We believe that you have not had the opportunity to read a text like this anywhere, nor to see these pictures anywhere, nor to see how Alibaba works from the seller's point of view.
When you register with an Alibaba seller account (or a hybrid account), trading on Alibaba from the seller's point of view takes place through a special platform called TradeManager.
TradeManager is a program developed by Alibaba Network Technology Co.
Nevertheless, let's start in order.
Opening a company on Alibaba
Before you get approval to set up your company on Alibaba, people from Alibaba come to visit you twice. The first time is to discuss and familiarize yourself with the platform, options and its offers. After that, when you decide and buy one of their packages, you will receive a second visit, this time to check and verify your company.
Company verification is a mandatory part of every package.
Please be warned, although Alibaba tries to verify every seller and reduce the number of scams, they still happen.
A recent example is a person who independently tried to buy a QUAD from Alibaba but turned to us for advice and help with the purchase because the process became suspicious. Our answer after reviewing the correspondence and papers.
"Dear,
400cc has no chance for that price, besides they have their own distributors in the region and they don't sell like this. Pure fraud, unfortunately. I hope you didn't pay the balance they asked you for again. Report them to Alibaba, so they at least terminate them and remove them so they don't scam more people. Best regards,".
We get similar emails from time to time!
We don't want to discourage or dissuade you from purchasing through Alibaba, but we are just telling you to keep your eyes open.
Let's get back to the topic.
When you buy Alibaba's package, you do not set up your site and your presentation on their platform. That's what the Alibaba people do for you.
What you need to do is to provide them with information about your company, products as well as images of the company and products, puuuno pictures. They asked us to provide them with a minimum of 200 photos, from which they will select a certain number, process and place them on the site.
Later, within TradeManager, you have the option to change, add and delete data as you wish.
What is Alibaba TradeManager?
TradeManager is a fast and efficient instant messaging tool on Alibaba.com that allows you to quickly respond to customer inquiries and needs.
It allows you to present your company and business, set your products, their prices, talk to customers anywhere in the world in real time and much more.
If we should compare it with something, then it is most similar to some CMS (Wordpress, Joomla or similar), only it is much more comprehensive.
CMS, for those who don't know, are tools for creating websites, that is, they are a system for managing the content of a website. That is, it is a software application that allows users to create, edit, process, publish and store digital content.
An additional problem for those who do not speak Chinese is that a good part of the program is in Chinese and cannot be translated, since the program does not use classic browsers but its own environment. Video instructions that serve as tutorials for learning the program itself are a particular problem.
However, there are Chinese and English versions (we use the Chinese version with an English translation option, but all our instructions are in Chinese).
We did not have the opportunity to see and work on the English version of TradeManager.
Here we will present you what TradeManager looks like.
There are versions for all devices and operating systems, whether it is a computer, phone, tablet, etc. You can use it simultaneously on multiple devices.
If you are using Windows when it is installed, an Alibaba Supplier icon will be added to your Windows menu to provide quick access to the program. The installer includes 73 files and is usually about 901.34 KB (922,968 bytes). (current version).
TradeManager is an extremely extensive program for communication with clients. Most companies require managers to have a university degree with at least 3-5 years of trade marketing experience, as well as trade marketing manager experience and qualifications.
When the program is installed, the icon on your desktop looks like this.
Click on the icon to start your work tool.
This is the initial screen of the TradeManager program.
On the left you have the main menu.
There you can manage your presentation, view and control the visit, and much more. However, the most important menu items are at the very top of the quick search, and for us, next to the obvious Messages, perhaps even more important is the RFQ Market.
Messages is a section for communication and correspondence with clients, while RFQ Market is a section where clients request quotations.
If you, as a customer, are not familiar with the RFQ (Request for Quotation) system, you can read our text on that topic Creating Alibaba(RFQ)
As in the case when you are a customer, you have a search option, only this time search for what someone wants to buy.
We on Alibaba sell PVA (Polyvinyl Alcohol) and when we as a seller type Polyvinyl Alcohol in the search term, we get the following screen.
All customers who want to buy Polyvinyl Alcohol or Polyvinyl Alcohol products are listed here.
As a seller, you have the opportunity to see who is looking to buy what, and if you have the requested goods, you can offer them to a potential buyer.
Depending on the package you bought from Alibaba, you have a certain monthly quota of offers that you can send. We currently have a package that includes 10 quotas in 15 days. Which means that in 15 days we can send answers to 10 RFQ inquiries. Every 15 days we get 10 new quotas again.
Also, in our package, customers can receive only 10 different offers. If the customer has already received 10 offers from our competitors, we cannot write to them.
In the picture above you can see that we contacted, sent an offer and wrote to a person in Guatemala who is looking for a PVA.
You can also see that 4 other sellers have sent them their offers and they will probably receive 5 more offers by the end of the announcement.
Like sellers, buyers also have their own marks in the form of bronze, silver and gold buyer medals, depending on the volume and quality of trade.
This application is so large and comprehensive that it can be studied for a very long time, even in the form of a course or small studies.
We have shown you only its basics.
In the shortest terms, we tried to convey to you what it looks like to be on the other side of Alibaba.
We hope you liked it.