Alibaba

[ljean]

I'm considering importing a few thousand dollars worth of clothing to peddle online to test the market for a particular concept. How do I protect myself from getting scammed buying from China? I have read dont use suppliers who wont take Paypal but most of them do not it seems. Will a regular CC provide enough protection?

 

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[G-Man]

How do I protect myself from getting scammed buying from China?

You can't totally right out of the gate. It takes time to build relationships with suppliers.

Will a regular CC provide enough protection?

Call your AMEX rep. They can usually tell you.

BTW, there are some great concept validation threads that might be worth exploring before you give some random your cc info.

 

[Envision]

Read Walter's book.

 

[Walter Hay]

Few genuine suppliers will accept payment via CC or PayPal.

One of the best forms of protection is certainly that of building a relationship with a supplier, as G-Man says, but before you can do that you need to find a genuine manufacturer who has been properly audited by an independent and trustworthy 3rd party. I don't include Alibaba's token verification or onsite inspection in that category. Check out my AMA
Sharing my lifetime experience in export/import. Product sourcing specialist. and see why Gold Supplier status is useless without other checks being done.

Walter

 

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[ljean]

Few genuine suppliers will accept payment via CC or PayPal.

One of the best forms of protection is certainly that of building a relationship with a supplier, as G-Man says, but before you can do that you need to find a genuine manufacturer who has been properly audited by an independent and trustworthy 3rd party. I don't include Alibaba's token verification or onsite inspection in that category. Check out my AMA
Sharing my lifetime experience in export/import. Product sourcing specialist. and see why Gold Supplier status is useless without other checks being done.

Walter

Thanks, I'm reading thru it, lots of info.

If I plan on selling said items for $15 each, what is the most I should be paying for them to be able to make a reasonable profit per item? Including import costs, CC/paypal fees, etc. I may or may not use Amazon/eBay to sell but I would likely use a fulfillment service at some point if it takes off.

 

[Walter Hay]

Thanks, I'm reading thru it, lots of info.

If I plan on selling said items for $15 each, what is the most I should be paying for them to be able to make a reasonable profit per item? Including import costs, CC/paypal fees, etc. I may or may not use Amazon/eBay to sell but I would likely use a fulfillment service at some point if it takes off.

At such a low selling price I would not want to buy for any more than $3. Even then, the margin is likely to be a lot less than I would usually consider.

Walter

 

[100speed]

For Chinese Suppliers, a great way to not get scammed is to search for your product through Aliexpress.com . If you do that , aliexpress offer their own buyer protection as it is targeted towards consumers and you can get quality validation from the reviews left by consumers. To buy in bulk all you need to do is send a message to the supplier and ask them to quote you, I have done this for several products including my latest product Im selling . Only thing is to make sure that the supplier has positive reviews before you order.
The only downside from this is that they may charge a little more than usual however most quotes include free shipping which is a big bonus!
Hope this helps!

 

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[Walter Hay]

For Chinese Suppliers, a great way to not get scammed is to search for your product through Aliexpress.com . If you do that , aliexpress offer their own buyer protection as it is targeted towards consumers and you can get quality validation from the reviews left by consumers. To buy in bulk all you need to do is send a message to the supplier and ask them to quote you, I have done this for several products including my latest product Im selling . Only thing is to make sure that the supplier has positive reviews before you order.
The only downside from this is that they may charge a little more than usual however most quotes include free shipping which is a big bonus!
Hope this helps!

I am glad you were lucky, but for a serious business, who would rely on sourcing that involves luck? Sorry, but I hope other members on the forum don't take your advice.

Many of the products sold on Aliexpress are sourced from two other Chinese sites that I won't name, where liquidation and reject stocks are sold. (No - I'm not referring to Alibaba) Quality doesn't enter into the thinking of the vendors on Aliexpress.

You can't rely on the Feedback quoted on Aliexpress. They will rarely publish bad feedback and instead if no feedback is provided, Aliexpress will publish positive feedback. Despite vendors displaying descriptions of their factories, you will often be dealing with someone who operates out of their bedroom, and who can and will change their business name in a flash if they get complaints. I have visited the premises of such businesses and I know the facts first-hand.

Aliexpress vendors are the subject of literally thousands of online complaints. Here are some of the sites where you can browse through the many thousands of complaints from unhappy customers. You won't find such complaints on the feedback on Aliexpress.

As for the Buyer Protection scheme, I have written extensively on this subject in my AMA, including about the numerous loopholes that benefit the vendors. Worth searching.

Here are some links where you can browse some of the thousands of buyer complaints:

www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.aliexpress.com
www.influenster.com/reviews/aliexpresscom
www.resellerratings.com/store/Aliexpress
www.trustpilot.com/review/www.aliexpress.com
www.aliexpress.pissedconsumer.com

Walter

 

[strobe]

^^ Thanks for sharing those links, a lot of valuable information.

