Well, I have been use Alibaba for a while; it does give me few businesses. But in fact, I must reject 98% of the inquire because they just not qualify that kind of the customer I want. I had categorized them into several groups.
1. Alibaba is B2B web site, but almost half of the inquire I had were from the end customer who just need to buy the auto part for their own car. That make me feel all the sudden Alibaba has become a B2C web site. Like yahoo, or ebay.
2. A lots of inquire are came from the customer who is in other industry. For example, I sale auto parts, but some inquire were came from the customer who is in electronic, or food industry. If you talk deeper with them, you will find out that they do not have any knowledge about auto part what so ever. That lead me feel that they do not have solid customer base, certainly they will not be able to buy container size of the volume. I mean why I should spend my time on them. They just came here to mess around.
3. If I see any customer who do not has any company profile, or they refuse to give me the phone number, or they give me the wrong phone number. I will spam them, because their motivation is very suspicious. If they really want to buy from me, they should provide the open information so we can have further discussions with them.
I mean I getting these customer every days, after for a while, I start to lose the trust on the people. It make me waste my time, it also waste buyer's time too. My suggestion is Alibaba still has the room to improve their system.
1 Put the block between buyer and supplier if they two are lists in two different industries.
2. If customer who does not has company profile, do not allow them to use the system, I mean this is B2B web site, not B2C web site. Every true buyer and supplier should have company profile, if they don't have it, then they are not business man. They should go to other place.
3. A person who provides the wrong phone number should be put on the black lists and system should block them to get into here. Alibaba should create a contact window to handle this type of complain. To protect our trading environment not be polluted, Alibaba and all of the people who make living on these web site should stand up to clean the garbage. We all hope that Alibaba can become a regulate, safer and more efficient trading platform. For example like Wall Street’s stock exchange company, most of them have very security on line trading system. All of the buyer and seller must be qualify the background check before use the system.
Thanks
Fu Hai Co ltd
Don **

Replying to [kung]:

Alibaba is a good guy, but Kassim got himself wasted because of greed

You are correct that there are a lot of users who are not traditional customers, but you are probably best to realize that the market is changing with the help of sites like alibaba. More and more end retailers are no longer prevented from buying here due to their small size. Although order sizes are smaller they can generally accept higher prices so perhaps you should develop a plan whereby you have two prices - one for large orders and one for small orders.

If you really only want big customers and big orders then trade shows are probably your best bet. Seldom to small buyers invest the money to fly around the world to visit trade shows. Using alibaba is quick, cheap, and easy from a customers point of view.

The whole idea of alibaba is to make things easier for buyers and sellers. Some of the ideas that you suggest would just make things more difficult which would undermine the purpose of the site.

Regarding customer profile it is true that the information would be helpful to sellers. That is for sure. But you also have to understand that some sellers abuse that information.

As a buyer I prefer to remain anonymous until such time as I am ready to buy. If I am in contact with a factory that turns out to be unsuitable for my needs then it is far easier for me to move on if that factory is unable to contact me. I understand that this may sound harsh but if you were a buyer you would perhaps understand how difficult some suppliers can be to deal with. This is especially true of the scammers.

So it is a trade off. Too little information bothers sellers, but too much information bothers buyers. I think that the current system is good.

Of course as a seller you need to know your customer BEFORE you send any orders to them. That is part of your due dilligence. So if you have a customer who wants to place an order but is unwilling to reveal who they are then you have a problem. You should not, and probably cannot, enter into an order with an unknown customer, but I don't see the problem with giving prices and information to potential customers to win their trust to provide you with more information

Replying to [Egernia]:I agree with you.Your analyse is very correct.No matter whoever is a buyer or seller,he want to get few bothers during business.But there are a lot of informations from alibaba.We should choose and tell which information is useful .We should keep anonymous before we think the information is correct and want to buy.

Replying to [Egernia]: Thank you a lot , Kung and Egernia. I learnt a lot from your guys.

Replying to [kung]:

Take initiative to find your customer, it is not easy to find a customer who will buy a container load as a MOQ, if there is a auto accessories shop really wanted to buy some parts from you, I don't think they will buy a container.

As a sales person you got to know which company will most probably will buy a container load of your product, you have to hunt them down and approach them.

Waiting for customer sending RFQ through alibaba is just not good enough, anybody who can write some simple English will do the job, if you don't want to be one of them, you better do something more drastic.

