This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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A recent classroom episode covered the basics of buying products for resale on Alibaba, but this listener is still confused. So let's clear up the confusion. Welcome to Side Hustle School, my name is Chris Guillebeau. Now as a refresher, if you're just joining us, if you don't know what Alibaba is, Alibaba is the largest marketplace in the world. Yes, that includes Amazon.
If you go to alibaba.com, you can find just about anything there from big booty jeans to live sheep. And in fact, we covered listings for both of those items and many more in the aforementioned classroom episode, number 1402. And in that episode, I was talking about sourcing products using Alibaba, how can you buy something from an overseas manufacturer and then resell it. And in that episode, I also talked briefly about Alibaba Express, which is a little bit different from Alibaba, that is part of this listener's confusion. So totally understandable why this could be confusing, but let's clear it up.
And we'll do that right after this quick message from our sponsor. [Music]
Hi Chris, this is Brian from Denver. I listened to an episode on sourcing products from Alibaba and got really excited. But when I went to look at the site, I felt seriously overwhelmed. It seems like you can buy almost anything you can imagine, but there are thousands of sellers and lots of confusing terms.
You mentioned that Alibaba Express is more consumer friendly with lower minimum order quantities. And the site does seem a lot easier to navigate, but is there a reason I should be looking at Alibaba.com instead of Alibaba Express? What's the difference? Thanks. - Brian, what's good, man?
Thank you so much for listening. Thank you for the question. And you're not alone in your confusion. This can be overwhelming. You're right.
If you go to Alibaba.com, you're like, "Oh my God, there's so much here." Now that original episode was 1402. Just wanna mention that again for those who have not heard the classroom episode. If you wanna hear all about Alibaba, go back and start with that. But to answer your question, you know, it's Alibaba Express, what you can go to Alibaba Express.com versus Alibaba.com. The Express site may seem easier to understand because that site is focused, that platform is focused on B to C, like business to consumer.
Whereas Alibaba is focused on B to B, business to business. Most people who are buying in Alibaba are other businesses and they are buying to resell or they're buying to customize or personalize in some way. They're trying to connect with an overseas factory, perhaps to make a product of their own design. So of course there's gonna be more complexity there. And yes, there are often lower minimum order quantities on the consumer site, and there may be some good deals there, but generally if you're buying for resell, you want to buy in bulk 'cause that's where you're gonna get a better price.
So that's why I tend to steer people more toward Alibaba, even if it seems a little bit more complex. So overall, a couple of tips here. I think it's worth your time to learn more about Alibaba in general, if you are at all interested in reselling something or even if you're interested in creating your own product or connecting with an overseas manufacturer. This is really where you need to go. I mean, this is stop number one.
So the site itself has lots of detailed guides. They have lots of secondary pages, explanatory videos. There's also at least one major subreddit, which is reddit.com/r/alibabaimport. So not just Alibaba, but Alibaba import on Reddit. And of course lots of independent tutorials and pages and posts.
So I'd recommend you just kind of do a deep dive there and don't expect to go away, knowing everything in an hour or two, but an hour or two of research can probably take you a long way. And I do think it's worth it again, if you want to sell something or if you're interested in working with an overseas manufacturer for anything. From there, because again, it's overwhelming, I'd recommend trying to specialize, or if not specializing, at least having a narrow focus at first. And the difference there I think is specializing is like, I'm gonna go deep with this thing. Having a narrow focus is like, I don't know what I want to do, but I probably can't sell live sheep and big booty jeans and everything else at the same time.
So let me just pick one of those things, actually perhaps neither of those things, but maybe something different. Let me just pick one thing, maybe make an initial purchase, see if I can sell that on a local network like Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace or somewhere else and then go from there. So it's worth it, but it does take some time. And I hope that is helpful, Brian, and anybody else out there who may have been confused. Listeners, if you've got a question of your own, come to sidehustleschool.com/questions.
I'm also very grateful for your five-star reviews. If you could leave me a quick little review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts, even just a rating, you just click it. It's pretty simple. It does help a lot in terms of other people discovering the show. So I am grateful for you, and I hope you will join me again tomorrow.
My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
- From the "Onward Project."
