How to buy products from Alibaba in India?
(Alibaba wholesale India) This is general doubt people tend to have before buying the product from Alibaba before we jump to the answer lets see what is Alibaba about.
Alibaba was founded on 4 April 1999, they provide E-commerce and retail service platforms for both B2B (Business to Business) and B2C (Business to Customers) The service includes Buying Products directly from the Factories / Industries in China at very minimal prices. Alibaba ecommerce website is used worldwide and Alibaba wholesale India is used in India.
We can say that there is no such product which isn’t available on Alibaba. People from all over the world buy products through Alibaba and many have been able to achieve greater profits due to very low price on products. Buying from Alibaba is very simple if you know the steps to follow before buying products.
8 steps for buying Products from Alibaba to sell in India are as follows
Be Prepared with the Important Documents
- Import Export Code (IEC): Technically, this is the only document you need if you want to import anything from China. You can apply for IEC on Directorate General of Foreign Trade or you can let delivery service handle it all.
- PAN card details or Aadhar card details.
- Goods and Services tax identification number (GSTIN) if opted.
Getting Familiar with Alibaba’s E-commerce store
First, you need to search for the product, its recommended to use short tail keyword rather than long-tail keyword as by doing so many products will be shown with lower price along with many suppliers to choose from.
For Example let’s say we are looking for “Black Medium size crop top” simply search for “Black Crop top” as you will have many options to choose from with lower price rather than searching for “Black Medium size crop top” as it may show you fewer results thus leading to less number of suppliers and higher price quotes.
How do we find a genuine supplier?
More than 80% of the suppliers on Alibaba are genuine so the chances of being cheated is very minimal. However, you should never take this lightly and always deal with precaution as you will be dealing with unknown buyers.
Few steps to consider are as follows:
- Trade insurance: Trade insurance is Alibaba’s free service that protects your orders from payment to delivery. It provides 100% buying security, but only from the providers that are assured of trade. Always select buyers who have trade insurance to ensure that your item is delivered on time as per your provider or manufacturer’s agreement. It guarantees the quality of your product as per the contract with your supplier or manufacturer. Almost all of the suppliers on Alibaba are under the Trade Assurance suppliers. So, you need to consider some additional pointers before you select your manufacturer/supplier.
- Gold Supplier: A gold supplier does not necessarily imply the provider is real, but it is an indirect sign that the provider is reputable and confident in Alibaba’s eyes. Gold Supplier is actually a paid membership program under which a third party identifies the authenticity of the supplier or manufacturer by ensuring that it is legally registered. It is believed that if a supplier has been a gold supplier for more than 2 years then it is almost impossible for him/her to be a scammer and you can completely count on this.
- Assessed Suppliers: Assessed Suppliers are China, Hong Kong & Taiwan Gold Suppliers that are verified by third-party inspection companies provides you with in-depth information on the Suppliers. This involves verified videos, pictures and many other inspection criteria, it’s not going to be incorrect to say that not being genuine is nearly impossible for an evaluated provider. But the issue is that very few suppliers on Alibaba are actually assessed suppliers as it is a very expensive membership plan and is only available to a certain number of countries on Alibaba.
Some Other useful Criteria’s to consider are:
Transaction rate: Transaction rate tells us about the total number of transactions a given supplier has made in a period of 6 months. It is represented by orange-colored diamonds. The higher is the transaction rate, the more experienced and skilled the supplier is.
Response rate: According to Alibaba “Response rate is the number of buyers you responded to within 72 hours of receiving the inquiry” needless to say a higher response rate tells us that how active a supplier is.
Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ): Every supplier has a specific MOQ on Alibaba but it is quite flexible, many times I’ve brought various items from many suppliers on Alibaba which were less than the listed MOQ. So never be afraid to ask for a lower MOQ some factories might offer you that quantity without increasing the price too much.
