It is very important that you understand how suppliers on Alibaba’s platform work, and how Alibaba teaches suppliers to conduct inside the platform.

First, let’s get into the shoes of a vendor on the platform. I have been selling at Alibaba since 2012 and I can tell you as an experienced seller on the platform, I hardly responds to RFQs of people who are sending me a generic, general request. 

Not because they are not serious, but because most of the time it doesn’t pay of to make the effort trying to be the cheapest or chase after them our advantages and the benefits of working with us.

There is a system for ranking each customer. Those who send a copy paste RFQs are not in the suppliers’ top list of customers to choose from; Let me explain.

Anyone who joined my business study tours in China and visited with me on Alibaba HQ or participated in one of my Selling on Alibaba courses, received a lesson on how to answer RFQ.

Let’s start with the basics. Alibaba wasn’t created for the private label sellers of Amazon!

The platform is built on classic b2b and private label, in most cases, means one-time deal and requires much more headache than a standard purchase from a factory.

However, you must look for suppliers in Alibaba, so I will explain 

How the supplier receives requests?

Suppliers receive requests in 2 ways:

1. Directly by messages from customers
2. Indirectly – he searches among all the people who upload RFQ to the platform and he chooses whom to answer. In this case he is limited in the number of times he can answer, so he must choose the best ones.

Factories who sell products with high demand, often reach a certain saturation and are not quick enough to respond to their customers; it is also depends on how many employees maintain customer service on the platform.

Remember! You are talking to a manufacturer! Not an e-commerce manager.

Usually the one who answers you is a thirsty or settled salesman, depending on the factory.

Have you ever turn to a supplier in Alibaba and he didn’t get back to you? Or gave you really high price?

For your information, a supplier in Alibaba can see your shopping history and can know how many product categories you have checked, how long you have been active, and how many negative reports you have received.

All of those will go into the supplier’s consideration whether it is worth to answer you and how.  

So pay attention to how you operate on the Alibaba platform, it can determine what kind of responses you will get, and if you are the kind that likes to check out many different products, just know that suppliers don’t like it.

Alibaba teaches Chinese sellers that a customer who contact you personally is a good customer.

There are many criteria for identifying a good customer for example, a customer who contact you personally, customer that shows familiarity with the supplier’s products catalog, client that pays attention to the seller’s name, etc.

The important thing is that if you attach a file and send “Hello I would like a quote”, you are not rated as good customers. You are not rated as bad one either, you just categorized as a 55% chance for closing a deal. Therefore, a busy supplier / seller, will treat you less seriously than what you will expect.

If you send a generic RFQ and not making a personal contact with the supplier, and still receive a response quick, most chances are that those are the kind of suppliers you will want to avoid from working with.

If you are sending a general RFQ and expecting a response it is advisable that you include all

the details and make sure you are clear.  Do not write things that will present you as unprofessional or serious, such as “The target price for production is $ 1”, when the product price is $10, it will attract the wrong suppliers to you.

In addition to providing reasonable target price, don’t ask for a quote of large quantity and then change it to a very small one. It would very much upset the supplier and will cause you problems in the future.

To sum up…

Start working correctly, and not according to courses, or just start working with us, it is simpler, correct, cheap and convenient.

We have over 20 years of experience in sourcing, manufacturing, QC, and shipping from China to all over the world.

Feel free to learn more about our services here and schedule a free consultation with one of our CSM.

Best of luck to you all