Alibaba has become a globe’s biggest online B2B market with over 500,000 inquiries per day. The products sold on Alibaba are very diverse, grouping in over 5,900 categories. With many advantages such as wide range of options, low price, easy to access, great trade assurance, Alibaba deserves to be at its dominant position. In this article, we provide you with guides to buying wholesale household plastic items on Alibaba and useful tips that you cannot find anywhere else.
1. Why Choose Buying Wholesale Household Plastic Items on Alibaba
World biggest online market for B2B transactions
Alibaba is the world’s biggest online market specialized for B2B transactions. Alibaba hosts millions of suppliers from many industries, offering a wide range of products in over 5,900 categories. This big database provides buyers with various options to explore and compare, making it easier to find suitable suppliers. They can also provide white-label or customized options for unique products, making them different from other products on the market.
With over 903 millions active online buyers (2022), the site boasts over 500,000 inquiries per day. To take the advantage of low prices and high quality, many retailers choose Alibaba to source from suppliers worldwide.
Low price
Many of the suppliers are manufacturers, not the intermediaries, so the price offered is often lower. As a wholesale platform, Alibaba allows buyers to follow a wholesale pricing model with bargaining options based on the quantity. That’s why buyers can source products at a more reasonable price on Alibaba.
Easy and free access
Alibaba allows users to easily get access to information in details, including company profiles, product lists, certificates and customer reviews. This enables transparency to assess supplier credibility and make informative decisions. This is totally free of charge, sellers don’t have to pay for any fee to get access.
Alibaba offers various choices of platforms. Buyers can make purchases either on Alibaba.com or by Alibaba app or Alibaba website. Actually, all actions on Alibaba are so easy that there is little need for guides to buying wholesale household plastic items on Alibaba.
Great trade assurance
Alibaba offers a trade assurance program with product quality assurance, payment protection, and on-time shipment guarantees. Under the Trade Assurance protection, buyers can require a refund in about 30 days if there are faulty products. Besides, the buyers are also protected by the great payment solutions, including Western Union, credit card or wire transfer. This helps mitigate risks for buyers and build trust between buyers and sellers.
2. Guides to Buying Wholesale Household Plastic Items on Alibaba
These are comprehensive guides to buying wholesale household plastic items on Alibaba:
2.1. Create an account
On PC/ laptop:
- Step 1: Access to alibaba.com and click on the “Sign in” to create an account
- Step 2: Fill in information as required, including your name, country/ region, trade role, email, etc. Then you just click on “Please slide to verify”
- Step 3: Check your email to get the verification code and type it into the confirmation box.
- Step 4: Keep signing in and use this account to find products and suppliers.
On app:
- Step 1: Open the app, click on “Register or sign in” to create an account
- Step 2: Select your country or region you are living in and fill in required information
- Step 3: Check the email to get verification code and fill it in the confirmation box
- Step 4: Keep signing in and use the app
2.2. Define Your Niche and Product Criteria
Because there are a wide range of products sold on Alibaba, you must clearly define your niche and criteria to choose products. By doing this, you can leverage the filter tools of Alibaba to find the best ones.
You can answer these questions to make a comprehensive set of requirements:
- What kind of suppliers do you want to source from?
- What niche do you want to penetrate?
- Are there any gaps and unmet needs of that market that create opportunities for you?
- Who will you sell these products to?
- How can these products compete with other existing options?
This step is very important, which requires a lot of effort put on doing research. To have profit, you must set the criteria at the beginning stage, from which you can make a decision to source from profitable suppliers later on.
2.3. Look for Suitable Suppliers & Contact
To find suppliers, you just need to type the product name on the search bar at the top of each page. Based on the criteria set, you can leverage the filter to find the short-listed searching result adjusted to your requirement. Ideally, you should have a list of twice or three times more suppliers than your actual need, as you will shorten them down.
It is recommended that you prioritize the Verified Supplier, which has a label of verified status on the product image or in the supplier profile. You can also assess a supplier based on their rating, years of operations and historical data.
Contact potential suppliers in your list for further information and remove inappropriate sellers that mismatch your requirements. This is some type of information you may need to get after contacting suppliers:
- Range of products and prices
- Suppliers’ willingness to give or send sample products
- Payment terms and shipping terms
- Fulfillment options available
Another way to look for reliable products or suppliers is using Alibaba Top-ranking, which offers the list of best-sellers and suppliers on Alibaba.
Inochi is one of the leading plastic household items manufacturers from Vietnam. Despite being a newcomer on Alibaba, Inochi has exported our products to over 80 countries. We offer premium plastic housewares with the price of about 20% lower than other products in the same segment, which is our competitive advantage on Alibaba. Please have a check at Inochi site on Alibaba and contact us for better deals. Please visit Inochi manufacturer on Alibaba.
2.4. Make a Product List
Now you have to wrap up your work in a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet includes all of the products you are going to buy, along with the suppliers. You should arrange them in a priority order, with main suppliers first and followed by backup suppliers. Then, you put the prices and target profit margins for each item, and don’t forget to include your assessment of these products or suppliers.
All in all, you have an overview of what you have researched. Thereby, you can easily make comparisons and place orders.
3. Tips for Buying Wholesale Household Plastic Items on Alibaba
These are helpful tips for buying wholesale household plastic items on Alibaba that you can find nowhere else. These tips are shared by Alibaba purchasing specialists of Inochi’s customers.
- Everything is negotiable with Alibaba sellers. A good negotiation aims to reach a fair deal, not a best deal for either seller or buyer. Therefore, you should think carefully because some manufacturers will sacrifice the quality to meet your low price requirement.
- For the first small order, you can order from Alibaba to have buyer protection from the platform. But in the next purchase, you can directly contact the seller via email or website to negotiate for a better deal, as sellers don’t have to pay platform fees.
- To find the original manufacturer, you use 1688.com (a Chinese wholesale platform for Chinese manufacturers) rather than alibaba.com. However, this tip is only applicable to find Chinese manufacturers.
- The quotes and messages from a real manufacturer are often professional and detailed, showcasing their deep understanding about the products. Try to ask more detailed questions to understand the products and also check their credibility.
This article gives you detailed guides to buying wholesale household plastic items on Alibaba and some helpful tips as well. If you need more help, feel free to contact us. Inochi also offers household plastic items on Alibaba with high quality but affordable prices. You can either find us on Alibaba or connect with us directly via information below for the better deals. Thank you for reading!
