The UGLY Truth About Buying From Alibaba That No Guru Will Tell You

in this video I'll answer all the most commonly asked questions about buying from Alibaba including the questions that most people won't give you a straight answer on now buying from Alibaba to Source Products for an e-commerce business has a reputation for being a get-rich quick scheme because it sounds too easy you find a supplier in China who's willing to sell you your own branded products at prices far lower than the United States or wherever you live you place a bulk order and have it shipped directly to Amazon or your warehouse and then you make ridiculously high margins from your products because everything is sold to you at cost now while these statements are all technically true a common misconception is that buying from Alibaba is easy but in reality buying from Alibaba has many pros and cons and isn't as straightforward as you are led to believe so in this video I'll answer all the in-depth questions related to buying from Alibaba and provide you with a complete view on what it takes to Source Products at the lowest possible cost now before we begin I want to First dispel a common misconception about Alibaba most people who shop on Alibaba think that it's an online Marketplace for goods and that simply is not true instead Alibaba is just an online directory of Chinese suppliers they do not sell anything on their own they simply connect factories and manufacturers to buyers and facilitate the transaction now the first question I'm often asked is is buying from Alibaba safe and that's a really loaded question because it can be safe if you are careful and follow all the safety protocols that I'll teach you about in this video now the the number one way to ensure that you have a safe transaction is by following these directions exactly so first off always select verified suppliers and trade Assurance before you even type anything into Alibaba search a verified supplier in Alibaba is a seller who has undergone additional checks and verification processes by Alibaba or a third-party verification service now this verification aims to assess the legitimacy manufacturing capabilities and operational scale of the supplier and typically includes on-site checks of the supplier's premises verification of legal business documents and an assessment of the company's export and trade capabilities now if you do not have this box checked you could get a random Chinese dude selling stuff out of his garage as your supplier but if you do have this box checked every supplier that comes up in the search results will have a detailed report that you can look through along with photos of their Factory floor now if you want to be extra careful check the Alibaba verified suppliers Pro check box which will ensure that you get a supplier with at least five years of experience now for this example this company here popped up during one of my handkerchief supplier searches Now by going under profile in company overview you can check out all their certifications the number of years in business the amount of staff and reviews of their Factory now this particular Factory even offers a video of the manufacturing floor so as a result if you place an order with a verified supplier you know you're working with a real factory you also want to check off trade Assurance because trade Assurance is like an Esco service for your order and prevents outright fraud now when you place an order using trade Assurance on the Alibaba website Alibaba will hold the money and not pay the supplier until you receive your goods so as a result you will definitely receive your products and you won't get ripped off however what Alibaba won't tell you is that if you receive crappy products or not what you ordered trade Assurance offers very little protection recently I had a student in my class who needed products fast in time for the holiday season her existing vendor could not supply with the products so she went with a completely new supplier that she'd never used before now after receiving a sample that looked amazing she decided to place a larger order thinking that trade Assurance protected her from fraud now she received her products all right but they were completely different than the sample and when she complained to Alibaba trade Assurance Alibaba tried to help facilitate the dispute but they refused to refund her money trade Assurance is only good for outright fraud what my student should have done is hire an inspector in China to inspect it Goods before they were shipped for just $300 using a service like Kaa my student could have saved thousands of dollars by catching the problem before the supplier was paid any money at all by the way always hire an inspector with your first bulk order especially if you've never worked with the supplier before and personally I always hire an inspector for every single purchase to keep our suppliers on their toes now also this might seem like common sense but if you see any branded merchandise being offered by any supplier in Alibaba just run away as quickly as you can one time I had a student purchased Disney branded products from an Alibaba supplier thinking that they were legit but then they were seized at the border as counterfeit Goods now despite Alibaba being a legitimate company there are still unscrupulous suppliers on the platform that may sell fake products and going with a verified supplier May mitigate this from happening but it is still possible never buy someone else's branded product ever also in terms of the best Alibaba payment options here are the safest ways to pay from the most safe to the least safe the number one safest way is to pay via trade Assurance which is the best way if you are a brand new seller however buying anything with trade Assurance will almost always be more expensive the number two safest way is to pay by PayPal or credit card user the supplier will pass the fees along to you but at least you can file a dispute and get your money back if something goes wrong number three is a wire transfer which ironically is the most common way to pay your supplier and the least safest way is to pay by Western Union by the way if you're enjoying this video so far make sure you sign up for my free 6-day e-commerce mini course below and in this course I go over product sourcing in much greater depth now another question I'm often asked is how to communicate with Alibaba suppliers as a brand new buyer and here's the thing about dealing with suppliers they are just people and people like to do business with who they like and respect so your first goal when interacting with the supplier is to get them to respect you as a buyer never tell them that