In the past, international trade involved a lot of grunt work. You needed to set up meetings with your partners abroad to strike deals, deal with the haulage of the goods across the ocean, deal with customs, and so much more.
Today, with websites like Alibaba.com, you can partake in international trade from the comfort of your bedroom, or office, as the case may be. One of the major things that makes this possible is shipping and logistics. With Alibaba.com, navigating this important area of international trade has never been easier.
Table of Contents
The current state of shipping in ecommerce
Ready to ship or made to order?
Shipping options for ready to ship products
Shipping options for made to order(customizable) Products
Shop safely on Alibaba.com
The current state of shipping in ecommerce
B2B shipping has come a long way from its simpler beginnings. In the past, when this ecommerce thing was still new, a lot of B2B companies had no idea of how to handle different package classifications. Most of them only handled shipping for retail customers online. B2B shipping was usually done offline.
Now, there are tools that let businesses create real-time quotes ranging from Less Than Truckload (LTL) freight to huge orders. Now, B2B freight is usually handled by service providers like GlobalTranz, FreightQuote, and the shipping options available on Alibaba.com.
The growth of ecommerce shipping isn’t just reflected in better tools and efficient processes like the ones mentioned above. In 2020, the ecommerce shipping and logistics industry grew by about 27%, making it worth an estimated $368 billion. It is expected that by 2025, the industry will be worth $631 billion.
Ready to ship or made to order?
On Alibaba.com, when it comes to shipping, there are two types of goods: ready to ship and made to order(customized) goods.
Ready to ship goods are products that don’t have a lot of customization options. They are to be shipped as they appear. They have the following key features:
- The product is available with minor customization.
- The price is fixed and is non-negotiable.
- The product would leave the supplier’s warehouse within 7 to 15 days of making the order.
Made to order products, on the other hand, have a lot of customization options. When purchasing these goods, you’ll have to contact the seller and discuss the modifications you want to make to the products. After the seller has made the goods to your specifications, then they would be shipped to you.
Shipping options for ready to ship products
You can access ready to ship goods by clicking the ready to ship button on the upper left corner of the Alibaba.com website. This takes you to the section of the website where you can find all ready to ship goods.
You can also use the ready to ship filter on your search results page. This filter can be found on the left side of the results page.
Another way to easily tell if a product is ready to ship is by checking for a “start order” button on the right side of the page.
After making payment for your product, you’ll be navigated to a page where you fill in your shipping details. You also get to see which shipping options are available, along with their prices and the estimated shipping time.
On completing this step, you’ll be able to access the tracking data for your goods after they have been shipped. This will make it easier to monitor the movement of your products in real-time.
Shipping options for made to order(customizable) products
For made to order products, you’ll see a contact seller button. This is what you’ll use to reach out to the seller and discuss the modification details you want for the goods.
Some sellers have shipping options that come with your order. So, you don’t really have to worry about shipping when buying their products.
However, if your seller doesn’t have shipping options, you can make use of Alibaba Freight by taking the following steps.
1. Place your mouse on Buyer Central at the top of the Alibaba.com page.
2. Click on Logistics Services. This would take you to the landing page for Alibaba Freight.
3. Click on Compare Rates to start the process.
4. Fill in the necessary information to begin the shipping process.
Shop safely on Alibaba.com
With Alibaba.com, carrying out international trade is as easy as the click of a button. With the shipping options made available by Alibaba.com, you have your desired products delivered to your doorstep from anywhere in the world.
Utilize the power of the internet for your business by shopping safely on Alibaba.com today.
