In this post, we’ll discuss how to place an order in Alibaba For Beginners in 2022.
Save your hard-earned money and order wisely.
If you’re looking for a way to make your Amazon business more profitable, Alibaba.com is one of the best tools out there.
Alibaba is a B2B trading platform that offers wholesale and drop-ship services to buyers.
This means that most, of the buyers and sellers on Alibaba.com are businesses.
Buyers come to Alibaba.com to purchase goods or materials both cheaply and in bulk that they will ultimately resell for a profit.
If you’re just starting and new to working with vendors and manufacturers, it might seem overwhelming at first.
You don’t know how to order on Alibaba or what the process looks like.
When you have your first steps in business it is hard to start.
Everything seems too complicated and requires too many operations.
To help with this we prepared a short guide on how to make your first order on Alibaba.com.
If you are sourcing products for your upcoming Amazon FBA business.
1. Create an account
- First things first, you need to sign up as a buyer!
- Just go to Alibaba.com and click “sign up” register as a buyer and follow the prompts.
- You’ll have to put in your contact information, the name of your business, and what you are looking for.
- You will be redirected to a page where you can choose what type of account you want to create. Click the “buyer” option.
2. Search for a product or service
- Once you have created your profile, you can start browsing for products!
- You can search by category or keyword—it’s totally up to you!
- Make use of filters to save time.
3. Find a right supplier
When looking at products and services, make sure to check out the company profile and other information.
These are key in helping find legitimate and best suppliers that meet your needs.
4. Negotiate with your supplier
Contact the supplier and talk to him about your requirements and concerns, then negotiate until you agree on a price.
In communicating with the suppliers, you need to be direct and specific on what you need and what your requirements are.
You can also request a quotation based on your requirements.
5. Order Sample
- You can order a sample to check the quality of the products.
- It is better if you can order a customized sample such as adding your brand logo to see how would it looks with your own branding.
- They will send you a payment link to pay for the sample.
- However, there are suppliers that would offer free samples and you just need to pay for the shipping.
6. Create a list of shortlisted suppliers
- It’s important that you have suppliers options to choose from if you find many suppliers that meet your criteria.
- Create a list and compare suppliers based on their MOQ, product quality, pricing, production time and shipping time, and all other factors that are important in the production of the goods.
7. Choose your supplier
- After considering all the factors you need for your product that you think would be competitive and advantageous against top competitors, choose the best supplier for establishing a mutually beneficial business relationship.
- Continue negotiating with the suppliers and it would be better if you could negotiate for a lower product cost.
8. Start your order
- When you have agreed on everything, ask for the Payment Invoice to check.
- The supplier will then draft a payment link where you can pay your order once you agreed on the prices and payment terms.
- Make sure all are correct in the invoice.
- Suppliers have different payment terms, some would require you to pay 50% before the production and would just ask for the full payment once the production is done.
9. Pay your order
- There are many ways to pay the supplier.
- Some would require you to pay outside the Alibaba platform but Alibaba doesn’t recommend this as buyers would no longer be eligible for Trade Assurance.
- Trade Assurance is a service provided by Alibaba.com to help international trade protection.
- When you choose Trade Assurance as a payment method, your payment will be protected if there is any shipping problem after receiving your items.
If you want to place an order on Alibaba.com, there are a few different ways to pay. The accepted payment methods include:
- Credit cards
- Debit cards
- Online bank payment (eChecking)
- Wire transfer (T/T)
- Western Union
- PayPal
You have also the option to use “Pay Later,” which gives buyers 6 months to pay for their order with a 3.5% minimum interest rate.
There are hundreds of thousands- if not millions – of suppliers on Alibaba.com from all over the world.
Alibaba’s main goal is to help connect manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors. The process of ordering on Alibaba.com for beginners is not too hard if you follow our guidelines step-by-step.
The issue you may face is the language barrier. Most suppliers do not understand English and use auto-translation so you need to be clear with your requirements.
However, if the supplier refuses to cooperate, then you should think twice before ordering from them. Double-check their location, and contact details, and make sure that they have a minimum order quantity.
As a gift, download free the RFQ (Request Form Quotation) Template we prepared for you.
You can send it to suppliers with your request and they’ll fill it out themselves.
Using this template, you can easily compare the quotations of the suppliers you are sending queries to.
Please note that this form is only a guideline and you may edit it as needed.
We hope we answered your question on how to place an order in Alibaba For Beginners.
If you have any more questions or concerns just send us a message and we’d gladly get back to you within 24 hours.
We worked hard on this post so if you like our content we’d highly appreciate a follow, like, comment, share, or save. Thank you!
Please put this information at the bottom of ALL the articles.
“Get advice on what products to sell, how to increase sales and profits, and more. Book a FREE consultation using the link below 👇👇👇.
https://calendly.com/louisetomalon/45mins
Get huge discounts on awesome tools you need to succeed on Amazon using our affiliate links below:
- Get Helium10 50% OFF – Helium10 at 20% OFF for 6 months!
- Get JungleScout up to $250 OFF – Jungle Scout starting at 14% OFF
- Get Canva pro 50% OFF – No need for Photoshop – create Amazon listing images in minutes!
