Alibaba Wholesale China

Sharline Shaw

E-commerce is the fastest-growing trend that provides an excellent opportunity for businesses to improve the sales graph.

It not only enables the business to deal with the final consumer but also allows doing dealings with other suppliers and wholesalers.

Beside it, this also provides lower costs, helps to overcome geographical limitations, and locates the products quicker.

Many online platforms offer products to a wide range of users, and Alibaba is one of them.

Alibaba is a Chinese company which is specialized in E-commerce and was founded on 4 April 1999 in Zhejiang. It was established by Jack Ma with a few other companions.

Alibaba is a business gateway that wants to create a connection between Chinese producers with international wholesalers.

It has a large number of consumers and hosts millions of traders and their businesses.

It offers business to consumer, and business to business trades through web portals.

What is Alibaba?

Alibaba is the largest wholesale platform, and also known as one of the leading E-Commerce platforms on this planet. There is a huge number of brands and online stores all around the globe which obtain their products from it.

Alibaba is such an affordable marketplace from where you can purchase all sorts of products in wholesale. From Alibaba, you can also purchase a single product, too, but with the consent of the supplier.

The facility to work directly with the manufacturer is the real advantage of Alibaba. On this website, you can obtain a large number of discounts, and you can also get your custom products from scratch through your own designs.

An individual can also place an order to a supplier or manufacturers by using Alibaba. As it is an online market so you can contact the manufacturer very easily.

Alibaba can control a large number of traders at a time. It makes the use of advertisements and customers data to obtain more profit. Alibaba has created a trustworthy reputation among its customers.

Suggested reading: Best 20 Alibaba clothes wholesalers
Suggested reading:  Profitable Made in China Products List
Suggested reading: Best 30 Sourcing Websites
Suggested reading: Best 20 China Online Shopping Sites to Buy Wholesale

How Does Alibaba Work?

Alibaba provides a platform for the sellers to sell goods in bulk at wholesale prices to the small businesses at an international level, which can resell all these products in their domestic markets to earn a good profit.

Alibaba not only concentrates on the business-to-business trade but also helps in other trades via E-commerce web gateways. Taobao is used by consumers for trade while Tmall welcomes middle-class Chinese to buy branded products.

Alibaba provides you many advantages if you want to buy wholesale items in bulk. On this website, both individuals and businesses can get their required items on the wholesale prices.

You purchase all your items directly from the manufacturer. Following are the basics of how this website works:

You will have to choose the product category from where you want to buy.

  1. You can find a display of all sorts of items, for example, health, electronics and beauty products, etc.
  2. After selecting the desired product, you have to make a connection with the supplier. Then you have to discuss the price with the dealers. At this step, you can contact more than one supplier to get your product at the lowest price.
  3. Now you can order your product.
  4. After receiving the order, examine each and every item to make sure there is no issue regarding damage or quality.
  5. If everything is fine, then you are ready to resell all the products.
Suggested reading: Is Alibaba safe and legit?
Suggested reading: How to pay suppliers on Alibaba via Pay Later?

Is It Safe To Buy From Alibaba?

If you are buying for the first time, then buying from Alibaba can be a little bit scary.

As probably you will have heard many stories regarding online sellers being cheated on the market. So in this situation, the first thing that comes to your mind can be “is Alibaba safe”?

Alibaba is completely safe and sound for online trade. You can find, purchase, and sell online, knowing which dealer and manufacturer can be trusted.

Alibaba has developed few laws to keep all the deals safe and secure on this platform. Though it is just an E-commerce platform that provides a connection between the sellers with buyers.

Before making any deal, you must look at the suppliers, their former feedback, and several dealings. So that you can make sure that the dealer can be trusted or not.

Suggested reading: How To Buy Direct From China
Suggested reading: Top 50 Trending Products To Sell Online
Suggested reading: Best 10 Alibaba Inspection Service Companies

How Do I Order From Alibaba Wholesale Without A Company?

