Are you excited about your wholesale business? Because we are! If you didn’t know that your wholesale business can become the best version of you and the most accurate reflection of your efforts, we are here to tell you about that!
Even though we will do the biggest part of the work, we want you to know all the details that successful wholesalers know and implement. We want to make sure that your investment not only doubles, but is also well-protected. Believe it or not, there are a lot of issues concerning online businesses that can threaten investments. For example, did you know that a significant part of wholesale business owners uses Alibaba as their main source for products? Yes, even though many people associate this platform with fake services and products, we assure you that if you know where to look, you will find the best products that will sell like hotcakes.
50 Shades of Sellers?
Today, we will talk about Alibaba “sellers,” who can obviously be fake and of course, real and high-quality. But how to understand which supplier is your friend, and which is not?
See, this is specifically important when it comes to ecommerce platforms. At a brick and mortal store, you would just walk in, and if the place looked fishy, you would walk out before buying anything, right? It’s common sense! But the issue is a bit different when it comes to online businesses, because there is nowhere to walk into! All you have are images, online storefronts, and customer reviews. Not much to go on, unless you know what you’re doing!
Telling Apart Black from White
Let’s agree that fake suppliers who provide fake or unauthorized products are not the best option for a profitable business. Who in their right mind would think so? This is why Alibaba has created a special system according to which you can choose and identify the supplier that you’re looking for. In order to better understand Alibaba’s “grading” system, let’s have a look at the options given on this platform.
Gold Suppliers – Even though all that glitters is not gold, suppliers under this category usually appear to be golden! If a company wants to have the status of a “gold supplier,” it should first of all pay money to the platform. Presumably, fly-by-night companies wouldn’t spend so much money on a simple category, so chances are very low that you will work with a fake Gold Supplier.
Trade Assurance Supplier – If a supplier that you randomly found in Alibaba has the “Trade Assurance Supplier” title, you can be sure that their products are safe. This category ensures that products are tested and examined before the delivery. Apart from that, Trade Assurance Supplier warrants you that the order will arrive safe and what’s more important, on time!
Assessed Supplier – Even though first two criteria are enough for you to identify the legitimacy of a certain supplier, there’s another metric that can help you with this. If a supplier falls under this category, you can be sure that a third-party assessor checked the supplier and created a comprehensive report based on the inspection. If you want to know more about the final verdict of the inspector, you can always download the report from the website.
Even though Alibaba provides you with an adequate amount of information concerning the suppliers, sometimes these criteria are not enough. Have a look at our previous article where we describe all the steps that you should take to verify the supplier based on the info that they provide. With the help of these metrics you’ll identify the position that a certain supplier occupies on the platform, but what about the info that is hidden from Alibaba’s eyes?
Finally, let’s agree that double-checking has never hurt anyone! The same applies to any marketplace, for example Amazon. Unfortunately, the same system that Alibaba has for its sellers does not actually exist on Amazon, but there are ways you can check if the person you’re purchasing from is legitimate and will not, for lack of a better word, scam you! But we will talk about this later on! Until then, have a safe shopping experience online, until you create your own business!
