Minimal/no reponses from Alibaba suppliers.

[Kiwi1234]

Hello,

For some reason recently after talking to multiple suppliers for my product they've stopped responding. I said to them that I was talking to another supplier, and therefore I would get back to them although when I did they didn't respond. Also generally struggling to get a response from a supplier I really would like to work with as they have many products I'm interested in although their response ratee is just 30%. Not sure how to improve my chance of being replied to, maybe I need to add a photo of myself (which is kind of hard considering I'm 16 and I don't think it would help the cause).

If anyone has any advice for what I may have done wrong, or what I could do to get more replies that'd be much appreciated. I have an email template I send to people with questions regarding their product, I feel it is professional enough and usually get replies although not recently..

Thanks,
Oli

 

[Hunting Solutions]

How many companies have you sent the same email to?

 

[Kiwi1234]

How many companies have you sent the same email to?

I've lost count, possibly 20?

 

[antropy]

For some reason recently after talking to multiple suppliers for my product they've stopped responding. I said to them that I was talking to another supplier, and therefore I would get back to them although when I did they didn't respond.

I think it's important to understand where the power lies in this negotiation - if you're starting up, suppliers hold all the cards. They expect you to treat them like they're doing you a favour by supplying you - which unfortunately in many ways they are. If you start to sound like you might go elsewhere, they may consider you're not serious and not worth their time. Unless you're Tesco, which you're not.

So it's important you come across as serious and competent. If you start to do well in business, you get flooded with enquiries all day long. Filtering the time wasters from the serious ones becomes really important. It's called qualifying leads.

Also generally struggling to get a response from a supplier I really would like to work with as they have many products I'm interested in although their response ratee is just 30%. Not sure how to improve my chance of being replied to, maybe I need to add a photo of myself (which is kind of hard considering I'm 16 and I don't think it would help the cause).

Don't put a photo, but emailing from an email address which has a proper domain name (rather than gmail or hotmail) and at least a basic 1 page site that looks professional is good, perhaps even linking to a LinkedIn account - but only if that also looks professional.

 

[Kiwi1234]

I think it's important to understand where the power lies in this negotiation - if you're starting up, suppliers hold all the cards. They expect you to treat them like they're doing you a favour by supplying you - which unfortunately in many ways they are. If you start to sound like you might go elsewhere, they may consider you're not serious and not worth their time. Unless you're Tesco, which you're not.

So it's important you come across as serious and competent. If you start to do well in business, you get flooded with enquiries all day long. Filtering the time wasters from the serious ones becomes really important. It's called qualifying leads.


Don't put a photo, but emailing from an email address which has a proper domain name (rather than gmail or hotmail) and at least a basic 1 page site that looks professional is good, perhaps even linking to a LinkedIn account - but only if that also looks professional.

Yeah, great pointers.

 

[LPB 123]

I initially found that AliSource was quite a good way to get talking to suppliers on Alibaba. Some people don't like to use it as you do get some irrelevant suppliers to what you're looking for but I think it's great to start out and you certainly get talking to suppliers you would be unlikely to find on your own.

In my experience after posting a buying request you'll get 10-15 responses within 24 hours. 50% will be unrelated to what you're looking for but the other 50% will be and you can start talking products and prices with them.

A proper email address with domain name does look more professional but it's not essential. A logo would initially look a lot better than a photo but again it's not essential when dealing with suppliers on Alibaba.

Please let me know if you need any help with setting up a buying request on Alisource, or with Alibaba in general

 

[Chris Ashdown]

If you are looking to buy very small quantities they may give you a price and that will be it, if you try to negotiate they will ignore you, they want to sell hundreds or thousands in one go with not hassle , buying 10 or 20 or50 they serve you hoping you grow fast but not really interested in spending time on you

 

[Mia @ Shippo]

Hi!

I work at an importing company (so we've warned our customers about this); this week is Golden Week, which is a week-long national holiday for the Chinese (who are the suppliers on Alibaba) and most factories will not be working. It's kind of like how over Christmas a majority of our businesses will be closed.

In all likelihood, your suppliers are just on holiday. (During Golden Week, the Chinese are encouraged to travel.) Wait a few days for the holiday to be over and see if they reply. Also, there may be a delay as they will have a week's worth of replies, quotes, shipments and whatnot to deal with. I hope this was helpful!

 

[Kiwi1234]

Hi!

