supplier research used to take me a full afternoon. got a report in 8 minutes and now i'm annoyed at all my lost afternoons

I run a few businesses and sourcing research is the task I hate most. The usual routine: open 20 tabs, compare suppliers, check if they actually export, cross-check prices… half a day gone every time.

Last week I needed suppliers for frozen salmon (food trade side business, long story). Instead of my usual tab marathon, I tested accio sourcing expert and told it exactly what I needed:

a quick product variants overview (cuts/grades/packaging)

a supplier comparison table (MOQ + price ranges)

and most importantly: verify supplier claims using customs/export shipment records, not just whatever listings say

It ran for \~8 minutes and came back with a full report.

The part that genuinely impressed me wasn’t the table it was the verification. It surfaced shipment/export evidence so I could quickly separate “looks legit online” from “actually ships this product.” That’s the piece I normally have to dig for separately and it’s the most annoying part of the job.

8 minutes vs my usual full afternoon. I just sat there lowkey angry at every afternoon I’ve lost doing this manually.

Not flawless though:

currencies came back mixed (RMB + local), I had to normalize

I wanted direct contact info in the report and it didn’t fully deliver that

But as a starting doc? It’s better than what my old VA used to assemble in a full day (sorry to my old VA).

Question: how are you guys doing supplier research right now still manual, VA, tool stack? And does anyone else use customs/export data to verify suppliers? Feels massively underrated. Half the “manufacturers” out there have export records that tell a very different story.