How to Buy from Alibaba and Sell on Amazon? (Free Quote)
Suppose you want to buy from Alibaba and sell on Amazon, you must be familiar with how to find a right supplier on Alibaba first.
However, before you start, you may need some guidelines:
Determine whether they are manufacturing factories or traders, and assess whether it is a fake factory. Buying things from Alibaba and sell on Amazon is not a easy task, all is about your import experience.
Table of Contents
How to Find Who is the Chinese Supplier on Amazon?
To identify a Chinese supplier on Amazon:
- 1. If the supplier is already selling on Amazon, find one of their products, click on the store name, and then select “View Storefront.” Here, you’ll see their business name, address, and contact information.
- 2. If you’re looking for random Chinese sellers, search for relevant product keywords on Amazon. Typically, Chinese sellers can be identified by their unusual brand names. Once you find a potential Chinese seller, follow the steps above to view their details.
However, it’s important to note that many sellers are not the actual manufacturers but rather intermediaries. Finding the original factory, especially for private mold products, can be quite challenging.
What you can do instead is to work with reliable suppliers who can produce products of similar quality. Keep in mind, though, that the products may not be exactly identical to the originals.
How to Buy from Alibaba and Sell on Amazon?
Buying from Alibaba and sell on Amazon, you have to find a supplier and send the goods to Amazon FBA directly. All the process involve many things, and you have to pay attention each step to avoid the big loss in the future.
Below are some of the amazing steps you can follow for selling your private label product on Amazon:
1. Research trending products:
The first thing is to research trending products. It’s necessary to come up with the trendy products to boost your sale on Amazon. Amazon is a good place to start selling. Here are some amazing ways of finding the best products.
- Size – always ensure that your product fits inside a standard shoebox.
- Weight – it’s best to sell products that are lightweight (no more than 3 pounds).
- PPC-eligibility – you need to choose those products which are eligible for PPC.
- Durability – always check for the durability of a product. It will help your chances of success on Amazon.
If you choose a product that has a good track of selling, you would be able to eliminate all kinds of risk.
2. Take a few tips from the competition:
After creating a list of potential products, you should look at our competitors who sell the same products. You can check for their selling price, marketing methods, and reviews, etc. This step will help you find the right product, which has good potential. One more thing is, always be sure to confirm that the market for a particular product you have chosen is not overcrowded.
3. Recognize Your Target Audience and Do Product Research:
The #1 step is to identify your target audience. This is the initial step that you need to follow before doing anything. Identifying your audience is necessary and challenging.
But by knowing to whom you are going to sell will help you leverage your game. It helps you plan a better brand strategy. However, once you have identified, you can conduct proper research. It will let you decide how to proceed with your brand.
4. Choose a branded name for your store:
Brand naming is of utmost importance. It should be simple yet effective. It shouldn’t belong or complicated. You can choose a short name, which customers can easily remember.
Note: The name should be relevant to your brand. However, if you are thinking of going with a single product, then you can have the same brand name. But if you want to expand your product range, then it’s better to come up with something interesting which resonates with your brand. But whatever you are going to do, always choose the best brand name for the products.
5. Design your brand identity:
It’s important to design your brand identity with proper research. It should include everything about your brand which your customers will associate with your goods, like:
- A unique logo: It should be memorable and straightforward.
- Attractive Color Palette: Maximum choose 3 colors combination that will resonate with the audience.
- A Powerful slogan: Select a concise, and powerful slogan which will give customers an idea of what your business is all about. If you struggle with the creative side, try a free slogan generator for inspiration.
For instance, if you are not good at creativity, then you can hire a good designer. At another place, you can also use a free logo generator. Nowadays, many websites let you customize logo, in different shapes, text, and icon.
However, once you are fully satisfied with your brand identity, it’s time to implement consistency. Creating a unique brand is the first step, and then other steps are the later ones. Uniqueness is what makes you different from others, and can help you set your game apart.
6. Register a trademark:
Next step is trademarked items. These could be identified by either a ™ or ® symbol. The ® indicates that the item is registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The ™ is a proprietary, defines as a common-law distinction which shows that you are the first one to use the trademark, and the infringing on this trademark could confuse public from identifying the good’s source.
However, the seller is not required to get registered a trademark as an Amazon seller; however, doing so has many benefits. Here are those:
- Your business will be better protected from any damages or forgers.
- It will allow you to enlist multiple products into Amazon’s Brand Registry.
- You will get access to Amazon’s A+ Content feature, by which you could add visual content.