I work at an importing company (so we've warned our customers about this); this week is Golden Week, which is a week-long national holiday for the Chinese (who are the suppliers on Alibaba) and most factories will not be working. It's kind of like how over Christmas a majority of our businesses will be closed.

In all likelihood, your suppliers are just on holiday. (During Golden Week, the Chinese are encouraged to travel.) Wait a few days for the holiday to be over and see if they reply. Also, there may be a delay as they will have a week's worth of replies, quotes, shipments and whatnot to deal with. I hope this was helpful!

Thank you for the information! I think this was the issue, today I just got 5 replies from different suppliers. Seems like that could have been the problem!

 

[Deleted member 226268]

Not really surprising that you receive minimal response from companies on AliBaba.
They must think that your Emails that you send to them are a joke, a wind-up !

Companies on AliBaba are generally worldwide Business to Business companies,
usually with minimum orders of 5000 or so.

They will not consider dealing with school-boys who want 10 of something for £ 50 !

You need to go to Aliexpress, AliBaba's sister company,
who deal with orders from the general public, and much lower minimum order numbers.

https://www.aliexpress.com/

.

 

[Scott-Copywriter]

Getting sick to death of the dozens of threads started by kids who aren't even old enough to form a legal contract while playing at being "entrepreneurs". Totally agree with Dave Archer's reply. Respect is earned not an automatic right, behave like an idiot and you'll be treated like one and I don't care how young or old someone is, they'll get treated the same way.

Seems everyone and their dog wants to be an Entrepreneur these days, make easy money on the internet, no skills needed, just a bit of magic clicking a few buttons. Sorry it doesn't work that way. Week after week I see hair-brained ideas posted to this board by the utterly clueless who've done no research and have no idea, and they wonder why experienced people get exasperated when any advice is ignored or thrown back in their face.

Some advice. Do some research and learn about business basics, before you even start deciding on anything product or service wise to sell. Stop behaving like the next Bill Gates or Richard Branson it impresses no-one and just makes you look like a tit.

So you think that justifies berating a 16 year old who asked a specific question?

Any frustrations originating from other threads should stay in those threads. The OP asked a basic question which was already answered. It's completely unnecessary to drag arguments to other threads to intentionally cause further conflict.

I see nothing to suggest that the OP is trying to be someone he's not. Most of the threads and posts just involve questions about sourcing suppliers. Everyone has to start somewhere. What in this selection of these threads do you find so utterly abhorrent and "hair-brained" exactly: http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/search/2955576/ ?

Sometimes it's frustrating, but at the end of the day, they have just as much of a right to use this forum as you do. If you don't like what they're saying and they ignore advice, it's not your problem, so I don't understand the need to become so offensive towards them. Just click ignore if it bothers you that much.

 

[Scott-Copywriter]

It's called telling it like it is, the truth. Welcome to the real world, not the cotton wool lined one you've been brought up in so far. If you're getting yourself all bent out of shape on comments made on a forum like this you're in for one hell of a shock when you enter the real world.

My earlier remarks were aimed more generally about this board, but if the cap fits, etc. Some of us old-timers were working a full time job at 16 and supporting ourselves by working at the sharp end of real retail, those first few weeks were scary. Baptism of fire comes to mind. Hated my first boss, thankfully it was only 6 months before he moved on. Been in retail of one sort or another for the last 39 years, so you could say it's kind of part of me now, too old to change now.

The world is changing. Not every young person must make their bones through spit and sawdust labouring these days.

That probably rubs the older generation up the wrong way, but just think of how much worse it's going to be in 30 years' time. We have already entered (and are only going to get deeper) into a world where good money is made by tapping on a keyboard.

It's always better to start as early as possible in my opinion. Experience through trial and error is vital in this game. Someone starting at the age of 16 could have four years of that under their belt by the time they're 20, and therefore have a very different (and improved) perspective on the way to go as a result.

 

[kulture]

I have deleted a lot of pointless posts on this thread. Please stop the off topic discussion about age, it is tantamount to a personal attack, which is not permitted.

 

[Kiwi1234]

I have deleted a lot of pointless posts on this thread. Please stop the off topic discussion about age, it is tantamount to a personal attack, which is not permitted.

Thank you Kulture, much appreciated.

 

[Deleted member 226268]

I have deleted a lot of pointless posts on this thread. Please stop the off topic discussion about age, it is tantamount to a personal attack, which is not permitted.

Seems to me that the entire thread was pointless