If you’ve been taking action on the previous importing articles, you already know that Alibaba is the world’s biggest B2B marketplace. In fact, it may be a little too big…

There are millions of suppliers listing millions of products on Alibaba. Finding suppliers is easy, the hard part is selecting the right one.

The most dangerous obstacle in your path to the perfect supplier are the ocean of scammers and middle-men.

Luckily, it’s not too difficult to avoid these low lives.

Below, you’ll find a step-by-step guide on avoiding scams, middle-men, and fraud on Alibaba.

Step 1 – Review the Company Profile

The Company Profile consists of information both verified and unverified  by Alibaba.com. For an untrained eye, this short list of information might seem to be completely irrelevant to the purpose of the visit, which is to find the right products. However, you can get a good idea about whether this company is worthy to include in your sourcing process by analyzing the points listed below:

Company name

(Note – Applies to companies registered in Mainland China only)

• City: Small and medium-sized companies have the city they are located in as part of their company name. For example, “Ningbo Everbright Trading Co., Limited”.

• Province: Larger companies can be named after the province where they are located. For example “Zhejiang Everbright Trading Co., Limited”.

Business Type

• Manufacturer: This indicates that the supplier is only selling products it manufactures. A manufacturer is limited by its production line, set-up and tooling. For this reason, manufacturers tend to be highly specialized in their field of products.

• Trading Company: Some Trading Companies are independent while others own, or are owned by, a manufacturing company. While everybody wants to cut out the middleman, one has to keep in mind that many factories in Asia have neither the knowledge nor resources for exporting their produce. This function can then be filled by a Trading Company. On the other hand, some Trading Companies offer no added value and will only raise your costs.

• Manufacturer & Trading Company: Many factories have expanded their operation by not only selling and marketing products made in their own facilities, but also by trading similar products manufactured by other factories. While this Business Type indicates that the company is indeed a manufacturer, you cannot be sure whether they are manufacturing or subcontracting your products. So it’s tough to be sure if this supplier is a good choice or not.

Management Certification

Quality issues is a serious risk when importing from China. In fact, you’re more likely to lose money due to quality issues then getting scammed. Quality issues can  never be completely eliminated, but they can be minimized if the supplier applies a Quality Management System (QMS) such as ISO9001.

• Even multinationals such as Boeing and Toyota have quality issues. A “good manufacturer” is not a manufacturer that is completely free of quality issues, but one that is continuously monitoring quality during production. You know it’s time to walk away from a Chinese supplier when they claim to be completely free of defective and damaged products.

• When a defective product is discovered, the supplier should have a routine for how it should be managed. Some suppliers remake, others repair. The most important thing is not how they deal with defective products, but that their employees know exactly what do to when something goes wrong.

• ISO compliance require more than having a quick check up before the products are packed and shipped. The supplier is required to inspect incoming raw materials and components before production, set up inspection stations during productions and do final inspections after production.

• Some products require stricter quality assurance than others. These products have a low error tolerance and a mistake at one production stage can ruin a whole order. If you are importing “complex products” such as electronics or mechanical equipment, a Management Certification should be a basic supplier requirement.

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Tel: 86-755-36656797

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