When we mention wholesale markets, many would consider China, the world’s largest giant occupying this market. Alibaba was in the past the only master occupying the entire wholesale industry in China, but in this decade more and more Internet wholesale trading place are showing up to grab the market share. In all online wholesale marketplaces, the development of DHgate is the most visible based on the volumes of registered members, item variety, volume of transactions, services, purchase experience, etc. A closerlook into these online trading models reveals that the unique business model is the major contributor to the development of .
Unlike Alibaba and other wholesale marketplaces, DHgate.com does not charge membership fees by providing information service. Instead, it earns profits by charging a certain percentage of commission for every completed transaction. Zero membership fees mode has won many small and medium-sized enterperprises from China to try this marketplace. With the zero cost for membership, sellers can afford to provide the most competitive prices on their commodities. That’s the reason why buyers can commonly get extremely low prices on lots of commodities on the website, as we can see in the pool of DHgate reviews.
I was worried that free membership fees might lead to the spreading of DHgate scams since I thought free membership means completely “free” access to the site. But later I learnt that I was wrong. Before becoming a formal member of the online wholesale marketplace, each seller is seriously censored by the staff from the website, with the certification authorized by an authoritative third party association. Surely, as it may occur in all other online trading marketplaces like Alibaba and eBay, some scammers may slip into DHgate.com with a highly disguised identity. So beware when you trade with the sellers on the website. Nevertheless, the composite set of functions including Escrow payment method, trust point system and feedback system the site provides greatly reduce your risks to the least. When you decide to buy a particular item, remember to take a look at the seller’s feedback profile which clearly shows the credibility of the supplier. From the seller’s feedback messages, you can not only see the seller’s feedback score and positive feedback percentage, but also the specific ratings on past transactions like item as described, shipping time, communication, etc. These further ratings are great markers to assess a seller as the feedback system of the site is already quite complete and strictly implemented.
Another big difference differentiating DHgate from Alibaba lies in the process transaction service it offers. As mentioned before, Alibaba works on an information-oriented service without invloving in the transaction progress between the seller and the buyer. But DHgate serves as a mediating stop by penetrating into the entire transaction process. From when the buyer places the order, through when the buyer makes the payment, to when the buyer receives the commodities and claims the delivery, to finally DHgate.com releases the payment, the website involving in every period of the entire process. This also, greatly reduces the chances of fraud events. From the sea of DHgate reviews on the Internet, I concluded that most events in relation with “DHgate fraud” were caused simply due to misunderstanding or failure to use the help service DHgate.com provides. For instance, a buyer blames that DHgate.com is a scammer as he missed the deadline to open a dispute after he the number of his received goods was not correct. As a result, his money was released by DHgate as he did not open any dispute in due time. First, this buyer mistook DHgate as a supplier. In reality, DHgate is just a transaction stop dedicated to offering transaction services between the two trading ends. Second, when problems occur, the urgent move is to get help from their customer service department as soon as possible. Otherwise, as buyers need to open a dispute within the time limit, according to DHgate’s rules, if the buyer does not open any dispute and the supplier applies for the payment release with required data, the B2B marketplace will release the money to the supplier.