How to Buy on Alibaba and Sell on Amazon

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One of the most commonly asked questions among new Amazon sellers is ‘Where can I find products to sell on Amazon?’ While there are several different answers to this question (including eBay), an experienced seller probably tells you to go to Alibaba.

Alibaba is an excellent platform for small businesses to sell their own products. You can find thousands of different products to buy from Alibaba.com.

If you are not familiar with Alibaba and how it is overwhelming, it can be overwhelming! In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know to source quality products for Amazon FBA successfully.

Here’s what you will learn:

What is Alibaba and is it safe?
How to find suppliers and order products on Alibaba
The risks of sourcing from Alibaba
How to sell Alibaba-sourced products on Amazon

What is Alibaba?

Alibaba is a global commerce platform that connects merchants with manufacturers and suppliers for thousands of products. If you’re looking to start a new business selling products online, this is where you should go. Unlike traditional eCommerce sites like Amazon, where consumers buy one-time items, Alibaba is a platform for businesses to purchase products in bulk and then sell them online or in physical stores. Alibaba connects you with different manufacturers around the world so you’ll be able to find high-quality products at incredibly low prices — even if your company doesn’t have a huge brand yet! Whether you’re the CEO of a large enterprise or just starting as a small entrepreneur, you can sign up today and start sourcing products from Alibaba.

Why do Amazon sellers use Alibaba?

Many Amazon sellers use Alibaba to source products because of the simplicity of their user-friendly website and, well, low prices. Most of the manufacturers you encounter on the platform are based in China, where they can produce quality products. at a much more affordable price than, for example, in the United States or Canada. Any seller can now go to Alibaba and search for the type of product they want to sell and find thousands of potential suppliers. Finding a manufacturer for your product has never been easier.

What types of products is Alibaba good for?

Use Alibaba if you’re looking to create your label product that is unique and branded to your company. If you have your very own custom logo and/ or design specifications for a product, Alibaba offers a great place to find suppliers who can help you bring your ideas into reality.

DO NOT use Alibaba (or any other online marketplace) to purchase branded products. Although there are many reputable suppliers listed on Alibaba, there are also some who attempt to sell counterfeit products of popular brands such as Disney or Adidas. These items may look tempting to buy, but they are not authentic. You can easily spot fake products because they do not bear the brand name or logo. In addition, these sellers often offer low prices, so you might end up paying too much for an item that does not meet your expectations.

Is Alibaba safe?

In a word, yes! Alibaba is generally very safe for sellers to use. However, when using Alibaba, you should be aware of counterfeits, payment scams, and suppliers who send high-quality samples but low-quality bulk orders. When ordering products from a supplier, you will likely place a large order, so you should ensure that the company with which you are doing business is legitimate.

Like Amazon, Alibaba is made up of sellers trying to earn your business. Because of this, you must contact multiple vendors and request samples for evaluation before placing a large order.

Alibaba gives a stable fee portal for all transactions so that you are confident that your fee or credit score card data is safe. They additionally provide an order safety provider known as Trade Assurance so that it will get you your cash returned if the product great isn’t the same as what you and your dealer discussed, in addition to in case your order became now no longer shipped on time.

As long as you make payments through Alibaba’s payment system, your money will be safe and secure.

How to decide what to sell on Amazon

Before you may discover providers on Alibaba, you want to determine what you need to promote on Amazon! If you’re a novice seller, you typically want to focus on products that have high demand and low competition. This will come up with the first-class threat of competing with already set up manufacturers in your niche.

Product studies are a vital step for your Amazon supplier journey, so make certain you make an effort to well examine the goods you’d want to promote. Having stated that, don’t get caught with “evaluation paralysis.” Many aspiring dealers get stuck up in a lot of facts that they become crushed with what to promote and can’t make a decision. If you’ve got multiple thoughts you believe you studied could paint well, simply choose one and get started!

When analyzing products to sell on Amazon, you need to consider three things: profitability, demand, and competition.

Profitability

To make sure that the product you’re promoting is profitable, you want a way to supply it for much less than you’ll promote it for. The 3X rule is a superb method for brand new dealers to decide the profitability of a product: 1/three of your sale is going closer to product costs, 1/three is going closer to Amazon fees, and 1/three is your profit, which is going to you.

Example: If you buy an object for $10, you need to be capable of selling it for $30. $10 can pay for Amazon fees, and your anticipated earnings need to additionally be $10.

Demand

Are customers actively searching for and buying this product on Amazon? If you can determine the demand for your niche, you can be confident in investing in a specific product. Without the right demand, you can end up with a product that no one wants to buy.

Competition

There may be a need, but what is the competition like? You need to find the right balance between demand and competition when selling products on Amazon. When there is too much competition, it becomes harder to win the competition. The assortment had to be presented to the customers. If the competition is low and there is a reasonable demand, you may have found a winner!

How do you find an excellent product to sell? The best way to conduct product research for Amazon is using powerful tools backed by accurate data.

Jungle Scout offers a few different tools you can use to find and analyze products to sell on Amazon: