How To Buy From Alibaba: Ultimate Guide

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.

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

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

FAQs How To Buy From Alibaba

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!