1688 vs Alibaba - the TRUTH about 1688.com — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00hey guys and welcome back to the
2. 0:02official sourcing with kian
3. 0:03youtube channel so you've heard about
4. 0:05purchasing cheaper products on 1688.com
5. 0:08and now you're wondering should i be
6. 0:09buying from 1688 rather than alibaba
7. 0:11well this is the video for you
8. 0:21[Music]
9. 0:27for those of you who don't know me my
10. 0:28name is kian golzari and i've been
11. 0:30living and working in china for the past
12. 0:3110 years
13. 0:32in that time i've manufactured over two
14. 0:34and a half thousand products
15. 0:35visited more than 500 factories and
16. 0:37attended more than 20 canton fairs that
17. 0:39has led me to working with brands
18. 0:40such as the mba and the olympics as well
19. 0:43as helping
20. 0:44amazon private label sellers as well now
21. 0:46the purpose of this channel is to teach
22. 0:47you how to master the art of sourcing
23. 0:49products from china so if you want to
24. 0:51see more videos like this
25. 0:54make sure you hit that subscribe button
26. 0:55down below and if you're feeling extra
27. 0:57generous hit the like button for me real
28. 0:59quick and if you do hit the like button
29. 1:00that will bring you extra special good
30. 1:02luck for the next five years
31. 1:04guaranteed so 1688 in chinese is
32. 1:08literally pronounced
33. 1:10and number six is associated with
34. 1:13happiness and good for business
35. 1:15and number eight is associated with uh
36. 1:17good fortune
37. 1:18and wealth and so number six and number
38. 1:20eight probably the luckiest numbers in
39. 1:22china and if you've ever been china
40. 1:23before
41. 1:24you'll see a lot of the car license
42. 1:25plates have the number six and eight
43. 1:27on the back quite a lot now on the flip
44. 1:30side number four is actually the
45. 1:31unluckiest number in china
46. 1:32because the word four actually sounds
47. 1:34like the word death and
48. 1:35as it happens when i lived in shanghai
49. 1:37my apartment was on the fourth floor
50. 1:39because the rent was a lot cheaper as no
51. 1:41one wanted to live on the fourth floor
52. 1:43true story anyway i digress
53. 1:46so 1688 is essentially the domestic
54. 1:48version the chinese version
55. 1:50of alibaba now consider alibaba is for
56. 1:53exporting chinese goods to the rest of
57. 1:54the world
58. 1:55and 1688 is just for the domestic
59. 1:58retailers and wholesalers
60. 1:59in china who want to buy from chinese
61. 2:01factories now
62. 2:02china has over a billion people in their
63. 2:04country so of course they also need
64. 2:06their own platform
65. 2:08and as it happens 1688 is also owned by
66. 2:10the alibaba group
67. 2:12which was founded by jack ma so i wanted
68. 2:15to make this video for you guys today
69. 2:16because i've seen a lot of
70. 2:18people talking about 1688 and go in
71. 2:201688.com to get cheaper prices
72. 2:22or you should be buying from 1688 to
73. 2:24find the best direct manufacturers
74. 2:26and i had to do my own research and i
75. 2:28wanted to check it out for myself
76. 2:29so i went and did that and you know
77. 2:31looking on youtube there are a lot of
78. 2:32people talking about how to buy from
79. 2:341688
80. 2:35but not many of them actually go into
81. 2:37the flaws and why you shouldn't buy from
82. 2:391688 so once i did my own research i
83. 2:41actually noticed there was quite a lot
84. 2:42of things that we need to be aware of
85. 2:44before making purchases
86. 2:45because the cheapest price isn't always
87. 2:47the best thing when purchasing products
