make sure you watch this whole video
from start to finish so that you know
how to pick the best supplier on
alibaba.com for your e-commerce business
let's get right into it
what's going on people welcome back to
my channel if you're new my name is sam
i'm a full-time seven figure ebay and
shopify seller in today's video what i'm
going to be doing is jumping into the
laptop and showing you exactly what you
need to know when it comes to navigating
through alibaba.com website i've been
using alibaba.com now for a few years
and if you're not aware of what it is
it's a website that you can go to to
find high quality suppliers for your
e-commerce business whether you want to
sell on ebay shopify amazon or even if
you just want to sell products generally
speaking anywhere you can use
alibaba.com to find high quality
supplies and that's exactly what i'm
going to show you in today's video and
as always i don't want to waste any more
time i want to jump straight into it so
if you find any value in the video at
any point don't forget to press the like
button don't forget to subscribe as well
hit the bell notification so that
youtube can let you know when a new
video has been released let's not waste
any more time let's get right into it
alright guys i've just jumped onto
alibaba.com's homepage and i'm going to
walk you through the steps that i did
recently to find a new supplier for a
product that i just started selling on
one of my ebay stores which is a dog
quote so because i already knew what
product i wanted to sell i went straight
to the search bar and i typed in the
product that i was trying to find but if
you're not aware of what product you
want to sell you can go through all of
these different sections here as you can
see we've got new arrivals top-ranked
products personal protective equipment
drop shipping but as i already said i
already know what product i'm going to
sell so i'm going to come to this bar
right here and type in dog quote all
right so from this point what you're
gonna do is look at the image of the
product to make sure it's the exact same
product that you're searching for
because as you can see there's different
types of dog coats so first and foremost
what you need to do is make sure that
the image of the product matches the
product that you're looking to import
from alibaba.com and then secondly what
you need to do is look at the amount of
years the supplier has been on
alibaba.com now when it comes to trying
to find the best supplier on alibaba.com
i like to go for a minimum of at least
four or five years depending on what
product i'm selling if it's a brand new
product then the years might be a little
bit lower but if it's a product that i
know has been around for many many years
eg a dog coat then i'm gonna look for a
supplier that's been there for minimum
five six seven years the more years the
supply has been on alibaba.com the more
i can trust the quality of their product
because every single year suppliers need
to pay a membership fee for them to
remain on the alibaba.com platform and
if they've had any complaints or any
issues then they're not going to be able
to renew their membership so this is
just a quick thing that you guys need to
be aware of when it comes to trying to
find the best supplier in addition to
making sure that the supplier's been
there for a certain amount of years what
i've personally been doing recently is
making sure that the supplier also
accepts trade assurance now trade
assurance is alibaba's form of payment
so what happens is that when you find a
supplier that you're happy with and
you're ready to send them the money what
you're going to do is send them the
money using trade assurance and
alibaba.com is going to essentially hold
on to the payment until you confirm that
you're happy with the goods they give
you a certain amount of days after
you've received it to make sure that
you're completely happy with it another
thing that you guys can go and check on
alibaba.com is this badge right here
that says verified this is going to let
you know whether or not a supplier has
been inspected by a third-party company
which means that someone has gone there
and has double checked to make sure that
they're a real company so this is going
to give you a little bit more assurance
when it comes to picking any particular
supplier on this platform now when it
comes to you guys trying to find the
supplier to using alibaba.com another
thing that i want to point out to you is
that you can scroll down on this page
and you're going to be able to see a lot
more details about the company that
you're looking at so as you can see
there's some videos of this particular
factory and their office so you can see
their workers you can see whether or not
they're real company they're putting
some faces behind their company so these
are some of the things that you can look
at when it comes to picking a supplier
we can also see the amount of employees
they have they've got 90 employees and
they've got six patents which means that
they're a serious manufacturer they're a
serious company to do business with if
you scroll down a little bit more you're
going to be able to get a lot more
details about the actual product in
terms of any model numbers any material
that is made from you know any
information that you need to know about
the actual product you're going to be
able to view it in this tab right here
and if you click on company profile
you're going to be able to view a little
bit more information about the actual
company so for example you're going to
be able to view the business type now
this particular supplier that we're
looking at is a manufacturer and a
trading company which means that they
manufacture the goods and because
they're a trade company it means that
they also buy products from other
manufacturers wholesalers now when it
comes to contacting whatever supplier
that you found that you want to use on
alibaba.com what you're going to do is
come to this section here where it says
contact supplier and if you don't
already have an account you're going to
need to sign up so if you want to sign
up you can use the link in my
description down below that's going to
take you straight to the page where you
need to sign up pay in all of your
details one question that i get a lot of
is do you need a company to sign up with
alibaba.com and i don't believe you do
you can sign up as an individual and you
can buy as an individual for your
company so you don't necessarily need a
registered company for you to do
business on alibaba.com okay so once
you've signed up and you've clicked on
contact supplier this is the page that
you're going to see now from this point
what you need to do is type a message to
the supplier so that they know that you
have a serious buyer and that you're
someone that they even want to do
business with because you also need to
present yourself in the best possible
way so that you can find the best high
quality supplier now what you're going
to want to do is write out an email so
i've already pre-written an email that
i'm going to go through right now so
let's go so this is an email template
that i normally send to my suppliers
that i find so i'm gonna read it out for
