Alibaba is a goldmine of great products and suppliers, in fact, on the last count, there were more than 2.8 million supplier storefronts and 5,900 product categories! But how do we wade through the rest to get to the best?
You probably have your favourite method of finding suppliers on Alibaba but today I want to tell you about one I’ve been using recently that not so many people know about…
You can search on Alibaba by image.
This is useful when you’ve seen a product you’re interested in selling on Amazon, but you can’t find the exact item with words alone. Also, it might give you insight into other keywords or niches the product could be sold in.
It’s similar to Google’s ‘Search by Image’ or ‘reverse image search’ feature – a clever tool commonly used by people when they think their picture is being used fraudulently online – that allows you to search for related images by uploading an image as opposed to typing in words.
I’ve noticed it doesn’t always work perfectly, but it’s a new feature on Alibaba so will probably become more intuitive as time goes on.
Here’s how to search for an item on Alibaba by image:
Christmas is COMING! And although my boys are a little too young for them, I’ve heard from the other moms that drones are this year’s must-have Christmas present for boys. They’re going mad for them! So, what better to use as an example?
Here’s one I’ve found on Amazon.com, let’s imagine this is the product you want to source and sell.
Now click on the main image to open it up. Then click Save Image As.
Now we have an image to search with! So head over to Alibaba.
In the search box is a little camera, if you hover over it it says ‘search by image’. That’s what we want!
Upload your picture and wait for the results.
Some will be relevant, others not as much (is that a kid’s scooter!?) But it’s a neat little trick that’s worth trying when you’re next searching for a new supplier – you just might find something special.
Give it a try!
Until next time… oh and Merry Christmas!
Stacey xx