88. 2:48from china a lot of problems can
89. 2:50occur as a result of that so i want to
90. 2:52make this video for you guys to give you
91. 2:54my top seven tips on how to purchase
92. 2:56in the best way possible and the things
93. 2:58to avoid if you want to use
94. 3:001688. now please watch all the way to
95. 3:03the end because at the end of this video
96. 3:04i am going to give you a live demo
97. 3:06on how to use the platform what to look
98. 3:08out for and if you have u1688 before and
99. 3:11you have had a positive or a negative
100. 3:12experience
101. 3:13please let me know in the comments below
102. 3:14i would love to hear about your
103. 3:15experience
104. 3:16whether it's been a good or a bad one
105. 3:17because i've heard very very mixed
106. 3:19things
107. 3:19so let's get into it here are the top
108. 3:21seven things
109. 3:22you need to be aware of before using
110. 3:251688
111. 3:27okay so number one thing to be aware of
112. 3:28is the language barrier
113. 3:30now this is a domestic website for
114. 3:32chinese users so everything is in
115. 3:34chinese
116. 3:35and to understand what's on the website
117. 3:37you have to use google translate
118. 3:39now there is actually a google ban in
119. 3:41china so for google chrome users
120. 3:43you may face some issues and the other
121. 3:45thing to be mindful of
122. 3:46is it's hard enough to you know deal
123. 3:49with alibaba suppliers who are supposed
124. 3:50to know english
125. 3:51and now you're dealing with suppliers
126. 3:52who don't even speak english then the
127. 3:54final thing is that not all
128. 3:56information is easily translatable from
129. 3:58chinese into english
130. 3:59let's say you're purchasing an outdoor
131. 4:01camping chair and you want to know about
132. 4:03the thickness of the steel on the
133. 4:04camping chair
134. 4:05that is not easily transferable if you
135. 4:08just translate it from chinese into
136. 4:09english to understand fully
137. 4:11the specs of what you're purchasing now
138. 4:13the number two thing to be mindful of
139. 4:15is the quality standards now we have
140. 4:17high quality standards in the us
141. 4:19and the eu if you're importing products
142. 4:21into this market however
143. 4:22on on 1688 they're only focused on the
144. 4:25chinese domestic market
145. 4:26and in china they don't have the same
146. 4:28standards that we have in the us
147. 4:29and europe so yes you might see a
148. 4:31product which is cheaper on 1688
149. 4:33but it will not comply to the same
150. 4:35standards that we need in our market
151. 4:37and when you browse the 1688 website you
152. 4:40won't see any of the certificates that
153. 4:41you require
154. 4:42for importing these products into the eu
155. 4:45or the us
156. 4:46and all that's going to happen is that
157. 4:47yes it might be a cheaper product but
158. 4:48it's cheaper because it's
159. 4:49using inferior materials and then hence
160. 4:52you're going to get
161. 4:53negative reviews you're going to get
162. 4:54returns so you have to deal with and
163. 4:56then you're going to actually have to
164. 4:57find a new supplier and go through this
165. 4:58whole process
166. 4:59again now think of an example like
167. 5:02an iphone cable if you are in the us and
168. 5:05you buy an iphone cable from
169. 5:06let's say best buy it's going to feel
170. 5:09nice it's going to
171. 5:10have like good packaging it's going to
172. 5:12feel like firm in your hand the cable is
173. 5:13going to be smooth
174. 5:14you're going to plug it in it's going to
175. 5:15be rigid it works now
176. 5:17if you've ever been to china before you
