How traders hide behind the “Manufacturer” title.
Alibaba is the first source of customer for traders.
They apply better marketing strategies than pure manufacturers, thus, they gain more visibily and fit more to European or North American business standards.
Because of this, they appear more trustworthy to westerners.
In many cases, traders pretend to be manufacturers.
Indeed, there are cases in which 2000 employees companies are really just a couple of people working. They inflate the numbers of workers on paper, counting all those from the factories they are working with.
Others will have a packaging workshop or, a quality check area, that allows them to call themselves manufacturers.
Lastly, some real manufacturers are also trading on many other products. For instance, a factory of earset will also sell power banks, computers…
Customers willing to buy more items, just ask for directions to the factories they built a good relationship with. That’s how many factories start their trading activities.
But there are also, trading companies, that are part of the manufacturing and exporting process.
Many factories shipping abroad use a trading company, located in Hong-Kong for instance, to reduce tax, but also to ease the export. Those companies can be seen as a subsidiary of the factory and as such, they don’t act as middle man, but as financial gateway.
