China Alibaba - does it have to be so frustrating?

[3 MORE YEARS]

I have purchased from Alibaba on and off a few times before. Only a few items and its been okay, but very frustrating. I have also lived in developing countries, so I am not completely naive. I know in some parts of the world they think we are all rich and we all fair game. I am also considering that it could also me, and that maybe I am not using it the right way. Maybe I am being a naive westerner!

I am trying to source suppliers on Alibaba and I find almost all of them are either dishonest or they don't stick what they put in their listing. The way I grew up, I would call it dishonest, but I understand that I need to be nice with my words and dishonest could be seen as extreme. A classic example is that a product will have a minimum order of 10 or 20 or 100 items. So, I will select items based on the price they have listed and the minimum order quantity. Almost always when I contact, the minimum order amount will be drastically different from what they wrote. The price will also be very different to the listing.

I know that a lot of it is down to negotiation, but most of the agents you speak to struggle with English, you can tell they are using an online translator half the time. So, they are pasting you answers. Anything more than one line gets too much for many of them. Some of them can be really good - and I am making good progress with those where I find they are understanding me and reading what I am writing.

I realise the chat and email agents are lower down the food chain for these big companies, so they may not have the best trained people on there.

If there is anyone on here who has sourced suppliers in China, can you educate me a little on what you did? If you have used Alibaba effectively, what am I doing wrong?

Thank you.

 

[MBE2017]

Contact MOIC, my office in China, a member on here. He is a sourcing agent and will be able to help.

Bear in mind, when he says hello, it might mean hello, or Harrow. You need to be understanding sometimes when dealing with the world. On a serious note, his English is as good as anyone’s.

 

[3 MORE YEARS]

Contact MOIC, my office in China, a member on here. He is a sourcing agent and will be able to help.

Bear in mind, when he says hello, it might mean hello, or Harrow. You need to be understanding sometimes when dealing with the world. On a serious note, his English is as good as anyone’s.

Thank you - genuinely. I am normally very understanding. I left the UK for a while (with my whole family) and lived abroad and I am well travelled, and I speak more than one language. I even put my daughter in a British school in a developing country - so I understand the basics. I try to be understanding and sympathetic. However, I am very boring in the sense that I really hate simple dishonesty when it makes no sense. I will try and contact this person. I have also been try to find an agent, but my startup is very small and I always assumed those guys would be too expensive for me. I will give it a try. Thanks.

 

[MOIC]

I have purchased from Alibaba on and off a few times before. Only a few items and its been okay, but very frustrating. I have also lived in developing countries, so I am not completely naive. I know in some parts of the world they think we are all rich and we all fair game. I am also considering that it could also me, and that maybe I am not using it the right way. Maybe I am being a naive westerner!

I am trying to source suppliers on Alibaba and I find almost all of them are either dishonest or they don't stick what they put in their listing. The way I grew up, I would call it dishonest, but I understand that I need to be nice with my words and dishonest could be seen as extreme. A classic example is that a product will have a minimum order of 10 or 20 or 100 items. So, I will select items based on the price they have listed and the minimum order quantity. Almost always when I contact, the minimum order amount will be drastically different from what they wrote. The price will also be very different to the listing.

I know that a lot of it is down to negotiation, but most of the agents you speak to struggle with English, you can tell they are using an online translator half the time. So, they are pasting you answers. Anything more than one line gets too much for many of them. Some of them can be really good - and I am making good progress with those where I find they are understanding me and reading what I am writing.

I realise the chat and email agents are lower down the food chain for these big companies, so they may not have the best trained people on there.

If there is anyone on here who has sourced suppliers in China, can you educate me a little on what you did? If you have used Alibaba effectively, what am I doing wrong?

Thank you.

You've summed up 90% of Ailbaba sellers perfectly.

I couldn't have put it better myself.

Dishonesty amongst the vast majority of Alibaba sellers is just one issue, there are many other questionable practices! Their mindset is different and their selfishness knows no bounds.

Rant over.

 

[MOIC]

Contact MOIC, my office in China, a member on here. He is a sourcing agent and will be able to help.

Bear in mind, when he says hello, it might mean hello, or Harrow. You need to be understanding sometimes when dealing with the world. On a serious note, his English is as good as anyone’s.