The following are the few steps to complete the order process from Alibaba. Hopefully, these steps are helpful for you to understand the entire process.

1.     Create And Verify An Alibaba Wholesale Account

On Alibab.com, you can find the manufacturers for your desired products very easily. To get your products from this site, first of all, you will have to create an account. For this purpose, enter your email and verify it.

In the second step, you will have to provide your information, for example, your location, you are a buyer and name of your company, etc. you are registered at the site, and you are ready to go.

2.     Search For Products Based On Different Categories

After being registered at the site now, you can order your products. For this purpose, you will have to search for your required products. You can find several related products, and it is very difficult to find the product of your choice.

3.     Contact Alibaba Wholesale Suppliers

At this level, you will have to reach out to as many suppliers as you can so that you can get the exact price of your product. Contact with all the possible suppliers to get the lowest price.

4.     Negotiate Minimum Order Quantity

It is very important to know about the minimum order quantity. No doubt, you can buy a single item from the Alibaba platform.

Well before placing your order, it is better to order for a sample. So in this way you can check the quality of the product.

5.     Verify Offered Price To Avoid Dealing With Hidden Charges

It is very necessary to know the actual price of the product. The best way is to ask you a supplier to quote you the dispatch price of the product.

You have to make sure that there are no hidden charges because this can cause a huge problem later on.

For this purpose, you have to contact at least four to five dealers so you can find the actual price of the product. After reviewing all the suppliers choose the best one.

6.     Negotiate Price And Payment Method With Alibaba Wholesale Supplier

Find out how you will have to pay. You should try to pay through the Alibaba, if possible. You can use Alipay if you are buying through Alibaba. It is considered to be the safest payment method available on Alibaba.

Suggested reading: Alibaba Payment

7.     Ask For Samples

You must ask for samples before making an order. It is the best way to check the quality of the product. But you will have to pay an extra amount for this.

This can be a time taking process, but it helps to avoid the quality issues for big orders.

8.     Confirm Quality Of Products Through Samples

You can not only make sure the quality of your product but can also confirm the color, size, or other features of your product before shipment.

For this purpose, you will have to order a sample before placing the order. You can also hire the services of a third party inspection team that can check your products before shipment.

9.     Place Your First Bulk Order And Make Your Purchase

Before you order the shipment, you have to hire an inspection team to check the quality of your products. Because once you have placed your order, it will be very expensive to ship them back. Therefore, it is compulsory to confirm the quality of your items before shipment.

After placing the orders wait patiently for the arrival of your goods. Once you received your parcel, check it thoroughly.

You must count the number of items and confirm their quality. Examine each and every product to check that there is any damage.

And if you get any damaged product or any other problem with your order, you must contact the supplier or Alibaba. So that you can get refund your payment.

10.   Resell The Product On Your Own Online Store After It Arrives

After receiving the shipment, you can place the products on your online store and make it available for final consumers. You can sell the products in the packing you received or can change it with your brand name.

Suggested reading: Best China Dropshipping Suppliers and Dropship Websites
Suggested reading: Best 16 Dropshipping Websites
Suggested reading: Top 50 Trending Products To Sell Online

Advantages And Disadvantages Of Alibaba Wholesale

Following are the advantages of buying from Alibaba wholesale:

  • Alibaba is located in China, which is the foremost advantage. In China, almost 560 million users spend 20 hours per week online, which makes Alibaba the largest Internet market on this planet.
  • Alibaba provides a platform for the company and millions of traders, where dealers/traders can provide their products.
  • Alibaba provides you direct access to a large number of international suppliers, where you can purchase any product at a wholesale price.
  • An important thing about Alibaba is that they organize and categorize their products. So you can choose your product very fast.
  • Another most important benefit of Alibaba is discounted prices. You can buy all the products of your choice at a very low price.
  • The most important advantage of this website is networking. If the network is quite bigger, the product will become more valued to each buyer.
  • Alibaba has good relations with the Chinese government. Where the government is very concerned about its economy and decide who is going to run the business and for how long.
Suggested reading: Best China Products To Import

Following are the disadvantages of buying from the Alibaba wholesale

  • The sellers on Alibaba do not hold the inventory. Therefore you can find a huge difference in the quality of the product.
  • Alibaba charges a huge against the services to maintain the platform, which is a major disadvantage for the buyer.
  • Buyers also face many issues regarding the quality of the product. While sometimes the number of items is either less or damaged.

