Alibaba Bullet Points
- A B2B or business to business product sourcing platform that connects manufacturers and traders - mainly Chinese but some from various areas, with overseas buyers.
- No built-in shopping cart system as with Ali Express, eBay, Amazon, etc. The order terms are negotiated either through the built in chat system or e-mail. This can be a bit more confusing than Ali Express to new buyers.
- No commissions or transaction fees are paid to Alibaba. Alibaba's main source of revenue is the membership fees as in "Gold Supplier" labels paid for by sellers. Alibaba goes to the step of verifying each supplier is a legally registered company. There is however no gurantee of the quality of their products.
- Focuses on goods made to order, ie your items typically will not be made until after you have placed and paid for your order. They manufacture goods upon order to your specification.
Ali Express Bullet Points
- Ali Express technically is a B2C or business to consumer platform, however many re-sellers to use Ali Express for ordering wholesale supplies or items. Ali Express is very big in countries like Russia where eBay and Amazon do not operate.
- Ali Express focuses on smaller volume orders of "ready made" or "ready to ship" goods as opposed to made to order. This may be more ideal for smaller businesses or new sellers who do not need to order hundreds of pieces of merchandise. Typically pricing will be a bit higher than Alibaba and most items are not available for OEM or private labeling.
Alibaba Versus Ali Express - The Breakdown
Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ)
Suppliers need to manufacture a certain number of units of an item before it becomes worthwhile for them to do and before they can turn a profit. The suppliers need to order a minimum amount of raw materials in order to be profitable which is why they require an MOQ from you the buyer. If you can't reach this MOQ many suppliers won't do business with you. That said many suppliers may quote an MOQ say 1,000 pieces, but if you negotiate with them and ask, they may be willing to supply an order of much less, sometimes even as low as 50 or 100 units.
Alibaba
Suppliers tend to have a relatively high MOQ requirement. The reason for this is they do not make and stock products, they make products to order which is why you're able to private label or add branding to your products, because they are not yet made. Typically an MOQ is valid for a specific product. For example if one suppliers has an MOQ of say 300 and makes wrist watches and bracelets and you want to order both items, you will need to meet the MOQ of 300 watches and 300 bracelets so a total of 600 units. Typically an MOQ cannot be split up between multiple products, even if the same supplier is providing them. Now nothing is written in stone, all suppliers are different and most are open to negotiation so this is just a generality but is true more often than not.
Ali Express
Most suppliers here offer an MOQ of as little as 1 unit. This is because though many re-sellers use Ali Express to source products, it's also a B2C or business to consumer model and most consumers do not need 5, 10, or 100 dash cams or anything else for that matter. Some suppliers do offer "lots" of larger quantities of units at a lower price point and many suppliers who offer individual products will also offer bulk discounts. Though Ali Express does have a shopping cart built in, if you're looking for larger quantities and lower pricing just ask, some suppliers may be willing to work with you. Though Alibaba is typically cheaper than Ali Express, there are some items I have found cheaper on Ali Express in small quantities of 10 unites where as an Alibaba suppliers wanted to charge me 0.10 cents more with a requirement I order 1,000 units so it's always good to check both sites. The benefit of Ali Express is you can order smaller quantities if you want to test out items before placing a large order or before private labeling your product.
Pricing - Alibaba vs. Ali Express
The price of a product is typically based upon two main factors, the quality of the product and the quantity of the product you want to order. Someone looking to import and re-sell products should understand these elements about Alibaba and Ali ExpressAlibaba
There are no fixed prices. Sometimes prices are not listed at all and you need to contact a supplier. Other times a range is given of say $0.10 - $0.90. You send your product specifications ie color, dimensions, materials, certifications required, etc. You also name the delivery terms and the number of items you want to buy. The supplier will then get into contact with you with a price. Something like an electronics item like a Bluetooth Speaker for example can range from $2 to $200. The pricing will depend on the quality and standards you require. If you can meet the larger MOQ of a Alibaba suppliers you will get lower prices compared to if you were to order only 5 or 10 units from Ali Express suppliers. Typically Ali Express sellers are traders or re-sellers and not manufacturers themselves. Many people complain that even Alibaba itself has way too many re-sellers and traders as opposed to actual manufacturers. To truly get the best price you need to connect with a manufacturer and not a trader who is taking a cut for themselves.
