You have a
physical or digital product to sell or maybe you are looking to buy one; how
can you easily find buyers or sellers online anywhere in the world? My number
one and the world’s largest B2B (Business to business) portal is Alibaba.
1. About Alibaba
The Alibaba Group was founded in 1999 by 18 people under the leadership
of Jack Ma, a former English teacher from Hangzhou,
China and the
actual Executive Chairman. It started working out of a Hangzhou apartment. Today, Alibaba has 25 affiliated
entities, employs some 24,000 people worldwide in more than 70 offices in
Greater China, India, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Alibaba’s mission is “To make it easy to do business anywhere,” the vision is “To become the first platform of choice for
sharing data; To be an enterprise that
has the happiest employee; and
To last at least 102 years.” Concerning values, Alibaba’s tenets are
“customer first, employee second and
shareholder third.”
2. How to buy on Alibaba
Since
sourcing the right supplier or product can be tedious, Alibaba makes it simple for
traders to trade with suppliers worldwide by providing a wide range of free buyer tools and services:
a. AliSourcePro
With this, a buyer posts a
Buying Request, Alibaba approve it and suppliers on the site send quotes. Alibaba
check
them and select the best ten for the buyer. The buyer compares the different
quotations, contacts their chosen supplier(s) for more details, requests
samples and why not orders online.
b. Search Products
This tool
enables buyers to enter the product they are looking for in the Search Bar and
then click Search to find them.
c. Contact Suppliers
This tool
works much in the same way as the above.
d. Check Messages
Here, the buyer
checks quotes and messages from suppliers in their inbox or Message Center
on the Alibaba site.
3. How to sell on Alibaba
Tools,
explained by video and text, provided businesses sell are:
a. Create a Company Profile on Alibaba.com
When doing this, it is important to display a
large number of products. This is not only the first step to being found online
by buyers on Alibaba, but the more products you display, the more you offer buyers
and the more inquiries you would receive. A Gold Supplier Membership gives you
unlimited product display with first-level priority listing.
Why is it important to
display more products?
b. How to Display Products on Alibaba.com
c. How to make a good product photo
Product listings with photos attract buyers the
most on Alibaba. A seller must therefore provide professional and high-quality
photos.
d. How to make a high quality product
Since high quality products can help a buyer
get more exposure from potential buyers, it is important to consult the video
and text tips on how to make a high quality product.
e. How to post product showcases
Product
Showcase is provided exclusively for Gold Suppliers. This helps them to promote
key products in their Product Showcase and get higher search rankings and up to
8x more exposure to buyers.
f. Group and sort products
This
enables a seller to arrange their products into groups so that potential buyers
can browse them more efficiently.
g. Site design on Alibaba.com
Alibaba provides sellers a “Site Design”
function to help them customize their premium online storefront to make it more
attractive and professional to potential buyers.
h. Tips for Customized Minisite
This
function allows the seller more room to design their storefront or Minisite on
Alibaba.com. They can use it not only to inform buyers about their company
strength, features or marketing activities without much difficulty but also better
attract buyers.
i. How to manage messages and contacts
This is a communication management tool to help
the seller easily and efficiently track the messages they send and receive from
other Alibaba.com members.
j. Using Trade Manager
This is Alibaba’s instant messenger tool that alerts
potential trade partners that a seller is online and ready for business. It
features in instant messaging and file transfer functions.
k. Keeping your Alibaba account safe
To keep your Alibaba account safe, some
effective tips provided account holders are “How
to set or change Security Question, How to improve the security level of
password, How to set a Sign-in seal, How to check "Last Signed In"
Record”.
l. Online scams to watch out for
Guidelines are provided on the site to help
members protect themselves from spam, spoofs and fraud:
m. How to recognize and deal with phising
emails
Such messages are usually sent by email or by
instant messenger. Alibaba provides some guidelines for members to recognize
and deal with them.
4. Premium Memberships
While
membership is free, Alibaba offers various premium memberships:
a. Gold Supplier
The
benefits of this membership are:
·
Unlimited product display with
first-level Priority Listing
·
Exclusive Access to Buyers before
Free Members
·
Real-time statistical reports to
understand your online performance
·
Product Showcase makes a powerful,
visual impact
·
Premium Company Website attracts
serious buyers
·
Verified company status to increase
buyer confidence
·
Targeted exposure to tradeshow
buyers worldwide
·
Promotional opportunities with
global Big Buyers
b. Get Verified Membership
Alibaba designed this membership to help serious suppliers reach more quality
buyers and receive more inquiries in a fast, cost-effective way.
i. Benefits of Verified Membership
- After verification, a company’s profile and products receives higher rankings in buyer searches, feature a special trust logo to gain greater trust and reach buyers faster, and receive a special grant of 300 free product listings and free online training.
ii. How it works
Get started by submitting your detailed company information. Alibaba
will then verify that your company is real and registered. Then your company
will be in International trade management anytime, anywhere to:
- Manage Product Listings / Buying Leads
- List Company Profile
- Access contact lists fast
- Communicate with trade partners in real-time, and
- Send and receive messages
iii. Start now
The world economy is in a glum, financial insecurity is a reality,
markets are down, taxes are getting higher, you therefore need to pad up your
business, especially if it is small, to survive.
5. Service and tools
Alibaba provides members
● Trade
Manager
● Manage Contacts
This makes making contacts easy by organizing
members’ contacts by groups or enabling them to easily remove them from their
list.
● Message box
Messages are displayed by time in a
user-friendly view.
● TradeManager Login History
View login history and IP address for account
safety.
● History Manager
Chat history is displayed by time. Now members
can find it easier and faster.
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Subscribers will receive Trade Alerts twice a
week:
Trade Alert gives you updates on:
● newly
added products
● trends
and demand for products
● supplier
information
● latest
buying requests, etc.
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Interested? Sign up here
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