177. 5:19can buy iphone cables just basically on
178. 5:21the street in these little stalls
179. 5:23or even from a store as well but it
180. 5:25feels flimsy it feels cheap
181. 5:27the coating around the wiring is quite
182. 5:29loose it will come off quite easily and
183. 5:31reveal all the sort of wire cables
184. 5:32underneath
185. 5:33and the sort of metal that you plug in
186. 5:35is quite flimsy it just doesn't feel
187. 5:37right
188. 5:38now on an image on a 1688 listing it'll
189. 5:41be absolutely fine
190. 5:42but you can't tell by the image the
191. 5:43actual quality when you feel the product
192. 5:45in your hand so the quality standards is
193. 5:48something very very important that you
194. 5:49need to be mindful of before purchasing
195. 5:51from 1688
196. 5:53and point number three is the export
197. 5:55license
198. 5:56now legally to export products out of
199. 5:58china to another part of the world
200. 5:59you have to have an export license which
201. 6:011688 suppliers don't have
202. 6:03because they've never needed it now in
203. 6:05order for you to purchase products from
204. 6:07a company which does have an export
205. 6:08license you have to
206. 6:09pay for your products either through a
207. 6:11sourcing agent or from a trading company
208. 6:13now you're actually paying a margin to a
209. 6:15middleman which has not got any
210. 6:17involvement in this process
211. 6:18but just to export your goods so now
212. 6:20you're actually increasing your price
213. 6:21as a result of it you're also now paying
214. 6:23a company that you don't know
215. 6:25in order to buy from a factory that
216. 6:27doesn't speak english now this is just a
217. 6:29disaster waiting to happen
218. 6:30and you know do you even have a sourcing
219. 6:32agent that you trust who can do
220. 6:33something like this for you or do you
221. 6:35have to go out and find that person
222. 6:36now if you want to know more about
223. 6:37sourcing agents i have made a couple of
224. 6:39videos
225. 6:39one on the pros and cons of using
226. 6:41sourcing agents and the other one about
227. 6:43the top questions you need to be asking
228. 6:44your sourcing agent
229. 6:45so i will link that playlist up above
230. 6:47here and definitely check that out
231. 6:49before making the decision
232. 6:50to pay through a sourcing agent now
233. 6:53point number four to be mindful of
234. 6:55are the payments now if you're ever
235. 6:57buying a product through alibaba.com
236. 6:59well you can get payment protection
237. 7:01using the trade assurance feature
238. 7:02now on and that will protect you against
239. 7:05your order so if anything goes wrong
240. 7:06if you receive anything that you weren't
241. 7:08supposed to alibaba will refund you
242. 7:10that money now if you purchase through
243. 7:121688 there is no payment protection
244. 7:14and also you have to pay through a
245. 7:16sourcing agent or a trading company
246. 7:18in order to even get your order because
247. 7:20of the export license now what's to say
248. 7:22that sourcing agent doesn't just take
249. 7:23the money from your order
250. 7:25and run away so the other alternative is
251. 7:28to pay using a chinese bank account
252. 7:30now to open a chinese bank account you
253. 7:31have to be physically present in china
254. 7:33and if you're in china then you might as
255. 7:35well just visit the factory directly
256. 7:36anyway and once you're in the factory
257. 7:38you can negotiate the best price you can
258. 7:39learn how your products are made
259. 7:41and you can build that relationship with
260. 7:42the manufacturer all things you can't
261. 7:44really be doing on 1688.