Ali-Express
The supplier who is more often a trader than actually a manufacturer lists a product and prices for various quantities. Some will sell single items, some will sell single items offering a bulk discount on a certain Dollar amount spend or quantity ordered, and some will sell in "lots" of 5 or 10 units. Prices on Ali-Express tend to be higher compared to lower pricing for higher MOQ's with Alibaba. Typically Ali-Express prices are not up for negotiation and if they are, they typically will not move much on price.
Custom Designed Products / Private Labeling
Many sellers may choose to create a brand, as opposed to just selling a no name generic product. Doing so creates a higher perceived value. People in the US like brand names, yes even if it's a brand you just made up that nobody has ever heard of. A brand can consist of a logo, a color scheme, a design, or simply putting a name on a product. Some more experienced sellers may choose not just to brand or label their product, but to actually modify or develope a completely different product. This can be achieved relatively simply without having to hire CAD designers or anything simply by asking the manufacture to change the color of a piece, change an element such as adding a bezel to the end of a flashlight to turn an ordinary flashlight into a tactical flashlight for example.
Alibaba
Pretty much all suppliers can offer custom designs, product modifications, and logo printing. Developing a completely new product however isn't quite as simple to a new importer. You will need to have well made and well drafted product specs, product graphics ready to go in appropriate file type, and a clear idea of what you want. Other things you may need to know are material specifications, colors, product packaging and design, logos, and components.
Ali-Express
Products sold on Ali-Express are already manufactured and ready to be purchased. It's typically not possible to send just a few units back to a factory to be modified. Some Ali-Express sellers may be willing to add a logo if the product permits or if printing of such is easy. Ali-Express however is not the right choice if private labeling or customizing a product is your end goal.
Product Certifications
Some products such as plastics, electronics, and toys, among others, require standard product compliance. Different countries have different standards and different certificates. Many new importers and re-sellers assume that suppliers are compliant with these standards by default. This is not the case. Attempting to import products which are non-compliant can result in having your shipment seized by customs and returned, potentially leaving you out that money if you are not covered by Alibaba Trade Assurance or some other protective measure. Below is a list of examples of some common certifications.
- Electronics: CE, RoHS, EMC Class A and B
- Toys: EN71
- Plastics: REACH
- Fire retardant: FR B1 and B2
Because Alibaba is made to order and not already produced you can ask for your supplier to make the products compliant with certain countries certification standards. This is done by using certain materials and components required for compliance. If you are importing products into the USA make sure your products have the appropriate certifications. More often than not suppliers are used to importing into the USA, Canada, UK and EU, however you should always check and make sure their products and manufacturing processes are compliant.
Ali-Express
The products listed on Ali-Express have already been produced. It's a tossup whether products are made compliant to standards of the USA. Compliant products tend to be more expensive and would make the supplier less competitive to Russian, Latin American, and African buyers so always check. Ali-Express is very popular among buyers of these countries as eBay and Amazon don't always cater to these countries so Ali Express is often their go to shop and with those countries having less stringent certification standards the products are often made to those specifications.Not all products require certifications so for those types of products don't even worry about it.
Quality Issues & Risks
It can be risky importing products from outside of your home country. This is the case not only because of issues with quality but scams are rife as well. I've personally been conned out of $500 on three different occasions paying for samples via Western Union prior to this past Christmas season.Alibaba
Not all Alibaba suppliers are qualified to accept and produce your order, especially if you want custom made products or products that meet certain certifications. Only certain factories are setup and approved to meet these certification requirements. You will need to invest lots of time into investigating suppliers and making sure they are indeed qualified to meet certain standards, as well as making sure they aren't going to scam you. Do a Google search on Supplier Blacklist and though this won't be 100% accurate, this will weed out the worst scammers. In terms of avoiding scams and making sure you get a quality product the more you know your product the better a position your in.
