Searching 1688 is not like searching Amazon or Google. The platform is built for Chinese wholesale buyers, its listings are written in dense factory language, and the most important signals — store age, repurchase rate, production badges — sit in small badges and numbers that first-time foreign buyers scroll past. This guide explains the search […]
Tracking a shipment from China means reading tracking numbers and status updates from a carrier — and knowing that the scan you see depends on which leg of the journey the package is on. A shipment moves through several hands before it reaches you: domestic pickup in China, a consolidation warehouse, export clearance, ocean or […]
Returns and refunds on 1688 are possible, but they run on the platform’s own rules rather than the ones you may be used to from Amazon or eBay. Your money is protected by Alipay’s escrow and by 1688’s buyer-protection system, but a refund only lands when the dispute process is followed, the supplier agrees or […]
Consolidation shipping from China is the practice of combining several smaller orders — often from different suppliers — into a single, larger shipment so you pay one freight charge instead of many. Instead of ten small parcels each carrying its own minimum-charge penalty and dead space, your goods are collected at a warehouse, repacked into […]
A China purchasing agent is a specialist you hire to source, negotiate, order, and manage the delivery of goods from Chinese suppliers on your behalf. The part most buyers get wrong is the label: a purchasing agent does more than a buying agent, because “purchasing” means the whole supply task — finding the right supplier, […]
Most importers only think about inspection after the goods are made. By then the cartons are sealed, the balance payment is due, and a defect that should have been caught three weeks earlier is now a negotiation. Pre-shipment inspection is not a formality bolted on at the end of an order — it is a […]
A consolidation service from China is a warehouse-and-shipping operation that receives goods from several different suppliers, holds them, repacks them into one shipment, and sends them out together. Instead of paying for five separate parcels from five different sellers, you pay for one combined shipment. For anyone buying from multiple 1688 or Taobao sellers — […]
A China shipping agent is a licensed freight partner that books cargo, handles customs paperwork, and moves your goods from a Chinese factory or warehouse to your door abroad. If you buy from 1688, Taobao, or a China supplier and don’t have your own logistics setup, a shipping agent is the piece that turns “goods […]
1688 is safe for domestic Chinese buyers, but an international buyer faces real, specific risks — around payment, product quality and supplier reliability — that the platform’s buyer protection was never really designed to solve. The honest answer is that 1688 itself is a legitimate, heavily used wholesale marketplace owned by the Alibaba group. The […]
For most international orders, the cheapest way to ship from China is sea freight for heavy or bulky goods, and consolidated courier or air freight for small, light parcels. There is no single cheapest method, because the winner changes with weight, volume, destination and how fast you need the goods. Most of the money you […]
