Introduction
Navigating Alibaba.com as a seller involves more than just listing your products; it’s also about understanding the landscape and tools that shape buyer behavior.
Consumer-facing filters and icons carry significant weight in capturing buyer trust and differentiating your offerings in a crowded B2B marketplace. By optimizing your product listings to align with these features, you can not only boost visibility but also potentially increase the volume of inquiries for your business.
In this guide, we’ll decode some of the most common icons and filters seen on Alibaba.com product cards. You’ll learn what they represent and how you can earn them to strengthen your presence in search results. We’ll dissect an actual product card to illustrate these points in action and provide tips for leveraging these elements to your advantage.
Understanding buyer-facing tabs
Buyers on Alibaba.com have two tabs to assist them in their search: the ‘Products’ tab and the ‘Manufacturers’ tab. Each serves a distinct purpose and caters to different buyer needs.
Products tab
The products tab is where all items sold on Alibaba.com are found. Buyers can apply a variety of filters to refine their search, including delivery times, seller reviews, locations, and even specific certifications. This tab is the go-to for buyers seeking individual products.
Manufacturers tab
When searching directly from the home page, the Manufacturers tab is reserved exclusively for sellers with Verified Supplier and Verified Supplier Pro memberships. This tab helps buyers find reliable manufacturing partners. It sees double the traffic of the products tab, signaling its importance for sellers aiming to capture the attention of buyers who need a consistent supply of products.
Leveraging filters for visibility
Alibaba.com offers an extensive selection of filters that can be the difference between being seen or overlooked. Smart optimization of your product listings to these filters is crucial.
March Expo
The March Expo filter is exclusively used to promote items included in March Expo.
How to earn: Requirements for the March Expo vary from year to year. It’s best to keep an open line of communication and share your interest with your Alibaba.com rep to learn about the current year’s requirements. Enrollment typically happens three months in advance.
Super September
The Super September filter is exclusively used to promote items included in Super September.
How to earn: Requirements for the Super September vary from year to year. It’s best to keep an open line of communication and share your interest with your Alibaba.com rep to learn about the current year’s requirements. Enrollment typically happens three months in advance.
Trade Assurance
Trade Assurance is a transaction protection program to secure all payments made through Alibaba.com. Built to protect sellers and buyers alike, this program can shorten the selling cycle, especially for first-time orders.
How to earn: The Trade Assurance filter is available exclusively for sellers who offer Trade Assurance.
Alibaba Guaranteed
Alibaba Guaranteed offers a selection of products buyers can order directly without negotiating with sellers or worrying about shipment delays. This is attractive for buyers as they’re able to see the guaranteed total price and cost per piece with shipping included before placing an order.
How to earn: The Alibaba Guaranteed filter is currently only available for sellers in China.
Verified Supplier
SupplierVerified Suppliers are 3rd-party verified, with qualified production and service capabilities that help Alibaba.com buyers identify the supplier type quickly and accurately, source efficiently, and receive consistent product quality from experienced suppliers.
How to earn: The Verified Supplier filter is only available to sellers who enroll in the Verified Supplier membership and complete the qualifications.
Verified Pro Supplier
SupplierVerified Pro Suppliers are top-tier 3rd-party Verified Suppliers with years of import/export experience, widely-recognized achievements, and successful case studies that help Alibaba.com buyers maintain consistent production quality, improve supply chain stability, and accelerate innovation and growth.
How to earn: The Verified Pro filter is currently only available for sellers in China.
≤1h response time
≤1h response timeThis filter is exclusively available for sellers who average a response time of one hour or less in the current month. The auto-response feature does not qualify as a response in this calculation.
How to earn: Maintain an average response time of one hour or less in the calendar month.
Product certifications
Product certification is a process through which a product undergoes evaluation to ensure it meets specified standards or criteria set by a regulatory body or a standards organization. This type of certification is focused on the product itself and its compliance with safety, quality, performance, or environmental impact standards. There are numerous product certifications.
How to earn: Documentation can be uploaded on My Alibaba. Follow the outlined here.
Star Supplier and Star Rating
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| Level 0 | Level 1 | Level 2 | Level 3 | Level 4 | Level 5 |
Star Rating evaluate a supplier’s overall capabilities to serve global buyers based on products, services, and marketing. Through increased rankings in search results, it boosts your business opportunities by increasing exposure. Once you are a Star Supplier, you will have a high possibility of obtaining at least 15 inquiries per month.
For the Star Rating, we have six scales ranging from 0 to 5 stars. The more stars you have, the more opportunities you can get from search and the more product showcases you are allowed to purchase. Just as you can level up in the Star Rating, you can level up your year count. Each seller starts at 1 year and levels up every year, increasing your credibility.
How to earn: The Star Rating you begin with will depend on your membership. Improving or maintaining a rating takes time and effort based on a combination of 6 indicators. Upon successful completion of business verification (BV), non-Verified Supplier plans will designate you as a ‘1-year seller.’ With renewed BV, your seller tenure increases annually. Consistency is key in accumulating tenure; maintaining the same business name is necessary for continual tenure recognition.
Premium Sponsored Listing
When a buyer enters a search term, Premium Sponsored Ads appear as the first search result. Premium Sponsored Ads showcase the product as the finest option, guaranteeing you receive 100% of impressions for the given search term for 12 months.
How to earn: Premium Sponsored Ads are available for purchase through your local Alibaba.com sales rep.
Product card breakdown
Let’s break down some of the icons we’ve discussed in the following Alibaba.com product card.
The first thing a buyer will likely notice is the image. Uploading high-quality, professional images is critical, given that buyers can do image searches for products from the Products and Manufacturers tabs.
Below the image, there are two product certification icons. The Dolby Audio certification indicates a product meets the company and its related audio technology standards. The TUV mark indicates a sampling of the product has undergone safety testing and has been found to meet the minimum requirements of the German Equipment and Product Safety Act. These documents can be checked for third-party verification on the product listing itself.
Scanning down the card, we see the icon for Verified Supplier, and to the right, two diamonds indicating this seller has a 3-star rating.
Further down, we see that the seller is in its second year selling on Alibaba.com, is based in the USA, and has received two 5/5 reviews.
Conclusion
Maximizing your use of certifications and filters can significantly increase your product listings’ visibility. Combine this strategy with a professional and thorough listing, and you will be well on your way to attracting more inquiries.
With unlimited product listings available across all memberships, optimizing listings can be time-consuming. Consider selecting a seller membership plan that adds the support of the Alibaba.com Account Management Team to maximize your selling efforts on Alibaba.com.
