Purchasing agents fill the gap for buyers of overseas brands

Coco Xu is a purchasing agent who lives in New York. Her business of buying contemporary fashion products on behalf of Chinese customers is not being affected much by the launch of direct mailing services of some foreign websites.

Many brands have particular pricing strategies for different regions, and many items are still significantly cheaper in retail stores in the United States. Some other products are not widely available online for shipping to China.

"It has never been easy to be a purchasing agent, and only a few people can make the business work well. But as long as there is a price gap, there is a market for purchasing agents," Xu said.