what's is Alibaba about?
Alibaba.com is an online B2b marketplace, to some point, it’s maybe the largest B2B e-commerce for the world. Millions of sellers and buyer from all over the world use this website for their business. A few years ago, the supplier only came from China, now you can get the resources from all over the world, For example, the United States, Germany, Italy, India, etc. I search LED, it show the suppliers from not only China, but also from Egypt, Greece, India, Russian, Singapore and so on.
Is it legal to buy on Alibaba?
Of course, yes, it’s legal.
For another thing, If this is illegal, how can he keep doing it for so long for over 22 years.
Everyone can buy and get resource from this website. You do not have to get a license that means, no matter you buy for your individual, or companies, you can but from Alibaba directly.
How to register as a free Alibaba member?
It’s very easy to register as a free member of Alibaba. Follow the registration step-by-step instructions.
Firstly, search the alibaba.com and open the website, you also can do it on your mobile phone by Alibaba App.
Secondly, put your email and password for this website. please remember them as you will use them in next step.
Thirdly, go to the website and sign in your account.
How to use Alibaba?
In general, there are two common ways to use Alibaba, keywords search for the products and keywords for the suppliers.
1. Keywords for the products.
Put your keywords in the search bar, select products, and start searching. Let take “heavy duty drawer slides” for example. After you confirm search, you will got lot of heavy duty drawer slides list there.
2. Keywords for suppliers.
Put your keywords in the search bar also, but this time we choose suppliers as our target. We still take the keywords of “heavy duty drawer slides” to search. Now you will get a list of the suppliers’ name who can offer heavy duty drawer slides.
How to find reliable suppliers from Alibaba?
There are thousands of suppliers on Alibaba’s website, how to choose a reliable supplier from Alibaba, here are 13 tips for you.
Tips 1, Years of membership
How many years as the member of Alibaba is key of stability of a reliable supplier. We believe that at least three years is a better choice, of course, it does not mean that there are no reliable suppliers for less than 3 years. Because Ali’s suppliers have a fee every year, if they are not able to maintain it for 3 years, the stability may be relatively poor.
We have been on Alibaba for 7 years as a supplier of heavy duty drawer slides.
Tips 2, How to distinguish between trading companies, manufacturers and wholesalers?
How to check the business type of suppliers? Please do as the following: Profile and then Company Overview.
If the business type showing is a trading company, that means this is a trading company and probably do not have factory. He source products and resell them.
The advantage of a trading company is that there are many different types of products. If you need to purchase different types of products, it is more convenient to choose a trading company and can provide more choices.
If the business type showing is a trading company, that means this is a manufacturer and he has his own factory. producing by himself and sell the products also by himself.
The advantage of a factory is that it mainly has one product or a class of products, and the products are closely related to each other.
A factory is not necessarily better than a trading company, and a trading company is not necessarily worse than a factory. The most important thing is to choose the most suitable supplier.
Tips 3, trade assurance order
Please check with the supplier if they can accept the trade assurance order. If he can accept the trade assurance order, you can pay through Alibaba, this will be more safe for the buyer.
Tips 4, trade value
If you are purchasing products from a new supplier for the first time, it is recommended that you take a small trade value of orders first, and use Alibaba’s trade Assurance Order to test the stability of a supplier.
Tips 5, Check the main producing area of your products
If you purchase a product in China, you can get a general idea of where the product is mainly produced. For example, Shenzhen mainly produces electronic products, Shantou mainly produces toy-related products, and Zhejiang mainly provides daily necessities, such as Yiwu, Jinhua and Yongkang.
Tips 6, Response time from the suppliers
Tips 7, to check out which are the main products of the suppliers
When you choose the supplier, please check the products the supplier has. Trade company may have lots of products, and the manufacturer just have some products and the difference of these products are the size or color, even the style, but still in the same in the same category. this mean they are professional for these products. You’d better to find the products which are the supplier main products.
Tips 8, if the product has a product video
Now if the product has a video, it can show you all the details or you can find the details you care about. Of course, if you do not find them from the store, you can check with the supplier and ask them to film a short one for you and show you the details, so this will get the right products for you and you do not need to spent too much time talking about these details.
Tips 9, ask the supplier to have a video chatting
Ask the supplier to have a video chatting, you can check the producing line, the office, also the samples office, then you can have a better understand of the supplier. From this you can check the main products of the supplier and the people of the supplier.
Tips 10, getting samples more than 3 suppliers
Try to get the sample from more than 3 supplier. For one reason you can check and find out which one is the best, the another reason, you have a backup suppliers, if you need, you can deal with them as soon as possible.
Tips 11, paid the samples and shipping cost
Please pay the samples and shipping cost as you can. This is just a little invest for your business. Especially customized samples, this also cost a lot from the supplier, if you like to pay for them, you will get more reply and more feedbacks from the suppliers, the reliable ones will in them.
Tips 12, confirm the leading time
Confirm the producing time and shipping time with your supplier and put them into the order. Firstly, you can check if the supplier can keep this time line, and also you have a general know the time of your products.
Tips 13, double check the safety and payment
Before you pay for the order, confirm it’s safe. You’d better pay them through Alibaba by using Trade Assurance Order, this will keep your money safety through the third part. Do not trust someone said just change the bank information and ask you pay to another bank account until you have a phone call or video chatting with your supplier and confirm of this.
why we can find a reliable supplier from Alibaba?
Alibaba has the largest number of suppliers in the world, where you can not only find reliable supplier from Alibaba, but also discover new products and expand your product range.
Hope your business more and more prosperous.