You must have been the cab driver that collected me from Heathrow, I said 'Hello' you said, 'Get in mate'

On a serious not, my English is perfect, as I am English, not Chinese in any shape or form (Thank the Lord).

 

[MBE2017]

You must have been the cab driver that collected me from Heathrow, I said 'Hello' you said, 'Get in mate'

On a serious not, my English is perfect, as I am English, not Chinese in any shape or form (Thank the Lord).

That was myself.

I am aware you are English, even if I have never dealt with yourself. Lol.

 

[Paul9]

Get yourself an agent.

I spent a long time sourcing, speaking to many people who claimed to work for factories, struggling with sampling because of language mix ups.

An agent changed all that.

The prices my agent gets for me are substantially cheaper than those quoted by middlemen, I don't have communication issues and he makes sure everything is up to standard before it is shipped.

I am not sure if your quantities sound enough to make it worth while though.

 

[The Byre]

I have purchased from Alibaba on and off a few times before.

That's like sourcing supplies on eBay or Gumtree!

1. Have a look at one of the many product search sites such as made-in-china and see what sort of things that you might need are out there. Identify suitable candidates.

2. Ask them if they can supply the numbers and specs you require and if they have export agents in the UK or the EU. If yes, order from them.

3. If no, then contact an agent like @MOIC to organise door-2-door delivery and to do a background check on them.

4. Be prepared to pay up to double the FoB sticker price, once VAT, duties, freight, clearance, etc., etc. have been included.

 

[CHUKTC]

I agree with all of the above re Alibaba which is why we never use their site to find suppliers. Other questionable practices to be aware of include claiming to be a factory (and going to great lengths to convince you of this) - in practice 97-99% are NOT factories but it can be exceedingly difficult to catch them out. The second practice I would advise anyone to be wary of is sea shipping. If shipping a part load do not be tempted by thier very attractive shipping rates - its a scam and you will likely get stung for extortionate port charges on arrival in UK (to offset the low cost of shipping). As mentioned above organise your own shipping or get someone independant of the supplier to arrange this for you.

 

[Liu Xiaoming]

Firstly, here is bit introduction about myself. My name is Liu, currently I'm based in China and I have a small office in Wales. Since 2017 I'm importing mainly Whisky from UK to China, and liqueur from Austria to China. Before I initiated this business, I was trying to supply Chinese commodities from China to the rest of the world as my cousin was running a clothing factory.

Back then, like most other Chinese factories we were considering using Alibaba as a platform to promote the clothing factory. However, it really didn't work out for us as at that time my cousin already had some decent size clients including Walmart, therefore what we found was that most customers came to us from Alibaba were comparatively "small potatoes". While I really did have the intention to start with small ones as I like the idea of growing with your customer, nevertheless my cousin didn't have the patience for investing more resources for these small customers as small customers would require sampling, test orders and blah blah. Of course, I understood his intention which was trying to hook up some big fish without the hassles of developing small clients. This mindset is not rare among the suppliers on Ailbaba. Therefore, in a simple word, they may have put some attractive terms on the Alibaba, E.G. Cheap prices, low MOQ and etc, but sometimes these are pure eye-eatchers in order to attract as many customers as possible. Then they would raise the bar to filter out these customer they would not want to deal with, trying to push them away or let them accept other requirements. Probably this is one of the reasons for the dishonesty you encountered. On the other hand, some suppliers on Alibaba who claim they are factories are just middleman, and they don't really have the control over the supplies, resulting in failures of delivering what they list on the website.

Overall, from my prospective, website like Alibaba is just a tool not the destination. It's the tool for you to gain an understanding what sort of product you can source from China. But it will surely take more time and patience to locate a truely reliable and proper supplier for getting what you need. I noticed that some already mentioned the idea about finding a sourcing agent, but then it begs another quesiton "How to find a reliable and suitable sourcing agent?" To this question, I don't have the golden answer.

Currently I'm trying to rekindle the idea of exporting some Chinese products to the rest of the world, as the Whisky and Liqueur business are stablising now. So feel free to let me know if you have any idea for any products, as this could be some common interest for both of us. Since I'm based in China and have some experience in this field, I think I can help or at least do no harm.