IN LAYMAN’S Terms
When you search for products always use Long tail keywords and prefer asking for Quotations, in this way you can get information about MOQ (Minimum order quantity) and whether the Seller is Gold Seller and Trade assured, always prefer sellers with more than 2 years in service.
Also, do check how many transactions have been made and reviews. Once you are happy with all the information contact Seller ask them to send Live pictures or videos to see how they look without photoshop.
After Satisfaction check, if they can send you a free sample and choose FedEx or DHL this two may seem expensive but trust me its worth it as they will take care of Customs Duty and provide you Faster Delivery.
How to ensure the quality of the product?
You can’t genuinely guarantee the value of the product by just seeing its pictures on Alibaba, Images might offer you a reference to what the product might look like, but you can never really be sure of the quality. If you are planning to sell a product from Alibaba to Amazon, eBay, Flipkart or any other E-commerce platform it will be essential for you to choose a high-quality product. And to do this, you just need to follow this one simple, but super-effective golden rule.
Always ask for a Free product sample
It is always advisable to get a free sample first before you buy in medium or large quantities. Now here is the catch This free sample is not actually free. What? Shocked???? Yeah!!! You need to pay for the shipping charges, those shipping charges might even exceed the cost of the product you are ordering this happens because every shipping company has a minimum weight slab limit but always get the sample no matter what. If even by a slight chance you ordered something in bulk which does not meet your quality expectations then you’d be facing a crisis.
Yes, you can return the products on Alibaba but that comes with its own charges, Alibaba is not like Amazon it doesn’t entertain you with free returns. Even if you have to pay 60$ for a product which costs you around 10$ when you order it in bulk, Order the sample first then think about the bulk purchase.
Which shipping company should you choose?
Although every provider tends to have certain agreements with only a few shipping firms, DHL and FedEx are the two most common shipping firms used by Alibaba providers.
You don’t need to worry about customs clearance as these businesses have their own CHA, which will manage all the customs clearing process on your part and ensure that the package is delivered at your doorstep.
Personally, I’ve never tried anything besides FedEx and DHL, yes, they’re a little costly, but they’re always making timely deliveries and ensuring free custom clearance.
Which method of payment should you choose?
When making a purchase on Alibaba, you should always pick the safest and most commonly known payment technique.
Even though the provider may seem genuine and friendly, you should always first plan the safety of your company!
As you can see, Alibaba has a lot of payment techniques, but more than 80% of consumers use their debit/credit card and PayPal for business insurance providers.
If you are using PayPal, you will not be covered under Alibaba’s trade insurance system as PayPal is not yet integrated with Alibaba’s website, but needless to say, PayPal is completely safe in itself and it protects your money from payment to delivery.
Both of the payment methods charges come around to 4-5% (May wary) commission fees if you pay through them, which makes almost no effect on the cost of the product. Personally, I’ve never used anything besides PayPal and Debit card for trade assurance supplier, if the supplier is not under trade assurance, I won’t even consider requesting for a price quote.
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So does this mean, you need not have knowlege of Custom Duty to import from China with help of DHL or FedEx?
No, you need not have any Knowledge about Import or Custom Duty as everything will be taken care by FedEx or DHL.
Thank you for your reply.
So in your next blog where you have mentioned about the Customs Department procedures. Do you think that I can ignore and wait in my home to receive my parcel?
What are the activities that need to be done since you order on Alibaba?
Yes, you can ignore it as everything will be taken care of by your delivery agent.
You just need to keep tracking your order if there is any problem your delivery agent will contact you or seek KYC documents for further processing of Customs.
Thank you so much. I was a little hesitant due to lack of knowledge in Customs but after reading your blog, now felling little relaxed
I have identified the supplier, if I order say 500 units from Alibaba.com and delivery address in India.
who will take care of the customs and help the product clear the customs?
what I have to do?
Choose FedEx as your delivery they will take care of everything you will need to pay custom charge at the time of receiving the product