To register a trademark, you can make an application on the EUIPO website or even on USPTO. But it could be time-consuming. But if you are not really ready for a trademark, you can use ™ symbol to stop competitors from using your content. Research well before doing so, make sure you’re not infringing someone else’s trademark.
7. Use custom packaging:
The last step is to use custom packaging. This is a crucial step in creating your brand or business. You can use your logo to look professional, and this way can increase the brand’s recognition.
But make sure you are fulfilling all the requirements of packaging. If you are not, then you can experience long delays while importing goods.
However, you can still do this by taking the necessary steps:
- You can search on the internet regarding packaging requirements.
- Ensure your supplier uses standardized packaging
- Take a close look at what you are competitors actually doing.
Here is a list of information which you may be included in product packaging to meet all the requirements.
- Must have GTIN (Global Trade Identification Number)
- The country you are originating products from
- A fulfilment Network Stock Keeping Unit Identifier
- Any applicable certifications and legal warnings
- Your brand name
However, once you are done with the research, you can simply design your packaging. But it must showcase your brand. Try to be creative enough from your competitors.
8. Start the Investigation
When you are ready for the pre-work, you can start searching for factories interested in cooperating with Alibaba.
Suppose you want to sell a laptop bag, you enter related keywords on Alibaba, such as: laptop bag
If you find that there are too many search results, or the results of the previous search pages do not meet your needs, you can further add the material or purpose of the product to make sure that the keywords you use are accurate enough. You can see the relevant options on the product characteristics in the left sidebar, and you can further check the Supplier’s conditions.
In addition, you can also narrow down the search location. For example, the factory in Guangzhou, because it has the longest history of international trade experience, there are also many local factories cooperating with multinational companies, which can produce goods that meet the standards and specifications of all parts of the world.
9. Create a Supplier List
And when you read the product pages of some sellers, you need to fill in the relevant information of these sellers in a form, including the following information:
- Company Name
- Company location
- Factory/Trade Company
- Number of employees
- Contact method (telephone & email)
- Minimum order quantity
- Commodity price
- delivery time
- Product page
- Company website URL
10. Reach Out to the Alibaba Suppliers
Now you may have 10 lists on hand. You can contact the manufacturer directly through instant messaging function “Chat Now” (Ali Wangwang), or through email.
Although it seems that you are the buyer who has the advantage, there are many big manufacturers on Alibaba. While you are choosing sellers, they are also selecting buyers. Therefore, whether it is in instant messaging or email, you must let them understand your needs in the shortest possible time, and how they can assist you, using item numbers, numeric columns, blank lines, and your own contact information, It’s all very basic!
The following uses Chinese as an example, because most of the sellers are from China, but there are also a small number of sellers from other countries in the world, such as India and Malaysia. You can use the same format to just convert the language to English:
If you are an expert on the product, you can ask more detailed questions about the product manufacturing process. And you can tell from the manufacturer’s response whether they are professional enough, whether they can make the products you want, and whether they have answered your questions and decide whether to cooperate with them.
For example, can they provide you with the minimum order quantity, the certification required for the product, and whether it has passed the certification inspection standards?
Tips for the first letter: The first email’s purposes to get a response from the seller.
Unless you know the goods you are going to buy and the factory’s manufacturing costs (usually you don’t know), the only way you can know better is to write to different manufacturers and ask if they can provide you with quotations and samples.
In the first letter, you have to reveal who you are, tell the manufacturer the quantity you want to import, the ideal total number of orders within a year (avoid one-time orders as much as possible), the smallest order quantity, etc.
11. Select a Right Supplier on Alibaba
After you have collected the list of various Amazon manufacturers, you will usually know the product’s price range. Be especially careful here with suppliers with very low prices because they may not use the specifications you want (reduced specifications), or only accept very large orders (small profits but quick turnover).
Suppose you want to buy the same quality goods at a lower price and have a smaller order quantity. In that case, you should start with a smaller trading company (the number of people in the company is 15-20), because they are likely to have a relatively low price.
There should be 3~5 vendors left on your list at this stage, and you can decide which vendor you want to cooperate with. Generally speaking, you may want to request a sample from the seller to select the final Supplier, but doing so may cause some problems:
- You will get “the best quality sample”
- The freight cost of a single product is higher
- Cannot actually sell on platforms such as eBay and Amazon to see sales response
Because you only ask for one sample, if you encounter a poor-quality seller, he may send you the “best quality sample”. No matter how you look at it, you will think “Wow! This product is really cheap, good and exquisite.”, But it is difficult to say whether the products shipped afterwards have the same quality assurance.