Sounds like OP wants to do a shopify/clothing site by my guess. My friend spent about 20k buying clothes from alibaba. His results were, get custom clothing concept made and sent over (1 - 2 months to arrive), place larger order, first 1 or 2 orders came but were such low quality he had to throw them out, 5k gone. Find another supplier, wait 2 months to arrive, 1 year later he finally has good enough clothing to sell.

If I were you, get the clothes made locally, test the market, if they sell and sell well, maybe book a flight to China, Vietnam, Pakistan etc and check out the manufacturers yourself, start looking for overseas suppliers to cut your costs.

 

[100speed]

I am glad you were lucky, but for a serious business, who would rely on sourcing that involves luck? Sorry, but I hope other members on the forum don't take your advice.

Many of the products sold on Aliexpress are sourced from two other Chinese sites that I won't name, where liquidation and reject stocks are sold. (No - I'm not referring to Alibaba) Quality doesn't enter into the thinking of the vendors on Aliexpress.

You can't rely on the Feedback quoted on Aliexpress. They will rarely publish bad feedback and instead if no feedback is provided, Aliexpress will publish positive feedback. Despite vendors displaying descriptions of their factories, you will often be dealing with someone who operates out of their bedroom, and who can and will change their business name in a flash if they get complaints. I have visited the premises of such businesses and I know the facts first-hand.

Aliexpress vendors are the subject of literally thousands of online complaints. Here are some of the sites where you can browse through the many thousands of complaints from unhappy customers. You won't find such complaints on the feedback on Aliexpress.

As for the Buyer Protection scheme, I have written extensively on this subject in my AMA, including about the numerous loopholes that benefit the vendors. Worth searching.

Here are some links where you can browse some of the thousands of buyer complaints:

www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.aliexpress.com
www.influenster.com/reviews/aliexpresscom
www.resellerratings.com/store/Aliexpress
www.trustpilot.com/review/www.aliexpress.com
www.aliexpress.pissedconsumer.com

Walter

Thanks for your input! Always glad to take criticism on the advice I give, especially from an expert ! However although I completely agree with the fact that some suppliers don't deliver what is promised, thus leading to the large number of bad consumer reviews - my experience of having run 2 successful dropshipping businesses using Aliexpress in 2 completely different niches (and buying wholesale from these same suppliers) does suggest otherwise. All products I received and added to my store were of higher than expected quality, and from my own experience alone It shows that you can find trusted suppliers through the platform as long as due diligence is carried out, I.E you order the item as a consumer before you buy in bulk to verify quality, so you don't have to rely on reviews and you can assess the quality for yourself. For clothing, it may well be a completely different ball game if custom designs are needed.
The fact that the vendors are on Aliexpress also doesn't prevent you from performing further checks on your supplier, and the suppliers I have worked with have been willing to process funds via PayPal, although I assume not all will.
Anyway, thought I'd clarify my advice, so it doesn't seem like Im giving it out with no reasoning.

 

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[Walter Hay]

Thanks for your input! Always glad to take criticism on the advice I give, especially from an expert ! However although I completely agree with the fact that some suppliers don't deliver what is promised, thus leading to the large number of bad consumer reviews - my experience of having run 2 successful dropshipping businesses using Aliexpress in 2 completely different niches (and buying wholesale from these same suppliers) does suggest otherwise. All products I received and added to my store were of higher than expected quality, and from my own experience alone It shows that you can find trusted suppliers through the platform as long as due diligence is carried out, I.E you order the item as a consumer before you buy in bulk to verify quality, so you don't have to rely on reviews and you can assess the quality for yourself. For clothing, it may well be a completely different ball game if custom designs are needed.
The fact that the vendors are on Aliexpress also doesn't prevent you from performing further checks on your supplier, and the suppliers I have worked with have been willing to process funds via PayPal, although I assume not all will.
Anyway, thought I'd clarify my advice, so it doesn't seem like Im giving it out with no reasoning.

It's not just "some suppliers" but if you look up the reviews on those links you will find that it's thousands. In fact the same applies to Alibaba , with thousands of people being scammed by suppliers there.

I understand that you're happy with your system, and I hope it continues to work for you, but for the benefit of others, I would say that buying a single product as a consumer is totally inadequate Due Diligence. Yes you can do further checks on suppliers regardless of where they are listed, but I know how difficult doing those checks can be for people who lack experience or training.

I suggest that it's far safer to use sites where genuine independent inspections have been carried out and the detailed reports can be read. Some such reports appear on Alibaba, but they must be read! I know of too many who have been satisfied to see a report symbol and they haven't bothered reading the report. Not all inspections result in reports that I would rely on after reading them.

PayPal protection is not always what buyers imagine. Search this post in my AMA for details: Sharing my lifetime experience in export/import. Product sourcing specialist.

Walter