How Can I Avoid Being Scammed On Alibaba?

You all know that cheats are rare, but you cannot deny the probability of scam at each step. Don’t forget that you can save yourself only before paying the money.

You can avoid any sort of scam if you pay through PayPal. Paying through PayPal (especially via credit card and avoiding bank transfer) ensures your security.

Most dealers do not like PayPal because it facilitates the buyers to charge the frivolous claims. If they are accepting PayPal, they will charge almost a 5% surcharge.

If you are interested in paying through wire transfer, certifying that money is transferred to a Chinese company.

Do not transfer the money to any person or company which is outside of China. While suppliers who are accepting wire transfers are safe to deal with.

You have to make sure that the company with whom you are dealing is Alibaba Gold Supplier. If a company’s bank is in China and in a Company’s name and if they are Gold Supplier on Alibaba, then your chances of being scammed are quite low.

But if the bank of a company is in China, and the supplier is not registered with any of the supplier packages with Alibaba.

You consider doing factory Audit via Asia Inspection or third party inspection service before giving the final payment.

Suggested reading: How to Avoid Alibaba Scams

How Do I Check My Alibaba Supplier?

On Alibaba, you will see that there are two methods to search via Alibaba on the search bar: One deals with products and others with suppliers.

You must use the “Products” search option if you are interested in finding the product that you want to produce. While you are searching for a factory to work with, you have to use the “Supplier” search option.

When you search for suppliers, you can see a list of manufacturers along with a list of products. The suppliers display all of their products, which they have produced on the Alibaba webpage.

When you search for products on Alibaba, you will find several related products instead of the actual product. So there are fewer chances of finding the actual factory with whom you want to deal with.

So you must search for the supplier instead of the products. Only in this way can you find the right factory with whom you can work with.

Suggested reading: 1688 vs Taobao
Suggested reading: FBA Shipping From China to Amazon

FAQs For Alibaba Wholesale

·        Why Are Alibaba Products So Cheap?

Items available on Alibaba are no doubt quite cheap. The reason is that all the items are produced in China, and Chinese manufacturers take advantage of cheap labor and other resources.  It helps to reduce the cost of production at the end.

The cost of electricity is very cheap in China. China produces 400% cheaper electricity as compared to the US. Therefore the cost of production, as well as the cost of goods, becomes quite lower.

Selling the goods in bulk also reduces the price of goods. Because At the international level, the wholesale price of goods is quite cheap as compared to the price of a single item.

·        Can I Trust Alibaba Suppliers?

Yes, you can trust Alibaba suppliers because they have strict laws to keep all the trade safe and secure. The purpose of Alibaba is to connect suppliers and buyers.

You can check the profile of the seller and its previous record before making any trade to avoid any sort of cheat.

There are different types of suppliers available at Alibaba, so no one can assure you of good quality. You have to find a supplier who does not compromise on quality. There are three categories of suppliers, i.e., gold supplier, trade assurance supplier, and assessed supplier.

  • The Gold supplier has paid the fee so that he can be pre-qualified. He is the one to whom you can trust, and there are fewer chances of being cheated.
  • The trade assurance supplier assures you that you will get the products of the same quality on time. Otherwise, you will get a refund from Alibaba.
  • Assessed supplier is like an inspector who has to visit the supplier to check the products. He can also provide you a downloadable report of his inspection.

