Fact check Alibaba

Alibaba is a Chinese trading platform, similar to Ebay, for example. Alibaba has been around since 1999 and is managed in Hangzhou. Chinese companies, producers and agents offer various goods for sale on Alibaba. The target group is primarily European companies and wholesalers.

Theoretically, anyone can offer their goods on Alibaba, as the suppliers are not checked. Many traders on Alibaba are so-called agents who work with different producers.

You can buy just about anything on Alibaba - textiles, electronics, machines, tools, packaging, etc.

Alibaba is intended for companies; there are other, similar platforms for private individuals, such as AliExpress. With most merchants on Alibaba, you can only buy goods in large quantities.

Some large companies do not want to be associated with Alibaba because they are afraid that this will put them in a bad light and they do not want to earn their major customers.

Although many retailers on Alibaba state that they produce products themselves, it is often the case that they are actually sub-retailers or agents. This means that they do not produce the products themselves, but buy them from other producers. This can make the goods significantly cheaper or more expensive, depending on which products they buy from the producers. This is because they often buy the discarded B-goods, resulting in very low prices. However, if they buy high-quality goods, it becomes more expensive, as a middleman comes into play.

As a buyer on Alibaba, you have virtually no legal certainty, which means that it is very difficult to get justice even for very clear complaints. For larger orders, it may be worth getting a lawyer involved. For smaller orders, it is usually not worth it, as it is too expensive to translate all documents into Chinese and no consulates are involved.

A goods inspection by you directly or an external provider is not planned and does not usually take place.

Yes, there are definitely reputable traders on Alibaba. In our opinion, however, it is very difficult to distinguish these reputable traders from the many dubious ones.

Since the purchase is not made directly via Alibaba, but only between the merchant and you, the payment method depends entirely on the respective merchant. The individual merchants offer different methods. It is important to note that you should not pay the full amount in advance, as this is a good way of exerting pressure in the event of delivery problems or other problems.

You can avoid many of the potential problems that can occur when buying over the counter by working with a sourcing agency like us. This is because we take care of quality control on site so that complaints do not arise in the first place. However, if problems do occur, we will help you with your complaint. As the delivery goes through us, there are also fewer problems with delivery difficulties or delays.

Are you interested in working with us or do you have further questions? Please send us a non-binding inquiry using our contact form.