Every platform and trade fair profile on this site answers one question first: when you buy through this channel, who are you actually buying from? The answer decides almost everything else, from what price means to what recourse exists when an order goes wrong.
How to read the verdict pills
The pills carry one of three values:
- Mostly factories direct means the channel's own disclosures show that most sellers are manufacturers.
- Factories and traders mixed means manufacturers sell alongside trading companies, wholesalers and resellers, and the channel does not, or cannot, separate them.
- Retail or small-lot resale means the channel is built for consumers or small resellers buying ready stock, not for placing manufacturing orders.
Each verdict rests on the operator's own filings or an official source, quoted in the profile. No major B2B channel profiled here publishes a factory-versus-trader breakdown, so most carry the middle value. Alibaba Group's annual report for the year ended 31 March 2026 says Alibaba.com "connects Chinese and overseas suppliers to overseas wholesale buyers," and seller membership is open to any paying supplier. The operator of the Yiwu market reports that about 52.38% of its merchants own their own factory, a figure from its own survey with undisclosed methodology. The Canton Fair's organizer publishes no split either. "Mixed" is not a criticism; it is a reason to verify each counterparty individually.
B2B platforms and retail platforms are different products
The distinction between business-to-business and retail channels is structural, and it is visible in the companies' own reporting. Alibaba Group reports Alibaba.com and 1688.com under its wholesale segments, while AliExpress is described as "a global e-commerce platform targeting consumers" and reported under retail. The differences follow from that:
- Who sells. B2B platforms host manufacturers and trading companies that quote for wholesale and custom orders. Retail platforms host sellers of finished, ready-to-ship goods.
- What price means. A B2B listing is an invitation to negotiate; the final price depends on specification, quantity, packaging and trade terms. A retail listing is a price for a unit already made.
- Who is the importer. A retail parcel is usually shipped to the buyer with the seller arranging carriage. A wholesale order needs the buyer, or an appointee, to act as importer of record, with an entry, a bond and duty paid.
- What the channel is good for. Retail platforms are useful to an importer for one thing: buying a retail unit to examine. They are a poor fit for private-label or custom production.
Domestic platforms add a further layer. 1688.com, in Alibaba Group's words, connects "manufacturers and wholesale sellers to wholesale buyers in China." Its prices are domestic quotes without export services, its core interface is Chinese, and foreign buyers usually reach it through a purchasing agent or a cross-border payment tool. Alibaba.com's order-protection program does not extend to 1688 orders.
What badges prove and what they do not
Platform badges are the most misread signals in China sourcing. Nearly all of them are paid products that a supplier buys from the platform, and each verifies something narrower than its name suggests.
- Alibaba.com "Gold Supplier" is the basic paid seller membership. It is a subscription, not a verification of manufacturing capability.
- Alibaba.com "Verified Supplier" is a higher membership tier whose company profile has been assessed on site by a third-party inspection company. The assessment report is the evidence; a buyer should read what it checked and when.
- Made-in-China.com "Audited Supplier" is, in Focus Technology's 2025 annual report, "a non-mandatory audit and certification service" performed by "relevant experts or the Company," on site or remotely, and paid for by the member.
- Global Sources "Verified Supplier" confirms a registered business at a verifiable address and, in Global Sources' own words, "does not confirm manufacturing." Only its separate manufacturer badge involves factory visits, and neither covers product certifications, quality systems or intellectual property.
The scale of the paid base explains why badges cannot be selective. Alibaba.com reported over 240,000 paying members as of 31 March 2026, against over 47 million buyers who sourced or transacted in fiscal 2026, a count that includes buyers who only made enquiries. Made-in-China.com reported 29,793 paying members at the end of 2025. A paying member is a customer of the platform, which is a different relationship from a supplier vetted on the buyer's behalf.
Buyer protection is narrower than it sounds
Escrow-style programs protect payments made through the platform, under the platform's rules. Alibaba.com's Trade Assurance holds payment until the buyer confirms receipt and accepts claims for unshipped, late, defective or incorrect goods within a set window after delivery; disputes go to negotiation and then to Alibaba's mediation, judged against the written order specification. Payment made outside the platform, for instance by bank transfer to a new account, falls outside that protection, and that is also the route by which most payment-diversion fraud succeeds.
Regulator listings
One official source bears directly on platform choice. USTR's 2025 Review of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy names DHgate and Taobao as online notorious markets; AliExpress does not appear in the document. The list reflects stakeholder nominations and is not a legal finding of infringement, but it is a reason not to place branded or private-label orders through a listed channel.
Trade fairs and physical markets
Fairs and wholesale markets are channels too, with their own disclosures. The 139th Canton Fair, held 15 April to 5 May 2026 in Guangzhou, reported 314,000 overseas buyers and more than 32,000 participating companies, figures reported by the organizer. Its "intended export transactions" are on-site intentions, not completed trade. A booth at a fair, like a badge on a platform, establishes that a company paid to be present; it does not establish that the company makes what it displays.
None of these channels is endorsed or ranked by this site, and none pays it. The profiles describe how each works so that the checks that matter, against the business license, the national register, the contract and the goods themselves, can be applied to whichever supplier a buyer finds.