This article was first published on Yiwuagt.com. As a professional Chinese sourcing agent, the site has a lot of import and export knowledge.
Alibaba is a well-known wholesale website in China that brings together a variety of product types and suppliers. When wholesale products from Alibaba, many buyer choose to hire Alibaba sourcing agents to help them. Are you curious about Alibaba's sourcing agent? Then you've come to the right place!
The main content of this article:
1. Advantages of sourcing from Alibaba
2. Disadvantages of sourcing from Alibaba
3. Why we recommend you to hire an Alibaba sourcing agent
4. What Alibaba sourcing agent can do for you
5. How to choose an excellent Alibaba sourcing agent
6. Several excellent Alibaba sourcing agents
1. Advantages of Sourcing from Alibaba
The first and most obvious advantage of Alibaba is reflected in the products. There are hundreds of different types of products on Alibaba, and there are many styles under each type. Just "pet clothes" has 3000+ search results. Moreover, Alibaba supports 16 language translation, and the functional division is also very clear, which is very easy to get started. Suppliers settled in Alibaba must be audited, which ensures the safety of buyers' purchases on Alibaba to a certain extent.
Although it isn't as good as going directly to the Chinese wholesale market or exhibition, Alibaba does provide a relatively convenient platform for importers. You can definitely get many Chinese supplier resources on Alibaba.
The second is price. You can find the lowest price on many products. This is a price you may not get from local wholesaler. The reason why there is such a big price advantage is that Alibaba provides buyers with the opportunity to get manufacturers, reducing the middle price difference, and the price will naturally be cheaper.
2. Disadvantages of Sourcing from Alibaba
While Alibaba bring great value, Alibaba isn't without its flaws.
1) The MOQ of some products on Alibaba is relatively high. The reason why there is such a problem is that the supplier provides wholesale price. If a certain MOQ isn't set, taking into account the various costs, it may result in a loss.
2) If you are ordering clothing or footwear, you may be caught in the oolong that the product size provided by the seller is the Asian size standard. For example, they are all XL, and the Asian size is very different from the European and American size.
3) And although many suppliers have noticed that exquisite pictures are more attractive to buyers, there are still many suppliers who are not very concerned about this or have limited conditions. The pictures provided are blurry or directly use product images from other suppliers. Buyers have no way to judge the real condition of the product based on these pictures. Sometimes the pictures are blurry, but the product quality is good. Sometimes the pictures are beautiful, but the product quality is bad. This is indeed a troublesome question.
4) Secondly, you may not receive your goods on time. When the supplier has a lot of orders, it is very likely that the goods of the long-term cooperative customer will be produced first, and your production schedule will be delayed.
5) When you want to buy some beautiful vases or glass cup on Alibaba, logistics is another worrying point. Some suppliers do not provide particularly perfect packaging for the goods. Those delicate and fragile materials are likely to be damaged in large quantities in the logistics.
6) Even if all the above problems are solved, there is still one most important problem, which is that Alibaba can't completely eliminate fraud. Tricky scammers always have various means to deceive the platform and those buyers.
If you want to learn more about Alibaba, you can go to read: The Complete Alibaba Wholesale Guide.
3. Why We Recommend you to Hire an Alibaba Sourcing Agent
First and foremost, hiring a professional Alibaba sourcing agent can save you a lot of precious time and get more product choices. For a busy businessman, time is the most valuable asset. When doing one thing, you should also consider the time cost it takes.
Some people are reluctant to spend extra money to hire an Alibaba sourcing agent and spend a lot of time importing products from China, but the end result is still not very good. Some customers leave us a message saying that they have been deceived by dishonest suppliers, such as: poor quality of goods, low quantity of products, not receiving products after payment, etc.
Alibaba agent will take care of all the hassles of Alibaba sourcing for you, making it easy for you to import products from China.
