Do you want to buy from Alibaba? It is really an excellent eCommerce site with a fantastic shopping experience. Especially for foreign brands, Alibaba is a superb B2B platform.
Our experts have more than 10 years of experience and know how to buy from Alibaba vendors.
At Alibaba, you need to be careful as you might interact with scammers. So, always prefer safe buying from Gold or verified suppliers on Alibaba.
Today, I will elaborate on the step-by-step buying process from Alibaba suppliers.
- 1) What is Alibaba?
- 2) Is Alibaba Safe and Legit?
- 3) Why are products on Alibaba so cheap?
- 4) How to buy from Alibaba?
- 5) How to open a dispute if you’re not satisfied with the products?
- 6) How to avoid Alibaba scams successfully?
- 7) How to dropship from Alibaba?
- 8) How to find Alibaba private label suppliers?
- 9) FAQs How To Buy From Alibaba
- 10) What’s Next
What is Alibaba?
Alibaba is an eCommerce site with thousands of buyers and Alibaba suppliers. Alibaba Group owns this eCommerce and its sister sites like Taobao, AliExpress, and 1688. Unlike Amazon or eBay, Alibaba facilitates B2B trading.
The buyer searches for a specific product and gets a list of products from multiple suppliers. Then, the buyer contacts a reliable supplier.
During the chat, different questions are asked from the buyers. Some Alibaba suppliers keep access to customized products and let buyers get their logos printed on the products.
Is Alibaba Safe and Legit?
Yes. Alibaba is a legit and safe site. Hundreds of businesses connect and discuss their requirements.
Remember, there are possible scams, so you need to avoid them by choosing a reliable supplier. Trade assurance orders are the safest way to go when trying Alibaba products.
Why are products on Alibaba so cheap?
Alibaba products appear so cheap. No wonders at all. Here are the reasons:
- Lower taxes
- Higher availability of labor
- Direct selling to the buyers. No involvement of any third-party members.
- Lower production pricing due to wholesale prices of raw materials.
How to buy from Alibaba?
1. Create an account
The first step is to create an account on Alibaba. For this purpose, go to sign up on Alibaba and add the required information like:
- Company name
- Purpose of the account
- The full name for the account
- Email Address
- Phone number
You can select the buyer account or may go with both accounts— seller and buyer.
2. Find your niche
Niche is an essential aspect of your eCommerce business. You need to define the niche. You can search your product name and find the relevant inventory to accomplish this.
Best selling products on Alibaba
Always prefer the best selling products. Conduct meticulous research and land on seasonal products to earn maximum revenue and ROI. You can use the product hunting tools like Helium 10, Keepa, or manually research the item.
Read more: Best selling products on Alibaba
3. Choose a reliable supplier
A trustworthy supplier ensures an excellent trading experience on Alibaba. You can filter the search results and select the following types of Alibaba suppliers
Alibaba Trade Assurance
Trade assurance Alibaba suppliers offer a money-back guarantee on specific terms and conditions. Even if the defect ratio of products is higher, they might refund you.
Read more: Alibaba Trade Assurance
Alibaba gold supplier
Alibaba gold supplier is a premium supplier that has undergone a verification process by the Alibaba team. Primary verification of gold suppliers occurs.
Read more: Alibaba gold supplier
Verified suppliers
Alibaba verified suppliers are businesses that have gone through in-depth verification conducted by a third-party inspection company. It includes a review of multiple aspects of the trading company.
Read more: Verified suppliers
Alibaba reviews
Before making any purchase, you can check the reviews of the trading company to ensure its authenticity. It is a crucial step in trading on Alibaba.
Read more: Alibaba reviews
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As the best China sourcing agent, we help you find factories, get competitive prices, follow up production, ensure quality and deliver products to the door.
4. Request for quotation and samples from the supplier
Communicate with the supplier to request the samples or get a quote about the products.
Alibaba samples
Alibaba samples allow you to get over the quality control process. Contact supplier and request samples. Later on, you can assess the quality of the product and decide whether to buy it or not.
Read more: Alibaba samples
RFQ
Alibaba RFQ refers to a request for a quotation. The buyer allows the sellers to bid for its project in this process. Alibaba RFQ is an excellent opportunity to get an idea of price and compare the quality of products from several suppliers.
Read more: Alibaba RFQ
5. Negotiate the details
Discussion and settling on the terms and conditions is an excellent step. It facilitates mutual trust between the buyer and sellers. You can contact suppliers and negotiate the following services.