you i said hello my name is sam and i
run a couple of online stores on
platforms like ebay shopify and amazon
so the reason why i put that there is
because i want them to know that i am an
online seller and that if i was to do
business with them i'm gonna be able to
sell through all of these different
platforms and i have experience with all
of these different platforms as well the
next sentence says i have seen this
product you have listed on alibaba.com
and i was interested in starting a
long-term partnership with you i then
said i wanted to place an order for 15
pieces of this product but i was
wondering if you could answer the
following questions now the reason why i
want to order 15 pieces is because when
i'm trying to source a new product for
my online stores i always start off with
at least 15 pieces this allows me to
test the quality also allows me to test
whether or not i'm going to be able to
sell the product successfully if i'm
able to sell all 15 pieces with no
issues no complaints then i know that i
can make a large order for the product
next time maybe 30 pieces but i always
start off with at least 15 pieces and
then slowly work my way up bit by bit
depending on how quick i'm able to sell
and depending on any complaints that i
get from customers so the first question
i ask is do you accept paypal now the
reason why i ask them if they accept
paypal or not even though i'm going to
send them the money using trade
assurance is because in my experience
i've noticed that the suppliers that
accept paypal i'm going to have less
issues with them because for them to
have been able to open up a paypal
account they would have needed to
provide a lot of documents a lot of
evidence so that's the reason why i like
to make sure that my suppliers accept
paypal this is something that i've done
over the years i don't really look into
it too much anymore because i know that
i'm going to be able to get my money
back if i have any issues with a
supplier with trade assurance but it's
just something that i'm used to asking
so that's why i put it there the second
question is do you offer a drop shipping
service and if so how long would it take
for my customer to receive the parcel
please provide all details on your drop
shipping services so the reason why i
asked for this is because i may want to
use the supplier to drop ship the
products directly to my customers and i
have noticed that a lot of the suppliers
on alibaba.com do offer a good drop
shipping service in terms of their speed
and efficiency so that's the reason why
i've asked that question right there the
next question is do you accept
alibaba.com trade assurance again this
is a very obvious question i just want
to make sure that they actually accept
it because even though it might say that
they accept it on their company profile
i still want to confirm that they
actually accept trade assurance before i
decide to use them i then asked what
warranty comes with this particular
product now when it comes to warranty
when you're selling the item on whatever
store or whatever platform you're going
to sell on whether ebay shopify amazon
you're going to be getting returns
you're going to be getting items sent
back for whatever reason and you also
want to know whether or not you're going
to be able to send it back to the
supplier so i always ask my suppliers if
they will accept it back and what
warranty comes with the product some
suppliers don't offer any warranty some
offer one month some after 12 months so
i like to ask this question at this
opportunity and the final question i'd
like to ask is what is the lead time if
i wanted to order a bulk shipment of 10
to 30 pieces so for anyone out there
that's not aware lead time essentially
means how long it's going to take for
the supplier to prepare the goods for
them to ship it to you so some suppliers
have the goods on hand which is perfect
i always like to look for suppliers that
have the products available so i want
them to you know come back and tell me
that it's gonna take three days lead
time maybe two days four days at the
most but i don't wanna wait two weeks
three weeks for them to be able to make
the goods or get the goods from wherever
they're gonna get from and then ship it
out to me and then finally what i say is
can you answer all these questions and
please give me a total price for 15
pieces including any shipping slash
payment fees i will have to pay i have
contacted other suppliers that i feel
will be a great fit for us so if you can
please get back to me as soon as
possible so the reason why i put this
little section there is because i want
them to answer my question directly i
don't want them to waste my time and
that's the reason why i've told them
that i've contacted other suppliers so
that they know that they need to be
quick if they want to get my business so
what i'll do from this point is just
copy everything just like that come back
to this section right here paste it in
just like that and then send the inquiry
so what i do from this point once i've
contacted this supplier is i copy and
paste the same message and i send it to
every other supplier on alibaba.com that
meets my criteria and then i just sit
back and wait for the replies now one
key question that i get a lot of is what
other fees are included when it comes to
using a supplier on alibaba.com and the
main fees that you're going to need to
pay or the main costs that are
associated with trying to buy products
in bulk is sending money to the supplier
in terms of the actual cost of the
product you're also going to need to pay
shipping fees to the supplier so the
supplier can obviously ship the goods to
you you're also going to have to pay
payment fees when you send the funds to
the supplier no matter what payment
processor you use whether it's trade
assurance paypal or any other online
method of sending funds to a supplier
you're always going to have to pay some
sort of fees and you're also going to
have to pay import fees and import taxes
so these are not necessarily paid
directly to the suppliers sometimes they
are but i'm not going to go too much
into details into that in today's video
but most of the time you're gonna have
to pay an importation tax to the
delivery company that you used whether
it's fedex ups dhl no matter what
delivery company your supplier uses
you're gonna have to pay some form of
tax to that delivery company and then
the delivery company is going to pay the
customs department in your country the
delivery companies sometimes deliver the
goods first and then you pay afterwards
depending on which delivery company you
use but i've got more videos coming out
real soon that's going to break down
various different things that you guys
need to know so make sure that you
subscribe down below hit the bell
notification so that youtube can let you
know when these videos have been
released and if you found any value in
this video at all don't forget to press
the like button and don't forget to
comment down below if you got any
questions because i'm trying my best to
respond to every single question that's
underneath this video alright guys i'll
see you on the next one make sure you
stay safe out there peace
[Music]
you