·        Why Is Alibaba Shipping So Expensive?

Alibaba sends all the products through DHL or maybe through some other courier services. They used to charge extra amount besides the actual shipping cost. They do so to check that who is the actual customer and who is messing with them.

If you expect the item to reach before six days or you have ordered a single item, then you will have to pay an extra amount.

You can avoid these extra charges by ordering in bulk. Or, if you can wait for four to six weeks, then you will not pay any extra charges, or you can get your product at the real price.

·        What To Do If You Get Scammed On Alibaba?

It depends on the type of cheat you are facing. For example, the most common fraud is during payments. In this situation, the scammer can get access to your email account and can transact the whole payment to a wrong account.

You can avoid this type of scam by changing the account number as early as possible. You should not transfer the money to such an account, which is not matching with company name mentioned on Alibaba.com.

There is another type of cheating where the supplier will send you items of low quality or defective products.

This can happen due to the lack of attention towards the details of items or due to some misunderstandings.

You can avoid this sort of happenings only by creating clear specifications of the items and also try to define the model designs or colors you want.

·        Can I Buy Single Product From Alibaba?

Alibaba is actually a wholesale market where you can order all the products in bulk, but you can purchase a single item too if you are interested. You have to ask the supplier if he is agreed you can buy a single piece.

As already mentioned, Alibaba is a wholesale market, but the minimum order is one, so you can buy it directly.

The only issue you can face will be the price because if you are purchasing a single item, then you will charge a huge shipment cost. On the other hand, if you buy in bulk, the shipment cost decreases.

Suggested reading: Alibaba vs Aliexpress
Suggested reading: Best 50 China Wholesale Markets

·        How Do I Know If Alibaba Seller Is Legit?

You can confirm it in different ways; for example, first of all, you can ask the company to send you their license copy. You can also take help from different services to assure the existence of factories etc.

Beside it, there are three types of suppliers (gold, trade assurance, and assessed supplier) that can assure you there will be no cheat.

They will inspect the products/suppliers before the shipment to make sure there is no problem regarding product quality. They can also send you a report regarding their inspection.

·        Can I Buy From Alibaba And Sell On Amazon?

Yes, you can buy from Alibaba and can sell on amazon. This is a risk-free strategy.

There is no issue regarding Alibaba, but Amazon can have a few issues regarding this business, such as security and finding the right product.

How Leeline Sourcing Help You Buy Safely From Alibaba Wholesale

Leeline Sourcing will provide you prices of all products without charging you any fee. It will also help you in your factory audit and product inspection before shipment.

This can also help you to ensure the quality of products. Besides all of these, Leeline Sourcing helps you to reduce the shipping price by up to 50%.

They also provide one-month warehouse storage for your products without any cost.

Suggested reading: Best 10 China Shipping Agents Help You Ship from China
Suggested reading: Best 10 Alibaba Freight Forwarders

Final Thoughts on Alibaba Wholesale

Jack Ma and his coworkers started this company as a small business. They were assured that one day this platform will boost up the economy of China but will also play its role effectively at a global level too.

The vision of Alibaba is to construct the future of e-commerce. Alibaba wants to facilitate the customers as much as possible.

It is the vision of Alibaba that its customers meet, work, and live at Alibaba. It is the dream of Alibaba to become a world-renowned company that can last for more than 102 years.

How useful was this post?

Click on a star to rate it!

Average rating 5 / 5. Vote count: 1

No votes so far! Be the first to rate this post.

As you found this post useful...

Follow us on social media!

We are sorry that this post was not useful for you!

Let us improve this post!

Tell us how we can improve this post?

Sharline

Article by:

Sharline Shaw

Hey I'm Sharline, the founder of Leeline Sourcing. With 10 years of experience in the field of sourcing in China, we help 2000+ clients import from China,Alibaba,1688 to Amazon FBA or shopify. If you have any questions about sourcing , pls feel free to contact us.