What is the Best Agent to Buy on 1688？
Table of Contents
What is 1688 Agent?
A 1688 agent is a company or individual that helps buyers to source and purchase products from 1688.com. 1688.com is a Chinese B2B marketplace where manufacturers and wholesalers sell their products to businesses and individuals. 1688 agents can help buyers to find the best products, negotiate prices, and arrange shipping.
Wholesale products from 1688 is sometimes not as simple as imagined, it needs some assistance in a specific environment, depending on different customers, the way of assistance may also be different.
But you can’t avoid the assistance of 1688 agent, at least for now, so when you consider what is the best agent to buy on 1688, you need to consider the following three factors:
1. Communication skills:
Basic text communication is no problem. If you have more operational needs, English speaking and expression are a must.
2. Transparent:
The trust here mainly includes the transparency of the entire transaction. Every transaction will give you a clear transaction list
3. Company:
The scale is around 10-20 people. A company that is too large cannot handle such trivial work as 1688, and a company that is too small is likely to go bankrupt and then disappear with the payment for goods, especially for personal salesmen in SoHo.
Therefore, compared with the small percentage of commission, the quality of your goods and the safety of your payment are the most important.
What is the Best Agent to Buy on 1688？
Generally speaking, a qualified 1688 agent will involve the following basic steps:
View your product link
You usually buy from different suppliers, and then organize the links to the products in a table…
- The agent first helps you check whether it is infringing and whether it can be transported…
- Whether the MOQ is too small to buy
- Is the value too low for the manufacturer to deliver
- Is the price/performance ratio too low to be worth buying?
- Help you match a suitable transportation plan.
Help you place an order
Before placing an order for you, 1688 agent needs to collect the amount of your payment, and any excess will be refunded and any deficiency will be compensated.
If you have a lot of products, you can log in to their account to add them to the shopping cart.
After all these are completed, the 1688 agent can place an order. However, this is only the beginning of the whole process.
Help you collect the goods and check the quality
Because the goods come from different suppliers, generally all the goods will be collected in about 7 weeks. The work of this process includes:
- 1. Count the product quantity
- 2. Find obviously wrong SKU products
- 3. Is there any obvious quality defect in the appearance of the product?
It is worth noting that the agent cannot help you eliminate all quality problems. Some subjective problems cannot be solved through communication. You need to purchase product samples for further confirmation, for example, too red, too thick, color deviation, too thick, too thin…
Return the goods with obvious quality problems
When the product quality inspection is completed, the agent will return or replace the product with quality defects.
However, this process will take extra time, so the first order needs to wait patiently for the agent to process it for you. It’s not that they didn’t spend time, but that the whole process does take so much time…
Record the actual purchased product quantity and amount.
In many cases, suppliers cannot guarantee inventory, and agents will refund them for products that cannot be shipped.
If you really need this product, you can wait for the supplier’s new product to come out of stock, or change the supplier and buy it elsewhere.
Help you take a reasonable packing method…make a packing invoice
First of all, many people will ignore this link. Good packaging can help you save the loss of subsequent goods during transportation. Because it is difficult to ask the shipping agent or supplier to compensate for the damage of the goods, it is necessary to take precautions and reasonable packaging in the future.
Secondly, reasonable packaging can also save space and reduce transportation costs.
After all this is done, the agent needs to help you list all the products that are boxed.
Settle the final payment
Because there will be problems with returns and refunds, the actual payment amount is different from what you paid us, so we have to make statistics, give you a detailed bill, how much difference we will refund to you… or use it Deduct the freight, or put it into the payment for the next batch of goods…
Calculate the weight and volume and choose a reasonable transportation method…
From the very beginning, 1688 agent is unable to help you calculate the accurate shipping cost, because the real volume and weight of the goods cannot be counted.
So when you ask 1688 agent to calculate the shipping cost for you from the very beginning, they can only give you a reference price and cannot provide an accurate assessment.
When your product is finished packing, your agent will provide you with a suitable shipping channel, you need to pay the shipping fee, and then arrange the shipping. Finally give you a tracking number.
1688 Dropshipping
You can’t use proxy 1688 shipping website to do these things when your purchase amount is more than 1000 US dollars… We strongly recommend that you must have a middleman to help you process these information… nothing else Way…at least when you’re buying in bulk.
1688 Scams
There are a number of scams that 1688 agents may attempt to pull on their clients. Here are a few of the most common:
- Asking for upfront payment. Some 1688 agents may ask for a large upfront payment to their personal bank account. This is a red flag, as legitimate agents will typically only require a small deposit upfront.
An effective test method is to ask them if they have multiple payment methods. For example, our company can provide multiple combination payment methods such as Hong Kong, overseas, banks, Alibaba trade assurance, Alipay, etc. Having a complete payment collection method is an implicit condition that the previous business was proceeding normally.
- Charging hidden fees. Some 1688 agents may charge hidden fees that are not disclosed to the client upfront. This can include things like quality control fees, shipping fees, and storage fees.
- Substituting inferior products. Some 1688 agents may substitute inferior products for the products that the client ordered. This can be done by using cheaper materials or by shipping products that are not up to the client’s specifications.
- Disappearing with the client’s money. Some agents may simply disappear with the client’s money after they have received payment. This is known as a “runner scam.”
Here Are Some Tips to Avoid Being Scammed by a 1688 Agent:
Here are some additional tips to avoid being scammed by a 1688 agent:
- Do your research. Before you hire an agent, be sure to research them thoroughly. Read reviews from other clients and check their website and social media pages.
- Get everything in writing. Make sure to get all of the terms of your agreement with the agent in writing. This includes the agent’s fees, payment terms, services offered, and refund policy.
- Use a trusted escrow service. If you are concerned about being scammed, you can use a trusted escrow service to hold your payment until the agent has delivered the products and services that you have agreed upon.
- Be wary of agents who offer deals that seem too good to be true.
- Be careful about giving out personal information, such as your bank account number or credit card number, to an agent.
- Be suspicious of agents who pressure you to make a decision quickly.
Finally, there are unlimited possibilities to purchase from 1688, and your thinking should not only be limited to benefit agents to help you purchase products, use your unlimited creativity, and expand your import business with 1688 agents. The fact is that all of this is happening occur.