In addition, when you only buy one product, the shipping cost will be relatively high. The manufacturer may be able to provide you with a sample for free, but you must pay the shipping cost yourself.
Furthermore, you can’t actually measure the market’s reaction with only one sample. Therefore, it is recommended to order at least 10 products to give you a chance to do market evaluation instead of just using one product’s inventory and putting it on the platform from high.
Bargaining Tips:
If you order a large number of goods, you can try to discuss with the seller that he will pay for the shipping, but don’t ask for a reduction in the goods’ unit price. For example, if the total amount of your order is US$5000 and the shipping fee is US$500, then you can ask the seller to pay the shipping part instead of asking him to give you a 10% or 5% discount on the total amount.
12. Receive the Shipment
After you receive the goods, you should contact the Supplier to let them know that you have received the goods. Still, you need a period to evaluate the possibility of future cooperation, and let them know that you will discuss the follow-up cooperation methods with them as soon as possible. Start preparing for the following order.
And when you decide to cooperate with a supplier, you can ask the factory to provide photo proof when manufacturing samples or the first batch of finished products to ensure that the product’s production meets your needs. You can’t just pay the money and waiting for the shipment.
3 Buying from Alibaba and Selling on Amazon Tips
1. Popular Products
Many sellers’ common misunderstanding is that they like to follow popular products and sell them as soon as they see that a specific product is well sold, without considering the potential safety hazards. I believe that many experienced sellers know that popular products are at high risk of infringements. Often many sellers are warned for blindly selling infringing products without a registered trademark or brand first. They may take off their listings or close their stores.
In addition, Amazon now has new regulations for popular products. Amazon will capture your product performance, ranking and sales to determine whether your popular product has an advantage. Some sellers who do not have a competitive advantage will Restrict their sales of popular products, and the specific recovery time is unclear.
2. Product Quality
When it comes to product quality, it is also a problem that many sellers can easily ignore. Poor product quality will lead to negative reviews and higher return rates. Suppose the seller does not have a professional product development and after-sales service team. In that case, we recommend that the seller should avoid products with complex functions, high product iteration capabilities and after-sales requirements. Start some products with relatively simple functions.
3. Product Purchase Price
When purchasing products, some small sellers like to lower the purchase price, causing many suppliers to dare not cooperate with you. On the one hand, as a seller and a supplier, both parties need to ensure their own reasonable profits; on the other hand, the supplier cannot be sure whether the seller can run the goods, so they cannot lower the price you a discount.
It is recommended that sellers add some professional source channel groups and purchasing groups to learn more about some products’ cost and price to be more professional. Then, the supplier feels that you have the strength to do his products well.
4. Product Delivery Time
The seller has chosen some suppliers with unstable delivery dates. For example, you are purchasing some hot-selling products, and all major sellers are selling them. If your purchase is small, there will be no advantage in the supplier’s ordering and delivery, and the delivery time will be longer than others.
It is recommended that sellers do not place all their hopes on hot-selling products. You can consider choosing some hot-selling products while choosing some less competitive products. Early investment is inevitable. Sellers can first push products with low competitiveness and establish a trusting cooperative relationship with suppliers. This will help suppliers give you priority.
Buy Alibaba Sell amazon Alternative:
Here are some of the best places to source your Amazon products from besides Alibaba:
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Amazon sourcing agent
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Supplyia.com
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1688.com
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Taobao.com
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JD.com
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AliExpress
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Banggood
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DHgate
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Global Sources
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China wholesale website
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Amazon Suppliers Directories
Buy from Alibaba with Alibaba Agent:
I believe that through these small methods above, you can be buy from Alibaba and sell on Amazon conclusion. If you don’t know what is good for sale and what is the most popular, then you can try to go to Amazon or Shopee to see which products are popular, and you can get a certain profit after reselling! But…if you first time to buy from Alibaba, you can consider to hire a Alibaba agent.
Honestly, we must tell you that doing e-commerce itself is not an easy task, nor does it take you to use a small investment or a short time to see immediate and huge wealth rewards, unless your products exceed , Explosive, unique, super-powerful-amazing!
At last, If you need a Amazon sourcing agent, please let us know.
[…] We always go back to the old truth that if it looks too good to be true? Suppose you want to use Alibaba to import goods from China for sale on Amazon, eBay, or elsewhere. You should read this article very carefully because you are […]