4. What Alibaba Sourcing Agent Can Do For you
1) Pick the most suitable supplier
What is the difference between Alibaba sourcing agent and ordinary buyer, the answer is - experience. An excellent Alibaba sourcing agent has long-term experience in contact with Chinese suppliers. They are able to tell which ones are good suppliers and which ones are mere liars.
2) Negotiate prices with suppliers
You may ask, Alibaba has clearly marked the price, is there still room for negotiation? Of course there is, businessmen will always make room for themselves. Of course, you can negotiate with the supplier yourself, but if you don't know the market price of the product, the current raw material situation of the product, and bargaining with the supplier isn't an easy task.
Sometimes, you can also get a lower MOQ through Alibaba sourcing agent, because maybe they have a long-term cooperative with the supplier, or know the Chinese market situation, or the sourcing agent purchases the same product for several customers at the same time, it is possible to obtain lower MOQ and better price for you.
3) Provide product integration service
If you need products from multiple suppliers, trust me, this is definitely one of the services you need. Suppliers will only send you their own goods, you can't ask them to help you collect your goods from other suppliers. But Alibaba sourcing agent can help you do just that.
4) Logistics transportation
Many Alibaba suppliers only provide two services of product and logistics transportation (to the designated port), which is very inconvenient for importers. The Alibaba sourcing agent can provide one-stop service, which can solve a series of problems for buyers importing products from China.
5) Other services also include:
Collect samples、Follow up production progress、Product quality inspection、Customs clearance service、Review contract content、deal with related documents.
5. How to Choose an Excellent Alibaba Sourcing Agent
Generally speaking, we recommend that you choose a China sourcing agent as your Alibaba agent, because 95% of the suppliers on Alibaba are from China. Choosing a Chinese sourcing agent can better communicate with suppliers. They understand the local market environment and can easily help you negotiate with suppliers on this basis. Note: Alibaba sourcing agent business is one of the businesses in China sourcing agent. They can not only help you source products from Alibaba, but also help you source products from Chinese wholesale markets, factories, exhibitions, etc.
Secondly, we recommend that you choose sourcing agents who have experience with the commodities you want to purchase. For example, if you want to buy pens, choose an agent who has experience in stationery sourcing. Whether the other party is an individual or a company, this is one of the very important criteria for choosing an Alibaba sourcing agent. Experienced Alibaba sourcing agent can better help you avoid business traps.
Finally, it is recommended that you choose a purchasing agent with a relatively large scale, which can prove their business ability level and company credibility from the side.
6. Some Excellent Alibaba Sourcing Agents
1) Tanndy
Tanndy was established in Guangzhou, China in 2006. Their main business is to provide procurement services for buyers, most of which are building materials and furniture. Services include product sourcing, market guidance, order tracking, inspection, consolidation, warehousing and shipping.
2) Sellers Union
Sellers Union maintains a long-term cooperative relationship with 1500+ customers, has 23 years of import and export experience, and is the largest sourcing agent in Yiwu. Sellers Union provides a personalized one-stop solution, dedicated to improving the competitiveness of customers in the market from all aspects. They have prepared corresponding solutions for the problems that may be encountered in the process of importing from China, and are determined to minimize the risk of customers purchasing products in China. In addition, they also have perfect after-sales service to ensure that the interests of customers are guaranteed.
3) Leeline Sourcing
Leeline specializes in sourcing services for small and medium business companies. They offer free warehousing and shipping services for your Alibaba order.
4) Linec Sourcing
The more well-known purchasing agent, they sometimes provide some purchasing solutions that can reduce the budget for buyers. In addition to product procurement, they also provide sellers with basic business negotiations, legal advice, and factory audits.
5) Sermondo
Sermondo is an agent specializing in purchasing services for Amazon sellers. They can solve all kinds of problems of Amazon sellers in one stop, so as to serve global Amazon sellers and expand their business.
All in all, Alibaba sourcing agent play a very important role in international purchasing. As to whether or not to hire a sourcing agent, it depends on your individual needs. If you are interested, you can always contact us to help you wholesale products from China.
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