Hey Natasha,

I use Alibaba Trade Assurance/eChecking for nearly all of my purchases other than samples. If a vendor on Ali doesn’t have TA, usually there’s a good reason for that (they’re not reputable).

As for inspections, you should probably use a third party service you can trust.

I have a question about forms of payment when paying a supplier. I have paid for samples from a supplier using Paypal but I am unsure what the best way is to pay for bulk orders. I was planning on doing a wire transfer for part of an order (the 30%) and maybe paying using my credit card to pay for part of the order (the 70%) through Trade Assurance on Alibaba.

I was wondering how you normally pay your suppliers? If paying by TT do you pay all the fees for the TT service? Or do you negotiate with your supplier that your supplier pays the inbound fees (to their bank) and you pay the outbound fees (to your bank)? What is the normal/most common way to do this? And is TT generally the best way to pay- with the lowest fees?

I also have a question about inspections. Do you use Alibaba for your inspections or a 3rd party inspection service?

Thanks so much for your help!
Natasha

Hey Genaro,

There is a template shared in this MDCS session from the Europe product launch here: https://www.junglescout.com/blog/amazon-supplier-agreements/

Hope this helps – it can be used for launching in any marketplace 🙂 Please note it is not a legal document, just something we have used for our own product launches!

Many thanks,
Kym

This is super useful! Thank you very much!

Hi Gen,

Did you have to a ask the supplier for a GOTS or OEKO-TEX® Certification prior to Launch of Jungle Snugs?

Thanks

You can certainly try to ask for a lower price, or at the very least just ensure that the money is credited towards your bulk order, should you go that route.

Hi Corina,

We are not registered as wholesalers–paid by T/T (bank transfer). I am not certain about how to use Secure payment as a regular buyer on Alibaba, however I have heard it is fairly straightforward. For our products, we have purchased the sample with PayPal and then paid via bank wire transfer. Hope that helps!

Gen

Thank you.

Greg mentioned Alibaba Secure Payment, and Alibaba Trade Assurance. Which one did you use for the baby hooded towels? I checked Alibaba and it seems Secure Payment (Escrow) is available on wholesale. Are you guys registered as wholesalers? How can I use Secure payment as a regular buyer on Alibaba? WHat is the difference between the 2 services? What criteria did you use to decide which one to use?

Thank you very much for your answer.