Description
What’s the difference between 1688 and other purchase platforms?
There are so many websites you can source from China, why should you source from 1688, or what makes 1688 different others?
Closer to the manufacturer
Why closer to the manufacturer, because in China most of the factory they don’t really have the ability to market their company in English. So most of the so-called manufacture on Alibaba.com are either trading companies. Even though they claim that they have all those documents and verification, I assure you many many companies listed on Alibaba.com are trading companies. Because 1688 is in Chinese, so manufacture or factory is able to market their companies or products much easier than on Alibaba.com. Of course, not all companies in 1688 are factory either, but the percentage is much higher.
Product wholesale model
1688 is not a B2C model or C2C model, It is the wholesale model. And also unlike Alibaba which focuses more and manufacturing capacity, 1688 focuses more on products. And most of the time, the MOQ on the demo unit on 1688 is just 1, however on Alibaba, there is always a certain volume for you to request for a demo.
More friendly price
Why? As I said, if you source product from China on Alibaba or Aliexpress, they are mostly trading companies which need 1 tier profit for sure. On the other hand, in 1688 it is quite likely you end up working with the manufacturer so the cost will be definitely lower. Another important aspect is the information gap between China and other countries so the trading company will take this advantage to earn more. But, not everything is absolute. What said above is in general.
Earlier and wider access to new products
As a Chinese, I have been seeing the Chinese companies are catching up in terms of product quality and design, there are so many good products which are not available to other countries. Because of the fast-growing Chinese middle class is able to consume all these new products. However, these new products are kind of expensive, if relisted on to Alibaba by trading companies, the price will go even higher. So if there were foreign companies are able to source products from 1688, there might be still a margin to market the products in other countries.
Is 1688 a really good platform for sourcing from China?
I would say both YES and NO.
WHY YES?
Access to more first-hand resources is the key to win an ever-growing trading or e-commerce business. Lower cost in general, since other tiers will be cut off.
Earlier access to new products, especially that good stuff only available to Chinese sellers.
WHY NO?
If you don’t understand Chinese, or there is nobody in your company understand Chinese. Even though you can use Google translate to figure out some language barrels, there are still so many things that can not be done with fluent language skills. The communication cost will be huge.
The whole import and export process gonna be difficult since most of the 1688 seller or manufacturer they don’t have the know-how or experience of sending product outside China. So either the Chinese company or you have to hire forwarder and product labeling so this may be quite a headache at the beginning.
Payment. 1688 only accept the payment system which works in China, they accept Chinese RMB only. So how can you pay? Another headache.
Can non-Chinese citizens buy from 1688?
YES. But the condition is that you have a Chinese bank account or Alipay(支付宝)，also if you have a Taobao account, you can also register on 1688.com. And an address in China for receiving the product is needed. This is the most ideal scenario which basically means you already live in China or work in China. But what if now, you are sitting in the USA or Europe and reading this article. How can you do it? You need someone or a company you can trust, help you out.
There is also another approach, contact the company directly. They will list their phone number and Aliwangwang(kind of instant message like Skype). After talking with them directly, see if they accept the international Bank transaction or PayPal. In China, there is a foreign currency control, everyone can only have a 50,000USD transaction quota, so if they don’t have an off-shore bank account, it will also be a headache. But personal account or PayPal account is enough for a demo request.
How to find products on it without knowing Chinese?
With all these headaches you may encounter, and you feel you have the patience and resource or skill to counter all these. Then how can you find products on 1688.com, even though you have no knowledge about Chinese at all?
Google Chrome Translate Extension\Baidu Chrome Translate Extension
This approach is for browsing on the desktop/laptop.
Google is my first choice, but the Chrome extension may not be working well in China, because Google is blocked in China. If Google not working, turn to Baidu which is the equivalent of Google in China. Download Baidu Chrome. But you can not talk to the seller since you don’t have an ID. What you can do is to compare the price and study the product.
As you can see above, with Google Translating, you can understand more of the content on it besides the pictures that cannot be translated, but it already helps a lot to understand what’s available in 1688.
The product page for a cloth.
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