How to Shop From Alibaba to Kenya- Step by Step

Are you a business person looking for ways to get stock for your business? Or are you planning to open a business soon? In this step by step article you will learn how to shop from Alibaba to Kenya or any of your destination, what you need to look out for to have a success trading.

Alibaba is the largest wholesale platform that has thousands of traders selling products globally, it in based in China and hosts manufacturers and businessmen from different provinces.

With the easily accessible internet access you no longer have to travel to China, it takes money and time to make your way to China.

If you are at the beginning stages of your business you may not have the resources to travel, this article will show you the exact steps to shop from Alibaba to your country…without further a do lets go…

Research on Items to Sell

The first thing you need to do is research on items you want to be selling, if you are a small trader ( stocking goods worth upto about $2000) then you need to research well on unique products that you can easily sell and fetch a good profit margin.

There are large traders who import goods in bulk and you will not be able to compete with their pricing, so am giving you the first secret to shop successfully with Alibaba and make a great income.

Get the

You can trade on Alibaba straight from your phone,just down load the and get started. If you are using a computer then go to Alibaba.com to get started.

How to Shop From Alibaba to Kenya-How do you check your alibaba suppliers?

To shop from Alibaba means to get suppliers and this is the most important part, take notes naaa

You can look for products by typing specifically what you are looking for at the search bar or going through the categories under the menu bar. when searching, use related key words to get more products results, example; if you are looking for phone cases, type ‘PHONE CASES’.

The related key words that you can also search are ‘ phone case manufacturers, or phone case for Samsung phones, this way you get more specific results.

What to watch out for when shopping from Alibaba

Suppliers who are verified- This is clearly indicated as verified meaning that Alibaba has visited and verified their products and warehouse actually exist, they are confident with them and so yo should too.

Suppliers with a golden Badge

Who are gold suppliers? these are premium or paid members of Alibaba, this means they have the products which they want to be listed higher in the market to maximize profit, gold suppliers get quite a lot of business from alibab customers.

Trade Assurance

As you shop from alibaba, it is important to look for suppliers with trade assurance , what this means is that your transaction is covered, if by any chance your goods are not in the condition you had agreed with the supplier or you do not receive your order Alibaba will compensate you.

The above three parameters are really important for you to consider as you shop from alibaba so as to have a successful supply .

Once you have identified the supplies under the three conditions now then start to narrow down to your desired supplier.

Reviews

Watch out for reviews, they will tell you more about the supplier. Always visit the supplier profile, you will be able to learn more about them, you will see the rating under reviews, most manufacturers post their certificates on qualification and trading license .

All these are important as you begin to narrow down to your prefered list of suppliers.

How to Shop From Alibaba to Kenya-How to know the difference between Manufacturers and Middlemen .

As you shop from alibaba, it’s important to know ho are the manufacturers and who are the middlemen,

If you take time in checking out prices you will notice a difference in pricing, middlemen have high prices since they have to put a profit margin. So take your time to compare.

Second thing that can give you a hint is the product photos, photos from the middlemen seems to be of higher quality that those of the manufacturers.

Third, is the office location, most or almost all manufacturers are located in the industrial area and it’s indicated in their profile site, most middlemen are located in a shopping mall, a suite and that should tell you they are middlemen or even worse scammers who will pose as producers only to go with your money and block you.

Why you should avoid middlemen

The tend to have a higher price. Secondly they may change the quality of the products or change manufacturers they have been dealing with therefore causing delay in delivery or poor quality products.

Dealing with manufacturers directly will ensure you get same quality of products at the agreed time.

Location of the Suppliers

It is very important to consider your supplier location as you plan to ship from china, this is in consideration of the goods transport cost to the manufacturer to the shipping company.

If you buy from a supplier who is far from the port they will charge you some transport fee but those near the port do not charge, these are the provinces that are near the various ports that you may consider,

Zhejiang, Fujiang,Shangdong,Guangdong,Shanghai,Juangsu.. Research for more as you manovuver the site.

Suppliers search time

You need to take time looking for suppliers, sometime hours ,sometime days so that you can be left with about 20 of them and start engaging.

Engaging the Suppliers

Once you have qualified the suppliers, add them to your favourite list provided under the menu and start chatting them up.

There are those who will respond fast ,others will take long and that is how you start to narrow down to less numbers, remember to ask as many question as you want ,ask about minimum order, quality,size,time it takes to get the order ready, transport cost..any questions that you feel is necessary

How to Shop From Alibaba to Kenya-Communication

Your shipping from Alibaba will be smooth if you adhere to communicating through the alibaba platform, there is a chat bot provided that you should use to engage with your suppliers.

Never and i repeat never accept a supplier to communicate with you outside the platform like through whatsapp, this is because incase of anything e.g your order not being delivered Alibaba will use your communication to authenticate your complain before issuing a compensation.

Related

How to Shop From Alibaba to Kenya- Payment

Once you are in agreement,use the listed methods of payment and not any other outside Alibaba provision, this is how you get conned.

How long does the order take

The order takes about 3 to 5 days to get ready. It should not go beyond a weeks unless it’s a big order and which clear communication is done to you. If it exceeds a week before the shipping company receives your order then you need to ask questions.

How do you ship from Alibaba to Kenya?

Make sure you give your supplier the correct or accurate details. That is your name, address,contact and any other details they ask from you.

These are the same details they will give indicate on your order as they deliver to the shipping company you choose to use.

You are likely to receive your order after a month, if you choose to use flight then you get your goods faster but on a hire cost.

Choosing a Shipping Company

You need to do good research on available shipping companies so that you do not lose your hard earned money . Most of the shipping companies are in social media and that is a good place for you to find you how people review them, these reviews will help you make a decision.

Contact them or pay them a visit and ask questions like how much they charge per KG. How long it takes to deliver, Do they ship less than a KG, Do you pay before or after delivery, Any charges involved, Ask if they have shipping from the said province. Ask as many questions as you want until you are satisfied.

Once you identify the shipping company send their details to your supplier then wait for your goods to arrive.