The most popular B2B portal where you can buy goods from China is undoubtedly Alibaba.com. Unfortunately, the portal also contains many listings of unreliable contractors and other traps.
Alibaba Gold Supplier
Many people ask what is a “Gold Supplier”. In this post, we will explain what it means and whether you can fully trust a Gold Supplier seller.
Many importers think that if a seller has a “Gold Supplier” stamp, it is evident that this company is verified and meets high-quality standards and is certainly not a scam. The problem is that sellers simply buy the “Gold Supplier” icon from the portal, which provides Alibaba.com with significant profits. The following is an email from a seller who had not even concluded one transaction, purchasing the certificate:
As you can see, this is not very expensive. We often hear from clients: “I did not check this company earlier because it has been Alibaba Gold for many years.”
It is true that in order to be a certified Gold Supplier, you need to be accepted once by Alibaba, but that does not mean that Gold Suppliers are credible. It just confirms that the company has the means to buy it.
In a 2011 scandal, some high-ranked employees sold many “Alibaba Gold Supplier” titles to unreliable operators. The employees were fired after the scandal broke, and the case was closed, but this, unfortunately, does not mean that similar procedures won’t occur in the future.
In summary, Alibaba is a service that greatly facilitates doing business with China, but it is worth being aware of how to use it and always getting information about suppliers from an independent source.