this is your first time buying or that you need handholding instead you need to project reject confidence and show to them that you know what you're doing even if this is your first time here's a sample letter that I always use hey my name is Steve and I'm a buyer for bumblebee Linens a store in the US that sells handkerchiefs we are interested in carrying many of the items that you have to offer specifically I would like to get pricing and availability for the following items and then list your items please send pricing in 500 1,000 and 5,000 unit quantities also if you could send us your product catalogs lead times for manufacturing and the minimum order quantity we would greatly appreciate it send this letter out to as many suppliers as you find that can make your product and then once you get some replies ask to purchase a sample always get a sample before placing a bulk order for two reasons one you have to know what you're buying and two you want to have a sample to give to your inspector so they know what to check for every supplier will have a minimum order quantity and you can negotiate it down to a certain extent but I will say this there are different Siz factories that cater to different size Sellers and one time I accidentally contacted A supplier for Walmart who wanted a 100,000 unit minimum order quany and they were clearly out of my league now the first supplier that I ever worked with had a 200 piece minimum order quantity and if you find that a supplier's mq is just way too large they are probably out of your league but that being said theq is always negotiable to a certain extent once you get your sample and you're happy with it then place a bulk order the typical payment terms are 30% down and then 70% upon completion and while your products are being made you should look for a freight forwarder a freight forwarder is a company that you hire that will take care of transporting the goods from the factory to your Warehouse or home address sometimes the supplier will offer to ship the products for you instead of you finding your own Freight forwarder and in most cases this is all fine and good we've used our supplier shipping Services before and everything worked out well however the main downside is that if anything ever goes wrong the communication will be horrible compared to using your own service for example one time our shipping boat got into an accident at Sea and many containers were damaged in the process our freay forwarder was able to give us updates on the ship and kept us in the loop during the entire ordeal now if we used our Factory shipping agent I'm pretty sure that there would have been a language barrier and poor communication now another question I'm often asked is how can I protect my intellectual property when buying from Alibaba and the short answer is that you can't now you can have your supplier sign in nnn which stands for non-disclosure non-use and non- circumvention agreement and this type of contract is typically used to protect IP when Outsourcing production or engaging with suppliers and manufacturers overseas but the problem is that nnns are pretty much impossible to enforce in China instead of getting an nnn just have a conversation with the supplier and have them email you a statement saying that they won't sell your design to a competitor in many cases just the simple Act of having the conversation will mitigate the chances of Ip theft now the best best way to protect your IP is to register a copyright in your country this way you can stop copycat products from being sold on marketplaces like Amazon or Ebay Amazon is especially good about taking down listings if your competitor infringes on your copyright but overall how do you prevent a manufacturer from selling your design well it's all about the relationship now another question I get asked is whether there are any ethical concerns to be aware of when dealing with a supplier and the answer is yes some factories make their goods using labor or other unethical methods of manufacturing to prevent this from happening you should select verified suppliers in your Alibaba search then you should check to see if they have any certifications that demonstrate their standards of quality for example you can ask about bcsi certification or ISO 14001 or sa8000 which certifies factories and organizations are compliant with ethical working conditions including child labor force labor health and safety and discrimination but outside of certifications and visiting the factory physically yourself you can't really tell now let's talk about the logistics of the whole sourcing process next are there any hidden fees or costs when buying from Alibaba now while there no hidden fees I can say with confidence that I've never ever really designed a product from scratch before with no hiccups along the way and most of these hiccups are due to poor communication and incorrect expectations for example after we started placing larger orders with our supplier we decided decided to try to negotiate down the price after all our orders were 20x higher than when we first started and we wanted a discount after a little back and forth our suppliers reduced our price but when we received our merchandise the fabric was so thin that it made the handkerchiefs unsellable even though it was implicit that we wanted a discount for the exact same quality hankies as before our supplier tried to cut Corners to get us merchandise at our new price point sometimes you'll agree to a price with your supplier and then they'll jack up the price once production starts little things like this happen all the time now I wouldn't consider a hidden cost per se but just understand that little annoyances happen from time to time the key to a successful transaction on Alibaba is to document every last detail about your product so you get what you pay for and hire an inspector in China to catch any issues before your products are shipped now that you know how to buy from Alibaba watch this video here on Alibaba alternatives to find your suppliers online

Channel: MyWifeQuitHerJob Ecommerce Channel

Views: 7,089

Keywords: how to use alibaba, alibaba tutorial, alibaba sourcing hacks, how to find a supplier on alibaba, how to buy from alibaba, alibaba suppliers, buying from alibaba, how to make money online, alibaba sourcing, how to use alibaba app, how to use alibaba to start a business, how to use alibaba to find manufacturer, how to use alibaba trade assurance, how to use alibaba to make money, how to use alibaba for amazon fba, how to use alibaba to sell on shopify, alibaba tutorial 2024

Id: iUZlwfdwKmY

Length: 11min 27sec (687 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 02 2024