How Do I Ensure the Quality of Shipped Goods from an Alibaba Supplier?

With the increasingly large number of illegal traders and brokers operating both offline and online nowadays, one needs to be very careful with what they’re buying. The reputation of operators from and in China like Alibaba Suppliers has particularly not been perfect in this regard some days. even though there is no perfect online business site in the world.

While the vast majority of suppliers from China and their international operators are good businessmen who trade consciously and virtuously, there are an increasing number of undesirable elements that you need to be aware of, especially at a time when more and more buyers are turning their attention to Vietnam and India etc South of Asia,  and when a regional supply chain is immature, which means that the risks are correspondingly greater, even when prices are advantageous.

However it is practically impossible to rely on third party inspection to check every single item in all your orders in an Alibaba Supplier, even more so if you are dealing with large shipments. That’s why quality control and supply chain management are becoming increasingly important.

How Can You Ensure the Quality of Shipped Goods From Alibaba Suppliers?

You can do this in either of three ways:

• Either visit your supplier in China and do the actual checking by yourself;
• Hire a local or locally-operating third-party agent — an individual or a firm — to do it for you;
• Ask your manufacturer or supplier to check for you the quality of the goods you’re buying from them within their production department before they’re released for shipping.

A) Actual checking by yourself

Looking at the first option, would be your best bet because you have a chance to look at the products you’re buying and raise any issues with the suppliers themselves. But the costs can be exorbitant and prohibitive, especially if you buy a lot of goods from China often. Aside from the huge monetary costs of visiting China every time, this could also take up a lot of your time. But if you can do it, the best!

B) Hire Third Party Inspection Agent

As for the second option, it’s very critical that you find a dedicated inspection and quality assurance agent that’s reputable and reliable.

As we’ve mentioned earlier, there are too many questionable operators on the market nowadays. When dealing with suppliers and/or third-party quality control service providers, both integrity and responsibility are key. These two come just before ability as the latter can always be honed easily while integrity is not easy to build, especially when dealing with strangers online. (What Is A Third Party Inspection Agency?)

C) Ask your manufacturer or supplier to check for you the quality of the goods

Many of us may find the third option not reliable at best and ridiculous at the worst. Few people seem to believe the alibaba supplier can rely on, let alone trust, the manufacturers or suppliers of the same products they’re selling you to assure quality. Mostly, this lack of trust has been occasioned by the bad elements we mentioned, especially when dealing with traders including alibaba suppliers operating out of China.

But there are good suppliers out there who want to sell their merchandise without any issues and build trust and integrity over time.

If you’re lucky, you may find a number that makes sure any goods they’re selling to their overseas customers are 100% qualified before they’re dispatched from Chinese shores. If you meet such a supplier, you’ll be lucky to avoid third-party agent fees and focus on the marketing and sales of your goods, then the quality control process just runs regularly.

More:

• Buying From Alibaba: Security, Sourcing, Shipping Costs & More [2019]
• How to Import from China in 2019
• How to Choose Alibaba Trusted Suppliers & Tips for Minimizing Product Defects?
• How Do Product Inspection in China Help You Ensure Product Quality?