By the way if you don't even know which company that most probably will buy a container load of your product you are selling now, you better change a job, this don't definetly is not suitable for you. Good Luck

Replying to [kung]:

i have ever been in auto parts business, and i have many customer, but most are the end user,and some are real big buyer, they usually have some retailers in their own country, be patient, maybe u can be lucky to get some real big buyer.
and for the inquiry, some are just sent to you by the alibaba system according to customers' keywords, sure there will be some mistakes.
some with wrong no maybe are your competitors, most just wanna know more ur price. but no intent to do real business, for this part, just forget it.

Replying to [kung]:i think you are wrong and right because everywhere thinks happen for bad or good.
talking about people messing around ,yes,it's happen oftenly.
also people who really want to buy,they have to know how you're working,you have to describe better your products or company.
i don't think it's wasting time with them.
i mean,if you looking for costumer you have to hunt them then being comunicative.
finaly i 'm saying customer should be your type always because it's the deal,the business.
good luck at all.

Replying to [Egernia]: I quite agree with you. Alibaba is a transaction platform, BIG or SMALL, it should not be confined. It would even be ridiculous to "block" small buyers. As regards sellers may meet with not so pleasant buyers, and buyers may probably knock into scammers, it's controlable. The seller, u can choose who you would like to deal with; the buyer, you can be more cautious and do more "due diligence" to avoid being cheated. In addition, a cheater company has his company profile as well!!!
bizinchina

Replying to [Egernia]:
Really, I don't mind get in touch with small buyer, as long as they are geniue buyer. Small quantity is not bother me at all.
The real probleam you got to understand is there are hundreds of company who sale the same product with me. They might locate in China, or Taiwan. They try everything they can to get the price trend of the competitor. Now, be smart, do you think , they will tell you their real face, no, they usually will pretent they are the buyer from the other country and tell you which item they want to buy and they want you give them the price.Now, usually they do not provide the company profile or phone number, because they don't want seller has way to find out their game. Now aday, information are all avaliable, all I need to do is ask my banker to do the survey for me. It takes only two days, the report will come out.
Really, provide the price to the customer is natural thing, we need to provide the information for the customer to make the decision. Even if they do not buy from us, that is OK, because this is part of the business, But, giving out the price information to the competitor is another issue. I think, there are many B2B web site, already done the good job to prevent this thing happen, They do not let any people get the acceses if they do not provide the truefull information. Alibaba still has the room to imporve this. The real buyer should and must provide the information to help the business grow in positive way. Frankly with you, I am plan to attack those people by posting the topic on the website, I want to provide a place where people can share the idea to destory those people. We want to make sure they if they want to play this game, their life is going to be harder and harder. In the end, honest people will win the war.

[The real probleam you got to understand is there are hundreds of company who sale the same product with me. They might locate in China, or Taiwan. They try everything they can to get the price trend of the competitor.]

So what?! That's business....

I hear this excuse a lot coming from suppliers but I don't agree that it is an issue. It is certainly not an issue that you can prevent so why worry about it. The only way to prevent your competitors from getting your prices is to NEVER give out prices to ANYONE but then how are you going to get any orders? By suspecting everyone who asks for prices you may be stopping a competitor or two from knowing your prices but you are also discouraging more customers than that.

So what if your competitor knows your price. If you are offering your best prices based upon your quality then the best that they can do is match it. The only reason that you would be worried about this is if your margins are high and you are worried that they will undercut your margins thereby forcing your prices down. If that is the case then perhaps you should be offering more realistic prices to your customers in the first place.

[Now, usually they do not provide the company profile or phone number, because they don't want seller has way to find out their game. Now aday, information are all avaliable, all I need to do is ask my banker to do the survey for me. It takes only two days, the report will come out.]

Your problem here is that many legitimate customers also choose not to reveal their information in their profiles. You have every right not to deal with them, but in my opinion you are losing more than you are gaining.

I am not sure why you need your banker to verify a customer before you can offer them a price! That must slow you down somewhat. Perhaps the reason that you don't see orders from these enquiries is that other factories reply faster and without suspicion and thereby get the orders!

[I think, there are many B2B web site, already done the good job to prevent this thing happen, They do not let any people get the acceses if they do not provide the truefull information. Alibaba still has the room to imporve this.]

Fair enough, but it does come at a cost. Some buyers will choose not to frequent such sites as it is either too much trouble to get access or they don't want to reveal their identities until they are ready to do so.

For me it is a trade off. And I can't see any real terrible disadvantage to the current system.

[I am plan to attack those people by posting the topic on the website, I want to provide a place where people can share the idea to destory those people. We want to make sure they if they want to play this game, their life is going to be harder and harder. In the end, honest people will win the war.]

Who are you at war with? Customers who choose not to provide you with their life histories just to get prices from you?!!