Ali Express
Ordering from Ali Express is much more straightforward than ordering from Alibaba. Quality is subjective and you should always order a sample before investing in a larger order. Recently I ordered some wooden baby teethers and the items were very poorly sanded. I either have to toss these, or buy a very fine grit sandpaper and do all the finishing work myself. Fortunately it was a small sample order but imagine having 1,000 units I have to hand sand myself, what a nightmare. In terms of quality, items which may be acceptable in South America or Africa, may not be acceptable in the United States for example. One great thing about Ali Express is products do have product reviews. Now oftentimes they are in Russian or very poorly worded English but at least you can get an idea of quality before ordering and weed out suppliers who have lots of negative feedback.
Lead Times - How Long To Make Your Items
- 1. Order preparations
- 2. Production time
- 3. Shipping time
Alibaba
It can take weeks or even months before you've finally found the right supplier. Before you've confirmed your samples, negotiated your pricing, and have a signed and stamped sales agreement. You can speed up the process a bit by just asking a supplier to send over a digital invoice and you can go right ahead and transfer your money without all the other steps, but keep in mind you don't really know what your getting and this is much riskier. In some instances when getting your product to market ASAP, as in the case of fad products, this may be worth the gamble. Preparing an order can take from days to as long as 6 months. The larger the order as well as how complex the product is can make it take longer. Product time is much easier to predict as factories know how many units they can produce a day, a week, a month. Typically production time will take no longer than 30 days in total counting from day one when the supplier receives the payment. Oftentimes however this can be done in as little as a week. How long the product will take to ship from China comes down to the mode of transportation. Air Freight normally will take about 5-7 days to arrive to the USA, while sea shipping a month or longer. Sea Shipping is much much cheaper. Just to give you an idea how much cheaper. Prior to Christmas I ordered 10 hoverboards from China. They cost $900 to ship and took almost 3 weeks. I later ordered some hoverboards by sea. I was able to ship up to 100 hoverboards which take up quite a bit of space for only $250 not acounting customs fees and freight forwarder fees. If your sourcing a large amount of products, or products which are larger and heavier in nature you'll definately want to ship by sea.
Ali Express
Since the products your ordering from Ali Express are already manufactured typically things will go a bit quicker. One small delay is oftentimes after processing your payment the shipper will wait 3, 5, or 7 days to ship. I believe this is due to making sure the credit card payment is completely processed. That said you do not need to worry about production times as the items are already produced. Because your sourcing from Ali Express and by definition sourcing smaller amounts of product, you're most likely wanting to ship by air. The one exception to this is with larger items. I recently was looking into shipping home decor lighting and they were larger heavier items made of cast iron. Shipping by air was cost prohibitive so even though I was only ordering 10 units as a sample, we still had to ship by sea to save money. Ali Express has the word "express" in it for a reason. Sure it's not as quick as 2 day Amazon Prime shipping but it's often a heck of a lot quicker than Alibaba.
Summary
I recommend Alibaba.com if…
- You can buy larger quantites ie a few hundred units of each product
- You want to private label your products or customize products already offered.
- You want to import products with your own logo print or custom product packaging
- Your products are very price sensitive
- You are importing electronics, toys, plastics or any other product to the EU or USA and therefore need to comply with certain certification standards (CE, FCC, etc.)
We recommend Aliexpress.com if…
- You buy 1 – 100 units per product or your a consumer wanting to buy products for yourself
- Custom design, logo printing and custom product packaging are not important to you (you can in some cases do this yourself once the products arrive to you in your home country ie customizing your own packaging while selling a product with no logo on it.)
- Your products are not that price sensitive
- The nature of your products don't require them to adhere to any certifications
- You need your products right away
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