What is 1688.com?
1688.com is the largest B2B online market platform in China, belonging to Alibaba Group. It was once also called as alibaba.cn, which means the Chinese version of alibaba.com. 1688.com also has almost everything, mostly for wholesale deals and industrial product deals, because it's the B2B platform instead of retail platform. Most China industrial product suppliers are opening one or several shops on 1688.com to receive orders directly or attract customers' inquiries. In another word, 1688.com is also the biggest B2B industrial product dealing platform in China. Therefore, when you are searching for an industrial product, 1688.com will always be the 1st choice you want to try, while TaoBao is the 2nd.
What are the Advantages of 1688.com Industrial Products
As the largest and most famous B2B online market platform in China, 1688.com is having the following advantages:
Having almost every wholesale product
Widest ranges of B type suppliers
Free Escrow service for all deals
Supplier companies being verified
Supplier credit score and rating
Product comment and rating
Free customer service for disputes
Compared to the TaoBao sellers, we call 1688.com sellers as suppliers because almost all suppliers on 1688.com are company merchants, only for B2B business. 1688.com verifies all of these companies and evaluates the credit scores according to the company info and sale records. Another important info is the member year record on 1688.com, which helps a lot to evaluate the supplier's fulfillment risk when a purchaser is trying to place an offline order. (Offline orders are without escrow service, unlike online orders. Offline orders are also very common for industrial products with a long lead time, like 3-4 weeks or 6-8 weeks.)
1688.com Industrial Products
As one of the most important parts in the B2B category, 1688.com industrial products are well known in China. 1688.com is always the 1st choice for industrial product purchasers.
To open a shop on 1688.com is not free. The supplier needs to provide the company info for verification and pay the yearly fee, besides the deposit for dispute and other fees. This also protects buyers from scams caused by fake suppliers, because the suppliers need to pay the costs first before they can get orders, which makes the scam cost too high.
Because 1688.com is having the most traffic from industrial product buyers, the suppliers are willing to pay the fees to open one or several shops on 1688.com to get business opportunities. Vice versa, because 1688.com has the most industrial product shops, more and more purchasers are making 1688.com the 1st choice for the industrial product source.
How to Buy 1688.com Industrial Product?
If you have an account with TaoBao or 1688.com, you can buy products from 1688.com on your own directly. However, due to the complexity and safety for industrial product orders, the best way is to make it with a purchase agent, who will offer services including inquiry, purchasing, inspection, re-packing, warranty support.
Inquiry
To buy 1688.com industrial products with a purchase agent, you can enquire first in either of the following ways:
1. Search 1688.com for the targeted products and copy out the links. Together with the requirements, send the links to the purchase agent to get quotations from the suppliers.
2. Send the requirements to the purchase agent directly to have the purchase agent to find the suppliers on 1688.com and get quotations accordingly.
Purchasing
If the price in a quotation is accepted by you, the purchase agent can help you purchase it on your behalf per your request.
Inspection
After an item is purchased, the purchase agent will have the supplier send the item to the agent's warehouse or office for inspection to make sure the item is correct and in good condition. Problematic items will be reported and returned to sellers for change or refund.
Re-packing
Before sending the goods to the forwarder, the purchase agent can also help repack the items to make them safe for international shipping. Small items can also be consolidated into one or several cartons to make the shipping easier.
Warranty Support
The purchase agent will help contact the suppliers for warranty if there is any item issue. This will help make the things easier because of the language barrier in communication. If needed, the purchase agent can also help raise disputes against suppliers if the issues are not solved in a right way.
How to Differentiate Replica 1688.com Industrial Products?
To purchase Industrial products from 1688.com may be a little bit different from to purchase them on TaoBao. Many products may be not in stock but with a lead time, for example 4-6 weeks or 8-10 weeks, even though there are still many products in stock and can be ordered directly. This depends on what you are going to purchase. Actually, it's very common to order industrial products with lead time because many items are only produced when the manufacturer receives an order.
To control the risks, there are two ways to go:
A. For items in stock, you can still check the following factors to evaluate the replica risk:
-Check the product complexity
-Check the 1688.com supplier info
-Check the 1688.com Industrial product description info
-Check the supplier's selling records and buyers' comments
-Confirm with the supplier by Wangwang IM and telephone
-Inspect the item
B. For items with lead time, usually the suppliers will request to make a contract with 30% prepayment and 70% payment before shipping, which means this order is an offline order and is not protected by 1688.com escrow service. Therefore, the most important thing is to evaluate the supplier's order fulfillment risks rather than replica risk. We can make background researches and take measures from the following points to evaluate and control the supplier's fulfillment risks:
1. The supplier's company record on 1688.com:
The longer years the supplier has been on 1688.com, the lower risk there is. The better selling records and company profiles are shown, the lower risk there is.
2. Supplier's company info:
Check the supplier's company info from third party websites like baidu.com or qcc.com to search the company's more detailed profile and dispute records. If the company is with many negative records, the risk may be higher. If the supplier is specialized in some specific product categories, it also means they are more reliable.
3. Calling the supplier:
By calling the supplier, you can know if the supplier can answer your questions with professional knowledge.
4. Visiting the supplier for big orders:
When no obvious evidence can convince you to eliminate your worries for big orders, it's worth it to you pay the supplier a visit and place the order when you are feeling confident.
5. Inspecting the items or having suppliers take photos of the items before paying off:
When the items are ready for shipping, the supplier will ask for paying off the rest of the 70% amount. You can have the supplier take photos of the items or go to the supplier's warehouse to inspect the items directly. This can help you control the risk greatly. Even in some sense, this is also the most important way to control the risk.
Unlike retail sellers, B2B industrial product suppliers intend to keep a long-term cooperation with buyers. Therefore, mostly they don't want to cheat buyers, which is not beneficial to them in the long run.
1688.com Industrial Product Deal Protection
For orders placed directly on 1688.com, free escrow service will be offered by 1688.com platform. The escrow service is very similar to that on TaoBao, you can get 7 days protection to check and confirm the items. If there is any problem, you can also apply for change or refund, or even raise disputes on 1688.com if the supplier does not agree to change or refund.
For orders with offline contract and bank transfer payment, there is no 1688.com escrow protection. Buyers always need to investigate and evaluate the risks before the order and use the small percentage prepayment, like 30% prepayment, to control the process and risks. If needed, paying the supplier a visit is also a good way. The purchase agent service will be very helpful for you in this part because the purchase agent knows how to investigate Chinese companies much better than you.
1688.com Industrial Product Warranty
1688.com only offers 15 days warranty for most of the products except for those electronic items with special regulations according to the related laws. However, most 1688.com industrial product sellers are company sellers and they offer an extra warranty period besides the 15 days, in order to maintain a good relationship with customers expecting for future orders. Most industrial product warranty periods are 1 year, which is very common. The purchase agent will help to contact the sellers for warranty on your behalf if it's needed.