262. 7:46guys please do me a big favor and if you
263. 7:48are getting value from this video please
264. 7:50smash that like button for me
265. 7:51down below and if you are on social
266. 7:53media please connect with me on these
267. 7:55channels
268. 7:56below you can just read them here and
269. 7:58type them in or
270. 7:59all the links will be down in the
271. 8:00description below and plus some other
272. 8:02goodies for you
273. 8:03some discounts on some stuff in the
274. 8:04description so definitely check that out
275. 8:06now let's get on to point number five
276. 8:10now point number five is all about the
277. 8:12relationship now if you've ever heard
278. 8:14any of my content before
279. 8:15you know how much i preach the
280. 8:17importance of the relationship that you
281. 8:18have
282. 8:18with your manufacturer and with the
283. 8:20factory boss or with the decision maker
284. 8:22in the factory
285. 8:23because a good relationship leads to
286. 8:25better prices better credit terms
287. 8:27faster lead times introduction to new
288. 8:29products all that sort of cool stuff
289. 8:31now how can you build a relationship
290. 8:33with a manufacturer on 1688
291. 8:35which is only focused on their domestic
292. 8:37market and doesn't even speak english
293. 8:39now what if you have a problem with your
294. 8:41goods what if your goods are delayed or
295. 8:43there's an error in your stock
296. 8:45can you pick up the phone and speak to a
297. 8:461688 supplier and someone who doesn't
298. 8:48necessarily speak
299. 8:49english i don't think so do you have to
300. 8:51rely on google translate and you really
301. 8:53want to
302. 8:54be you know typing out your feelings and
303. 8:56translating it with google translate and
304. 8:57then sending it to rectify your 50
305. 8:59000 order not a good situation
306. 9:02okay so point number six is the price
307. 9:05now if you're on 1688.com it's probably
308. 9:08because you've been told to go there and
309. 9:09get a better price
310. 9:10but that better price first of all might
311. 9:12not even happen and second of all if it
312. 9:14does it doesn't come without a headache
313. 9:16now you have to purchase a product which
314. 9:17doesn't comply with your standards the
315. 9:19factory boss doesn't speak english
316. 9:21you have to buy it through a middleman
317. 9:22and you don't even get payment
318. 9:23protection on your order
319. 9:25now you're perfectly capable of buying
320. 9:27from a good price on alibaba but if
321. 9:29you're not
322. 9:30it means you have to level up your
323. 9:31negotiation skills so if you like i'll
324. 9:34make a video
325. 9:34all about how to get the best price on
326. 9:37alibaba all the tactics you need to
327. 9:38apply
328. 9:39in order to get the best price on that
329. 9:41platform so if you want to see that
330. 9:42video when it becomes available make
331. 9:43sure you hit the subscribe button down
332. 9:45below
333. 9:45and tap the bell ding ding to turn on
334. 9:48post notifications so you can be made
335. 9:50aware when that video becomes
336. 9:52available so point number seven
337. 9:57what is it that 1688 gives you that
338. 9:59alibaba doesn't
339. 10:00it's the same company so as i said like
340. 10:03sometimes you get attracted to
341. 10:041688 because you think there's a better
342. 10:06price but as we know that's not always
343. 10:08the case you might not get a better
344. 10:09price
345. 10:09and also you don't get payment
346. 10:11protection you can't pay the factory
347. 10:12directly
348. 10:13uh they don't even speak english there's
349. 10:15all sorts of all sorts of problems
350. 10:17now buying from china can be complicated
351. 10:19enough whether you're
352. 10:20going to china directly going to the
353. 10:22canton fair going to the factories or
354. 10:23even buying through alibaba they all
355. 10:25have their own challenges and
356. 10:26limitations
357. 10:27now for me i'm like why do you want to
358. 10:29add all of these additional headaches
359. 10:31on top of that you know to me it just
360. 10:33doesn't make any sense
361. 10:35and if you're skilled in negotiation and
362. 10:38you have experience buying from china
363. 10:39well you can still get very very good
364. 10:41prices and you can still get the best
365. 10:42prices
366. 10:43from alibaba suppliers but the problem
367. 10:45is
368. 10:47there are middlemen that exist on
369. 10:48alibaba platform and those middlemen are
370. 10:50not factories they just want to get your
371. 10:51order and add a margin
372. 10:52and what they do is they get your order
