How do you pay/buy from Alibaba?

After countless visits to China since 1978, I am very familiar with the Chinese way of doing business, so I can tell you what is behind suppliers asking buyers to pay some of their costs. In this case, the PayPal fee.

It is part of the Chinese mentality. Money is of enormous importance to them and consequently every dollar counts. As ZanyZebra says, many eRetailers are glad to pay what to them is a small fee.

There is no such thing as a small fee in the eyes of a Chinese business person. To them it all adds up. They won't shrug their shoulders like the many eRetailers and say oh well it's only a small fee. If they can add that to their sale that is simply seen for what it is - extra profit. Small? No, because many small figures add up to large figures.

It may help readers understand this thinking when I tell you that over the years I have seen numerous quotes for small value items priced to four decimal points! They might quote something like 1,000 pcs @ US$0.0724 per pc.

.24 of a cent! Less than 1/4 of a cent! Small, but it adds up. On the 1,000 pcs order that adds $24 to the otherwise total of $70.00. If it is for 10,000 pcs the total extra profit for them is $240.00 on what would have otherwise been a $700 order.

But this is only academic if you want to deal with genuine manufacturers rather than the traders you will find on the major B2B sites. The reason is that very few genuine manufacturers will accept PayPal.

"If you think education is expensive - consider the cost of ignorance."