FASTEN YOUR SEATBELT FOR ALIBABA
Here are my ideas to make ALIBABA more useful and take it 10 steps ahead than all others.
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SECURITY: ALIBABA should ask to all members to have a email account which not from FREE EMAIL providers such as HOTMAIL, YAHOO etc. This is the initial step to increase security. In Turkey it is a must since 2005 that every company has to have a web page. In this case it is not that difficult to ask for an email.
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TRUSTPASS & GOLD SUPPLIER: In every topic on Alibaba recourses you can see a complaining regarding TrustPass and Gold Members, did you ever thought why and what can be wrong? Let me tell you what, first of all both means nothing. To be a Gold Member does not verify that they are 100% reliable and you can make good business. Gold Members should have their own web pages. I can not believe that they are Gold Members but even not able to make a good web page to tell more about themselves. About Trust pass, I don't know even what to say maybe the most stupid service of the century. The Trust Pass membership should not mean only make payment and you will be declared as a TRUSTFULL company. I had also Trust Pass but I don't wanna have anymore because it means only a payment and can be done by many fraud companies too. For Trust Pass, Alibaba should ask all company details and must verify this companies on his own, otherwise what will be the difference than Free Member? Alibaba call them Trust Pass, because they paid a couple of hundred dollars but even Alibaba does not know if they are legit or not? Ask about company details, verify them on your own and let the people to trust first to ALIBABA and than to the Trust Pass companies. Alibaba is loosing the trust, first you need to gain it back with this rules.
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SEARCH FUNCTIONS: The search function must be more complicated than it is. Let's say I want to find a manufacturer than I need to filter a couple of searches. Make it more easy. If I will need wholesaler make me able to find it by once. Even the selling leads and buying leads are mixed. I'm checking buying leads and I usually meet with selling leads. Please check all leads before you publish them. It is just a tricky way that the sellers are sending their leads in buying leads. Filter this leads!
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THE KNOWLEDGE SECTION: This will be the winning idea of ever. You will open a new section with this name. Here will be given professional business tips and useful information for international business rules. You call ALIBABA as “Global Trade Starts Here” but first you need to deserve it. In this section you can give a functional world map including freight destinations and international ports, air ports from every country. On the map you will given a link for the countries important locations and address details, web pages such as Chamber of Commerce, Tax office, local area telephone codes, mobile phone prefixes and other useful informations. So this means all of us will be trapped in Alibaba, no other search engines and wasting time on the web. This will be the biggest deal and will increase Alibaba visits more than ever. Also you need to give here information for international business terms such as incoterms 2000, banking and financing terms etc. With this section Alibaba will look totally different than all other competitors and will make it more reasonable to hang on. And than ALIBABA can say “Fasten your seatbelts, here we go”!
MaRcO PaShA
To be reall I am not agree with the ideas of MaRcO PaShA
1. If paid email member would be allowed then you will be limited. all major groups have free email accounts on yahoo or msn.
2. In most cases only serious companies will pay for gold membership
3. search function is good, see advance search option for complicated search. all business men are not IT specialist.
4. See the "Resource" center on home page full of information.
Arab Foods
Sialkot pakistan
You don't need to be agree with my ideas, this is very normal. But regarding your answers I have also something to say.
1. Free email usage is not a valid way to make people believ in you at the first sight. Yes you can use yahoo, msn, or whatever but I will not pay attention on a person who is using this kind of emails. If I have some body infront of me trying to make business I will appreciate to have acces to his web page. Nothing can be more normal than this??? If you thing this email addresses are just fine, so "WHY ALL SCAMMERS & FRAUDS LIKE LITTARY, HERITAGE etc ARE USING THIS MEAILS"??? Check the froum and ALIBABA pages.
2. Only serious companies will be pay for Gold membership, true but this is not verifying that you can trust to all of them. It is just a simple payment which should be extended with company verification. If all they are serious why "PEOPLE IS HAVIN TROUBLE TO RECIEVE THEIR PURCHASE"?? Check this forum to find out what I mean.
3. The search function is more complicated than similar service providers like ALIBABA. It must be more simple than it is because most of the users are not IT specialist. This is whta 1 mentioned. If you believe that it is easy to filter your search as amanufacturer company why I'm recieving always selling leads??? "BECAUSE THE SEARCH ENGINE IS NOT SIMPLE TO IDENTIFY BUYER & SELLER" or all this people is believeing that they will increase their business via sending selling leads to sellers too??? Or they are not able to understand who is seller or buyer?? IT MUST BE MORE SIMPLE!!!
4. The resource center means nothing! It is quite useless and not easy to understand for beginners. The sections are not clearly identified to help them. For proffessionals it is really less than it has to be. My idea for the functional map is the best idea than ever which can increase Alibaba visits. If you are against this it is ok.
I respect all comments regarding my ideas. Please do not misunderstood what we are trying to do here. All is to improve ALIBABA.
Definitely a good idea about the knowledge section. It will make Alibaba.com a one-stop-shop for business users.
However, keep in mind, that especially in the US, there are many people that are doing wholesale business from home or on a small scale. They are starting out. After all, that is exactly why Alibaba.com is useful, because it gives people resources they don't have access to. The larger companies that already have good business and their own websites don't really need Alibaba.com as much as smaller companies do. These smaller companies might have a hard time trying to provide web pages or business emails. Most of them probably use free email accounts.
In fact, Alibaba.com should really focus on smaller companies. They probably make up the majority of its clients. And, it should expand in countries like Pakistan, which are brimming with suppliers and manufacturers that just need access to buyers here in the US or in Europe.
