Alibaba
With the amazing title of being the largest retailer in the world, it’s no surprise why you’ve decided to use Alibaba for your business. Despite the website originating from China, you’re able to buy from any supplier in the world—from America to Japan, India to Canada. What we’re going to explore is how to get you started using Alibaba’s wide variety of different suppliers to make a profit by selling virtually any product you can think of.
In case you’ve never used the website, I’ll catch you up fairly quickly and then we’ll jump into the meatier details like dealing with suppliers, which products you might want to buy, and handling ordering. The website itself is easy to navigate. The search bar is your best friend, this is where you’ll be able to find products, suppliers, and prices. And you can browse for categories for things that you might be interested in.
Alibaba also offers their own service to help you if you need assistance in finding a supplier. It’s called AliSourcePro, you fill out the form letting the site know what you need and from there you’ll be able to negotiate with the list of suppliers that come back to you. Negotiation is a big part of doing business and it’s something that we’ll explore later on.
If you’re able to find a supplier that meets your interests and level of quality then you’ll see badges on their page that details they are verified suppliers and have been checked on site by Alibaba. These are important badges that you should look out for. If a supplier has a Gold badge than that means the supplier has paid for a membership from Alibaba. Their products will get featured more than a non-Gold badge member. Just think of it as a premium account versus a non-premium account. From there you’ll be able to contact them by clicking the white envelope with a blue outline.
Alibaba also offers the ability to let you choose the inspection company, an important feature as you want to know if the supplier you pick is a legitimate business. Most suppliers may overpromise and balloon their size. An inspection onsite will help let you know what’s real and what’s fiction, thus guiding you to the perfect partner on Alibaba.com. The inspectors will then be able to take pictures, take a look at their certification, and inspect the products that company is actually making. Let’s say if you’re about to buy headphones in bulk but they’re actually making shoes and the reason for the confusion is a difference in languages, then you’ll be able to have fixed that problem before spending a ton of money.
Of course because so many manufacturers are on the website you’ll need to search for whatever product you want, then you’ll see suppliers who can give you instant quotes, which is helpful when you’re trying to get off the ground quickly. At the top you’ll be able to find a drop-down menu that has a sourcing solutions
title. This drop-down menu will be able to give you the ability to filter suppliers by region, get instant quotes, and submit buying requests.
Next to that tab is the services & memberships
which drops down to gain access to the inspection and logistics services, among other things. Beside that one is the help & community menu where you’ll be able to submit a dispute, access options for buyers and sellers, and even engaging with other users on the discussion forum.
Chapter 2: Working With Suppliers
When you’re ready to start buying shoes from suppliers that you can then turn around and sell through your business, you’ll be able to search shoes on Alibaba and find suppliers that in fact sell shoes. You’ll have hundreds of different choices and you’ll want to investigate the supplier, asking them questions, doing as much home work as you
