Buying on 1688 and Taobao

Why the 1688 price is the real price

Alibaba.com exists to sell to foreign buyers. A seller who lists there takes on a structure — English-language support, export documentation, international warranty, sometimes higher platform commissions — and that structure is paid for inside the unit price. A buyer who only wants the product ends up paying for everything else as well.

1688 is the market where Chinese traders buy their own stock. There is no English-language service because none is needed: the buyer is Chinese. There is no export documentation because the product does not leave the country. And the price reflects that.

The consequence is that the same factory can appear on both platforms at different prices, and on 1688 the price spread is wider too, because manufacturers and resellers sell the same item at very different margins. Telling them apart is half the value of the service.

The real barriers on 1688

Language. The interface, the product pages, the chat negotiations and the terms are in Chinese. Browser auto-translation handles technical and material terminology badly.

Payment. The platform runs on Chinese payment methods and accounts are tied to Chinese identity. Paying from abroad without a local account is not a practical route.

Receiving. Sellers ship to addresses inside China, with domestic couriers. Many do not ship abroad at all.

Documentation. The invoice a 1688 seller issues is a Chinese invoice, not an export document. Turning that into a usable customs file takes additional work.

Disputes. The protection mechanisms exist, but they operate in Chinese, under Chinese law and for buyers with a presence in China. Exercising them from outside is, in practical terms, impossible.

How we buy on 1688

You get the same treatment as with any other supplier. We filter out the listings that are resellers, check the licence and the scope of activity of the manufacturers, negotiate the price by volume and request samples when the order justifies it.

Payment is made in yuan to the supplier company's account inside China. The 1688 invoice is handed to you as it is, with no mark-up. Our remuneration is the declared commission, which is why we have no incentive to hide the purchase price from you.

Once the goods arrive at our Shenzhen warehouse, we apply the same quality control and the same consolidation process as to any other order, and they can ship together with cargo from other suppliers.

1688 or Taobao: which one you need

1688 is built for wholesale buying: tiered pricing by quantity, minimum order quantities and sellers geared to traders. Taobao is a consumer marketplace, selling by the unit with no minimums.

When the order is small or you need to test many different references before committing, Taobao is usually the faster route. When the volume justifies negotiating by tiers, 1688 gives better prices. Many clients start by testing references on Taobao and move to 1688 once they know which product works.