r/alibaba
Finding sellers that sell to single people
User struggles to find Alibaba sellers for small personal orders and seeks advice on stocking up on household essentials.
I have been trying to find sellers on there that will sell to individuals not just businesses. Most of the time either they never respond to me or say they can only do large orders. And these are the same sellers that say the minimum quantity is 1-2.
One seller finally was kind and told me key words to search to find stores that will sell to people. But it didn’t work. I couldn’t find that option in the filter settings and when I typed the words she suggested it didn’t work either.
Does anyone have any info on how to search up ones that will sell to families? I’m getting worried about how things are turning out in America and want to stock up on things we need at prices I can afford.
If anyone has bought from suppliers that sell these following items to individuals please tell me the name
Paper towels, cat food (good quality or at least healthy not poorly made stuff that would make them sick), toilet paper, and anything else you suggest that we should get that’s on there and for affordable prices.
Try AliExpress, you can buy all that stuff.
Not sure if serious? Why would someone import toilet paper for their own personal use?
Go to a discount store in your own city, it is going to be cheaper than trying to import something.
Alibaba is for wholesale purchases for businesses. Most of what you are asking will not be cheaper once you calculate landed costs, time and things like cat food, would you really risk saving a few dollars to put your cats at risk?
Paper mills are littered throughout this country as it's just not cost effective to pay high freight for some poof
Alibaba is almost strictly for businesses. Unless you’re an individual buying 100+ quantity of something it’s not really for you. Also for someone not experienced in ecom the whole process can be confusing with importing and such.
The Alibaba version for individual/personal is called aliexpress, i’d try that.
Probably because you're looking on Alibaba as an individual for items you can buy in bulk at Costco?
How much do you think shipping and tariffs cost for a pallet of any of those bulky and heavy items that are sent to you from China?
Alibaba is B2B.
When a factory lists an MOQ of 1 or 2 on a consumer commodity, they don’t mean one single pack of toilet paper. To a commercial manufacturer, a sample unit often means one master factory carton or one entire pallet intended for a corporate retail buyer to test the material purity before placing a contract for an entire shipping container. When their automated chat filters realize you are a private individual looking for a single retail item, they move on to commercial accounts.
Maybe if you ask for a sample that's customised to what you want, they would entertain you.
What would u like to buy? I can help u with that.
Paper towels and Toilet paper
I found a supplier that was fine with it. I wanted a bulk order of simple wall wart battery chargers for my hobby, which is repairing battery powered riding toys. I was tired of spending $15 each on Amazon, and sometimes I'd get chargers that didn't even work.
I was up front and told them I was just a guy with a garage and some tools. They were pleasant to work with and they were transparent about everything. This was last year but I think the bottom line cost ended up being around $7 a charger.
It was a bit of work though, certainly more involved than clicking add to cart on Amazon.
I only ever did that one transaction though, so I don't know how common that treatment is. I'm down to about 20 out of the 50 I ordered, so I'll probably need to order again next year.
try me friend