When it comes to sourcing, there is nothing more important than finding a good supplier. Because they control your product raw materials cost, product quality, packaging, shipping, and communication, literally they can make or break your business.

However, there are millions of products and millions of suppliers listed on Alibaba, but not all of them are direct manufacturers, not all of them are honest business people. There are plenty of middlemen, resellers are ready to take a cut of your profit, and there are bad people is going to scam your money if you’re not careful.

So how to how to find direct contact to factories and avoid middlemen?

The most efficient way is to qualify suppliers on Alibaba.

Here are some steps.

Step 1 – Who They Are?

When we’re looking at a supplier’s profile, we will look at the 4 things: supplier name, business type, number of years selling on Alibaba, company certifications.

Supplier name

Actually, in China, the company name is very structured. When they register a business, the business name must include 4 essential elements, which are:

Registration location,

Company name,

Main products,

Partnership type.

Business type

So on the business type, when a supplier lists their product on Alibaba, they must disclose themselves either as a manufacturer or trading company. Sometimes you will see the supplier list themselves as a manufacturer and trading company.

What does that mean is that this supplier not only can produce the product, they can also export the product directly to overseas companies. Not all of these Chinese factories have an export license, therefore, they have to use a middleman which is the trading company to sell the product to you.

Number of years selling on Alibaba

The number of years selling online is obviously very subjected. I would prefer to use a supplier have a minimum of 3 years of eCommerce business experience because their communication and their business maturity will be enough, so I don’t have to babysit and mentoring them.

Company certifications

The last one is company certifications, which is different from product certification. Any companies can produce any products and have the 3rd party issue a certification, but not all companies have the system in place want to go through the step to get a company certification.

By looking at these 4 elements: supplier name, business type, number of years in business and the company certifications, you should have just a basic idea of who they are.

Step 2 – What They Do?

If you look at the supplier’s main products and product categories, you should be able to figure out if this company is offering a concentrated line of product related to the product you want to buy, or they’re scattered and offering all kinds of product which make them not efficient.

The more concentrated the company does on one product, the more leverage they have on the raw material purchase. Their worker skill is much better because they do repack it day in and day out. And the quality is much more reliable and consistent.

If you’re searching for the product, you need to know what are your must-have certs and what are your next have certs. You can look at the supplier’s product page to see if they offer those.

Step 3 – Where They Are?

Where they are located? When you do the detailed address check, you need to be more attentive. If their address indicating that they’re on the 15th floor, suite 101 or room 120, looks like an office address, and the supplier claims themselves to be the manufacturer, you need to question why their address is showing an office address? The address should be a factory address, it should be 2 hours away in the industry area from the city. If they are showing an office address, you need to question that to the supplier.

Step 4 – How They Do?

If you don’t trust what you have checked, you can always do these two things. One is, use a surprise factory tour. For example, you can call your supplier and tell them that you have a purchasing agent in China, he is happened to be nearby the factory area, and ask them “can you arrange a quick factory tour for my agent”?

The other is, you can ask your supplier do a quick video call , like “Hey, I want to get an idea of what your factory look like, can you get onto the production floor and do a quick video call with me? ”

Using these techniques to find out if your supplier is truly a direct manufacturer. If they always find excuses, you need to put a questions mark on that whether they are the direct manufacturers?