373. 10:54on alibaba then they go and find a
374. 10:56factory on 1688
375. 10:57in china to get them to manufacture your
376. 10:59goods and then they just sell that to
377. 11:01you
378. 11:01and that's why people get attracted to
379. 11:031688 because they want to avoid that
380. 11:04middleman
381. 11:05however if you just order from alibaba
382. 11:07correctly
383. 11:08you never have to go through that
384. 11:10process and
385. 11:11for those of you who don't know i've
386. 11:12made a video all about the top seven
387. 11:15top seven sourcing hacks in order for
388. 11:18you to bypass these terrible
389. 11:20suppliers and work with the best direct
390. 11:22supplier for your business
391. 11:24in that video i'd highly recommend
392. 11:25watching if you haven't seen that
393. 11:26already because that will link you with
394. 11:28the best manufacturers for your business
395. 11:29i'm going to link that video up above
396. 11:31here and that video is also going to
397. 11:33play
398. 11:33at the end of this one too so guys
399. 11:36that's it that's the top seven points
400. 11:37and what i wanted to know from you guys
401. 11:39now is in the comments below if you
402. 11:41could just tell me what has been your
403. 11:42experience on 1688
404. 11:44if you has if you have used it has been
405. 11:45a positive experience has been a
406. 11:46negative experience
407. 11:48after watching this do you still want to
408. 11:49use it we're just going to be a lot more
409. 11:50careful
410. 11:51and just to demonstrate some of the
411. 11:53points i just mentioned
412. 11:55above i'm going to jump into the screen
413. 11:57share the live demo let's grab the
414. 11:59laptops let's jump into 1688
415. 12:01and let's see what it has to offer
416. 12:04right guys here we go quick little demo
417. 12:06let's check out 1688.com and see what
418. 12:09comes up
419. 12:10so as i said the website is in chinese
420. 12:13it's a chinese
421. 12:14site for chinese people so everything is
422. 12:16in chinese and the local currency is r b
423. 12:18so very very hard to read
424. 12:19now google automatically offers us to
425. 12:21translate into english this is great
426. 12:23but the problem is that now this middle
427. 12:26bit is going to be
428. 12:27been completely blocked off so what do
429. 12:29we do here we can't get access to that
430. 12:31we can only go down the site
431. 12:32one thing i did notice is that we want
432. 12:34to use the search bar which has been
433. 12:35lost but if you scroll down
434. 12:37then the search bar appears now you can
435. 12:39use safari
436. 12:41which is here go to 1688.com on safari
437. 12:45and it works fine however i didn't see
438. 12:47the translate option into english
439. 12:49so if anyone knows how to translate a
440. 12:50safari page then great use that
441. 12:53if not just go to google chrome and
442. 12:56so let's say we are looking for
443. 12:59a sport water bottle right you can type
444. 13:02it in in english but look at your
445. 13:03results
446. 13:05when we type that in when it loads
447. 13:10again uh we have to translate this page
448. 13:14translate to english yes okay we've got
449. 13:1798 related products which is hardly any
450. 13:19but that's because we typed it in
451. 13:21english so if you go to
452. 13:23let's say english to chinese
453. 13:27translation let's type in here
454. 13:30sport water bottle here we have it in
455. 13:34chinese we just copy and paste that
456. 13:37and we had 98 results
457. 13:41now let's check it out when we do it
458. 13:44in chinese we have
459. 13:4712 000 oh 126 thousand results
460. 13:51so again a a lot to navigate through
461. 13:54now just you can click through here you
462. 13:56see a wide variety of different water
463. 13:57bottles wide variety of different prices
464. 13:59a lot to navigate over 100 thousand
465. 14:01results so let's say for example you see
466. 14:03something you like you click on that
467. 14:05you now have the price
468. 14:09and well there's a price range uh price
469. 14:12breakdown precise again you have to
470. 14:14translate the page and kind of like as i
471. 14:16mentioned before the specifications
472. 14:17don't necessarily easily translate
473. 14:19from chinese into english and here we
474. 14:23don't have an option to see
475. 14:24any testing certificates anything like
476. 14:26that again
477. 14:28regarding the price let's
478. 14:32we've got some lifestyle images
479. 14:35which is great um again these are the
480. 14:39specs and the features but they're on
