Alibaba is way tooo expensive

hello? alibaba is the best for finding suppliers.

Ofcourse you can get any product cheaper if buying directly from it's manufacturer, but be ready to buy a dozen or more 40 feet containers of the product, with a minimum billing of around US$100,000 or US$500,000 or US$1 million or US$10 million, in order to buy it directly from it's manufacturer.
Say Alibaba ? Chinese are clever businessmen. Go directly to a manufacturer in China and tell him you want to buy from them directly. If you are not worth millions of dollars, they will show you the exit door out !!! (you'll be lucky if they did not literally hold you by your collar and literally kick you out of their office for wasting their precious time) : They have their supply chain for their products and they respect their supply chains because they think of their businesses on a long term basis.
Manufacturers usually do not sell directly to small buyers (they have a supply chain). You may feel that the quantity you want to buy is a big quantity, but for the manufacturer your quantity would be an extremely small quantity. (They have their supply chain for their products).

Why not work with a dropshipping agent even them will add there mark up. You could shop on 1688 or Taoboa as that is where the Chinese locals shop.

Hello Fello said:

I have recently started importing from Alibaba.

Today I got a call from an experienced guy as he wanted to discuss something and suddenly he started telling me that Alibaba has 95% of the traders only and the products that I am thinking is cheap is a lot more expensive actually and I can get a better deal if I go to the manufacturer directly.

I just wanted to know if someone here on bhw experienced the same or know any other trusted source apart from alibaba where I can get to meet direct manufacturers??

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Your best bet is to use baidu.com and search using Chinese language for your product manufacturer. And you can always discuss with the manufacturer directly in Chinese for a smaller volume order to test on quality. It is not that hard, just that you need to speak the local language for them to understand you.

Also when you approach these manufacturer, give them a professional image and make it look like you are a big corporate entity. If you can meet them in person, it will be even better. Drink a few round and have a few dinner session with them. You will be surprise by their flexibility to work with you once you build up that human relationship.