Thanks!
Very good ideas!!!! I totally agree about having a company e-mail address. This is definetily the best way to find out if they are serious.
Brgds,
Gustavo Ponce (PERU)
I have already registered in a Trade site for gettig good buisiness and i have a web page on that site. but i wanna tell one thing that in India you can make your web page in resonable rates but registration in a trade site like alibaba and some other sites is very costly .so only serious companies will pay for Trust pass membership.
In my words Alibaba is better then the Best.
Thanks,
More over, ALIBABA has a quite good looking interface. I wouldn't go for a flash page ore similar pages. What else we do here must be very very SIMPLE. Easy to UNDERSTAND easy to USE. To discuss about feedback systems, ranking for the price or all other extensions will be make it more complicated and more difficult to use. I don't believe that every body is satisfied with the EBAY system? And to rebuild ALIBABA such as Ebay will cause only more difficulties even for seller and buyer even for first time visitors. This is ALIBABA a great and increasing TRADE PLACE for B2B if you will need C2C go ahead with Ebay. On some other topics they say they would have prices on every lead and they will be able to filter them on their searches. Not that easy guys, ALIBABA is proud to have more than 300.000 users which is interesting in B2B. So what we need to have is SIMPLY indicated above, thats it. SIMPLE and POWERFULL the growing accelarator for ALIBABA is this. Some additional futures like I explained above. Nothing else than SIMPLICITY but FUNCTIONALITY is what everybody needs and will improve ALIBABA, already #1
MaRcO
Additional offers for my winning ideas with an example;The Subject: You met with somebody on ALIBABA and you started to discuss about a business opportunity. You requested from the supplier to give you a quotation etc. You received an CIF offer and they are asking you to send the money in advance. What would you like to do? Or what you have to do?
Clause 1. You need to verify the company if they are fraud or registered company. Forget about the Trustpass system now. You are close to a deal and you need to verify the company as soon as possible. Things that you can do;You can try to find contact to the Chamber of Commerce to find out the company. You will spent quite good time to find first the chamber of commerce in their territory. If you manage to find the address you will spend more time to get an answer. Or you will start to search for a local consultant to do it for you, which will be more difficult. So you will loose time, the most valuable thing in our life. What could be better than,
Solution 1. If ALIBABA would mine I would ask to all members before they become a member about their company registration number from their chamber of commerce/tax office and I would verify it at first on my own. Individual membership should be accepted but of course this persons would be published with a big tag as they are individual and not registered companies. So everybody would be able to avoid this hard job and would make hassle free business
Solution 2. I would give all contact details to verify the company such as tax offices and chamber of commerce. So you would be able to do it more easy on your own.
Clause 2: You agree with the company that they are legit and now you face a problem with the port of lading. You ask to another one but the company is strictly forcing you to get the goods from that port. Things that you can do; So you will need to find out if there is another port to take the goods and maybe a better freight rate. You will ask about to have a FOB price and they accepted. Now you will need a forwarder and information about ports in that territory. What a hard job to do??What could be better than,
Solution 1. If ALIBABA would mine I would open a page with an functional map for international business. This map would show all ports and airports even railways for freight destinations. With some additional functions once you would move the mouse on the port you would be able to access via a pop up menu to the local information about service providers close to that port, custom agencies, forwarders etc. So you would be able to make your own decision about your transportation.
Solution 2. I would do the map without this interface and I would give all information as a list and even in this situation you would be able to do it on your own easily again.
As you see friends SIMPLICITY would be the main issue on ALIBABA. Very SIMPLE but unbelievable FUNCTIONAL, if ALIBABA would mine...
MaRcO PaShA
It seems like that a lot of people is agree with me, especially in my “THE KNOWLEDGE SECTION” idea. As far as I saw some other ideas, they are very familiar with my other critical points, such as security, company verification etc. Also I thought about something else like which will be a winning idea too; I'm introducing my latest idea:
5. THE ALIBABA RANKING SYSTEM: If ALIBABA would be mine; I would like to give a rank star to people who those made a business via ALIBABA. As a member made a business agreement with a company which is also shown on ALIBABA, both will send their confirmation regarding this business has been done quite successful to ALIBABA and they will be awarded to hold a ranking star on their company name. More coming stars will be shown on their company profile pages. Also this companies will be more visible on the selling/buying lead pages with their STARS. Everybody will be able to understand who is making business via ALIBABA and who is trustful. Very easy to show and understand. This can make ALIBABA more popular. And for sure it will be the sign of TRUST & SECURITY on ALIBABA except the SUCCESS.
MaRcO PaShA
Introducing my latest idea of improving ALIBABA;
6. “ATD”: THE Alibaba Trade Dictionary: If ALIBABA would be mine; I would like open a very special dictionary for international trade words and terms. This section can make everything more easy. It would provide INCOTERMS, Banking and Financial Terms, Freight Terms all together as as simple list, exactly like a dictionary. I know very well that some of these terms are listed on ALIBABA resources but quite complicated and mostly users, as far as I saw on the member discussions are still asking for some terms and information which is already listed on ALIBABA resources. This means it is very difficult to search and find from ALIBABA for all this people who want to know about a simple word. Via this simply listed dictionary every user will be able to find what means THC, T/T, L/C etc. at the first sight. These questions will be no longer listed on discussions forum and the forum will have more space for business discussions. Dictionary will not be listed in different sections it will come down from A to Z very easy to use. Alibaba Trade Dictionary will make ALIBABA more wise and usefull than today.
MaRcO PaShA