481. 14:40the image so you can't select it and
482. 14:42copy and paste it and translate it
483. 14:44and then if you go down here let's look
484. 14:46at the price it says
485. 14:47in general underlined price the
486. 14:49underlying price may be the sales guide
487. 14:51price of the product
488. 14:52or previously displayed sales price of
489. 14:54the product it is not the original price
490. 14:56and it's for reference only
491. 14:58so we're getting prices but they aren't
492. 15:00even actually the actual price now we
493. 15:02have to open up communication with a
494. 15:03company that doesn't really speak any
495. 15:04english
496. 15:05um so this this is the this is a major
497. 15:08challenge here why not just go and type
498. 15:10this into alibaba
499. 15:11and watch my previous alibaba video how
500. 15:13to find the direct manufacturers why are
501. 15:15we making it so difficult for ourselves
502. 15:16so using this website is extremely
503. 15:19frustrating
504. 15:21i don't even want to try and go through
505. 15:23it in any more detail
506. 15:25because it's just me personally i don't
507. 15:27like it is i just want to give you guys
508. 15:28a quick visual
509. 15:29of what it looks like and if you have
510. 15:31had a good experience of this website
511. 15:33please let me know in the comments below
512. 15:34and tell me that i'm wrong that
513. 15:36i would love to hear that if you guys
514. 15:37know a better way to use this website
515. 15:38all right
516. 15:39take care thanks very much and i'll chat
517. 15:40to you soon
518. 15:43so guys i hope you enjoyed that very
519. 15:44very quick screen share and just to
520. 15:46reiterate those top seven points just to
521. 15:48refresh and remind ourselves what they
522. 15:49were
523. 15:50and point number one was all about the
524. 15:51language barrier and not being able to
525. 15:53speak
526. 15:54proper english to the manufacturers on
527. 15:561688 point number two was all about the
528. 15:58quality standards being less than what
529. 15:59we require
530. 16:00uh in the uk europe and the us point
531. 16:04number three was all about the export
532. 16:05license as
533. 16:06these manufacturers not having an export
534. 16:07license so we have to purchase through a
535. 16:09middleman a sourcing agent or a trading
536. 16:11company
537. 16:11and point number four was all about the
538. 16:13payments um now having to pay
539. 16:15a middleman not getting payment
540. 16:17protection all that sort of stuff
541. 16:18point number five was all about the
542. 16:20relationships um that we don't get to
543. 16:21build those relationships with the
544. 16:22manufacturers
545. 16:24point number six was not necessarily
546. 16:25actually getting the cheapest price
547. 16:27and point number seven point number
548. 16:30seven
549. 16:31was all about what is it that 1688
550. 16:34actually gives you
551. 16:35that alibaba doesn't and guys i just
552. 16:38wanted to add if you would like to work
553. 16:39with me on a one-to-one basis
554. 16:41you can book a coaching session at the
555. 16:43below link and which is calendly.com
556. 16:46forward slash sourcing with kian and
557. 16:48that link will be in the description
558. 16:49below
559. 16:50as well uh as well as a bunch of other
560. 16:51goodies for you guys so if you want to
561. 16:53work with me
562. 16:53you'll be more than happy to do so it'd
563. 16:54be a lot of fun uh to hang out with you
564. 16:56guys and then also on social media
565. 16:58if you're on facebook please make sure
566. 16:59you join our sourcing community which is
567. 17:01i've got a group called sourcing with
568. 17:02kian
569. 17:03and they're just the community helps
570. 17:04each other out we post our questions we
571. 17:06all help each other it's really fun
572. 17:07lively community to be a part of so
573. 17:08definitely join us on facebook
574. 17:10and if you're feeling a little bit more
575. 17:11social please connect with me personally
576. 17:13on instagram where i
577. 17:14am kian underscore jg and send me a dm
578. 17:17should be a message
579. 17:18take a photo this post it to your story
580. 17:20i'll repost you and we'll just connect
581. 17:22each other that way
582. 17:23and it will be a lot of fun so as i
583. 17:26mentioned if you are not familiar with
584. 17:27alibaba and want to best use that
585. 17:29platform please definitely check the
586. 17:30next video which is going to pop up
587. 17:32right here in five four three
588. 17:35two one and i will see you there all the
589. 17:38best and take care
590. 17:47[Music]
591. 17:54you