MOQ
MOQ refers to minimum order quantity. If the seller has a higher minimum order quantity, you can request low MOQ before making the big orders.
Read more: Alibaba MOQ
Exact questions
You can ask the exact questions regarding the company, products, pricing, and, most importantly, shipping facilities. It will prevent the upcoming confusion and enable smooth trading.
Read more: Questions to ask Alibaba suppliers
Alibaba inspection service
Alibaba inspection service authorizes the quality inspection of the many suppliers. You can request the assessment of the products to confirm the quality. Usually, many suppliers on Alibaba allow you to do that.
Read more: Alibaba inspection service
6. Decide your payment and shipping method
Product price and shipping from Alibaba suppliers are other crucial steps to discuss. You can talk to the sellers regarding:
Alibaba payment
Determine the payment method available to pay the most suppliers for their inventory. Usually, Wire transfer, Western Union, Bank transfers, and Credit card payments are favorable payment methods; if the Alibaba supplier agrees to these payment options, great! Western union is a popular method.
Read more: Alibaba payment
Alibaba shipping cost
There are different shipping methods. You can discuss the logistics, get the tracking number, and track your shipment before arrival. Air or sea freight is a good option. You can confirm the shipping price of shipping goods.
Read more: Alibaba shipping fee
7. Check the product quality
Has your product been received? If yes, one last step has left. You need to assess the quality of the item. Suppose it qualifies your criterion; simply amazing.
Otherwise, you can go through the refund process through the Alibaba trade assurance program. A partial or complete refund process is available through trade assurance orders.
How to open a dispute if you’re not satisfied with the products?
If you assume that the product quality is lower than expected, you can open a dispute for that item. It assures a partial or full refund.
You can find the option Apply for Refund and fill out the form to create the dispute on the order details page.
Read more: Alibaba dispute
How to avoid Alibaba scams successfully?
To avoid Alibaba scams, you need to do the following practices:
- Find suppliers with verification badges and prefer them.
- If the Chinese supplier status is Gold membership, that is also a safe option.
- You can explore the trade assurance orders that assure the refund instantly for specific reasons.
Read more: Alibaba scammer list
How to dropship from Alibaba?
Dropshipping from Alibaba is quite a simple process. Here are the steps:
- Open your buyer account on Alibaba.
- Purchase the inventory from the verified suppliers.
- Ask your supplier to transport it directly to your customers’ address.
You can link the sales channel for the successful fulfillment of orders. A supply chain works.
Read more: How to dropship from Alibaba?
How to find Alibaba private label suppliers?
Private label suppliers allow you to get IP rights of the custom products and label inventory with the company’s logo and details for your private label business.
To uncover the Alibaba private label sellers, you can insert the product name and try the filter of Supplier Type. You will get all the vendors who allow private label products.
Read more: Alibaba Private Label Suppliers
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LeelineSourcing is ready to help you buy from alibaba low cost and efficiently.
FAQs How To Buy From Alibaba
How to do safe buying from Alibaba?
You can open your account on Alibaba and explore the supplier’s history.
Check out the transactions of the suppliers and discuss the terms. If the supplier agrees, that would be the potential supplier you need.
What are trade assurance orders?
Trade assurance protects the buyers from fraudulent activities. There are two cases in which trade assurance policy applies:
1. If the product shipping is late
2. If the product quality is lower than expected
What should you negotiate with the supplier?
Negotiations with suppliers can bring the best for you. You can negotiate with the suppliers regarding:
1. Product price
2. Product Quality
3. Shipping process
4. Refund policy
5. Quotations for a specific number of orders
Benefits of negotiations include lower costs and high-quality products.
Are Alibaba product samples free?
Not exactly. Alibaba suppliers might allow free samples. Sometimes, they charge a fee for the product samples. The ultimate goal to do is to explore the serious buyers, not scammers.
Whenever you get in touch with the supplier, mention whether they allow free samples or not.
How to find the trade assurance suppliers?
To find the trade assurance, follow the steps:
1. Search the product.
2. Go to the supplier type.
3. Choose the Trade assurance supplier and apply the filter.
You will get a list of trade assurance suppliers.
What’s Next
Not all suppliers on Alibaba are genuine. What you need is to trade safely to prevent fraudulent activities.
If you have experience regarding shopping on Alibaba, that is great. In other cases, you can learn how to deal with trading companies on Alibaba.
LeeLine sourcing has years of experience and facilitates a safe buying experience on Alibaba. Hit us a call right away!