CN/VN/BD.

Home & lifestyle

Furniture, textiles, kitchenware. CN / VN / IN / TR.

Consumer electronics

Accessories, peripherals, small appliances. CN / MY.

Personal care & beauty

Packaging and fill-finish. CN / KR / IT.

Sporting & outdoor

Bags, hard goods, technical apparel. CN / VN.

Pet & kids

Regulatory-heavy categories handled with lab partners.

Engagement model

How we charge,
in plain English.

No retainers, no opaque markups. Pick the structure that fits the cadence of your buying — switch mid-program if your volume changes.

Per-PO sourcing fee

A percentage of the ex-works value of each PO we place on your behalf. Lower on larger orders, quoted before you commit. Best if you buy three or four discrete times a year.

Typical range: 3–7% of goods value. Quoted per category.

Flat monthly program fee

One retainer covers an agreed scope — number of active SKUs, expected PO count, QC inspections included. Better if you're restocking constantly or running a multi-supplier program.

Quoted against your run-rate after a discovery call.

Trust-account payments

We pay factories on your behalf from a segregated trust account and settle with you against the portal. Settlement currencies: USD, EUR, CNY, VND, INR.

Priced as a flat FX + handling fee per settlement batch.

QC inspections

Pre-production, in-line and pre-shipment inspections by our in-factory QC team. Report in 24 hours with photos, metrology and defect breakdown.

Flat fee per inspection day — added to the PO invoice.

FAQ

Sourcing
questions.

If yours isn't here, email hello@zentralk.com — we answer within a business day.

Do you charge a retainer?

No. We charge a per-PO sourcing fee on goods we find, or a flat monthly for active programs. Both are quoted up front.

How do you protect our IP?

NDAs are standard. For sensitive designs we use split-tooling, hidden supplier lists and QR-tracked samples.

What's the minimum order?

No hard floor. For small POs we work with factories willing to waive MOQs in exchange for longer-term relationships. If your order is too small to source sensibly, we'll say so up front.

Can you handle payments?

Yes. We can pay factories on your behalf under a trust-account structure, and settle with you against the portal.

Can we visit the factory ourselves?

Absolutely. We'll book it, translate, and prep you with the questions that matter.

What if the goods are defective?

Our QC catches most issues in-factory. If something slips through, we handle the dispute with the factory and make you whole.

What's next

Paired with
the right legs.

Sourcing rarely travels alone. Most of our clients bundle at least one freight mode and customs brokerage into the same program — one contact, one invoice, one audit trail.

Get started

Send us
your spec.