China Electronics Market Websites

A comparison of China electronics sourcing platforms — what each is for, who uses them, and how to avoid the common mistakes on each.

There are six main platforms buyers encounter when they start sourcing electronics from China. They look similar from the outside — product listings, supplier profiles, contact buttons — but they serve fundamentally different buyer types with different supply bases. Using the wrong one costs you money; using the right one for the wrong stage costs you time.

This article maps out what each platform actually is, who should use it, and what the common mistakes look like in practice.

Quick reference: which platform for what

The table above is the answer most buyers need. The rest of this article explains the reasoning behind it.

Alibaba: the starting point, not the destination

Alibaba is the right place to begin a supplier search for electronics. It has the broadest coverage of Chinese manufacturers with export capability, English-language listings, and a payment protection mechanism (Trade Assurance) that reduces risk on first orders.

The limitations are well-documented: a large share of Alibaba suppliers are trading companies rather than manufacturers. For electronics categories, estimates put traders at 40–60% of listings. Traders are not inherently a problem — some add genuine value through consolidated logistics and quality screening — but they add cost. The markup between what a trader pays a factory and what they charge a Western buyer is typically 20–40%. On a $30,000 order, that's $6,000–$12,000 in margin that could stay in your budget.

What Alibaba is good for:

• Initial discovery when you don't know who makes your product
• Sampling from multiple suppliers quickly
• First orders under $10,000 where Trade Assurance provides meaningful protection
• Categories where English-language customer service and export documentation genuinely matter

What Alibaba is not good for:

• Production-volume pricing (once you've found your factory, you don't need the platform)
• Component sourcing with very low MOQs
• Finding manufacturers who don't invest in export marketing

Filtering for real manufacturers on Alibaba:

Alibaba now shows a company type field derived from the supplier's business registration with China's SAMR. Manufacturing companies (制造型企业) will show manufacturing scope. Trading companies (贸易公司) will not. This one field removes a lot of guesswork.

Also watch for product range breadth. A factory that makes LoRa modules doesn't also make Bluetooth speakers, USB cables, LED strips, and power banks. If a supplier's storefront covers wildly different categories, they're almost certainly a trader who sources from multiple factories.

For a detailed breakdown of how to use Alibaba alongside 1688 and direct factory channels — including pricing examples and the cross-reference workflow — the Alibaba vs 1688 comparison covers that in depth.

1688.com: factory-gate pricing, in Chinese

1688.com is the domestic Chinese B2B marketplace run by Alibaba Group. It is not a Chinese version of Alibaba.com — it is a fundamentally different platform designed for Chinese buyers purchasing within China.

The practical effect for a foreign buyer:

• Prices are 15–40% lower than equivalent Alibaba listings for the same product (no export premium, no Gold Supplier fees baked in)
• The factory-to-trader ratio is better — closer to 80/20 in favor of actual manufacturers
• More niche products exist here that never get listed on Alibaba because the export order volume doesn't justify the effort
• Everything is in Chinese. Payments require Alipay. Suppliers assume they're talking to Chinese buyers.

Who can use 1688 effectively:

Buyers who read Chinese, or buyers who have a Chinese contact to handle communication. For IoT module and component sourcing in particular, 1688 surfaces suppliers that don't have Alibaba storefronts at all — smaller specialists who only sell domestically and at factory pricing.

Who cannot use 1688 effectively:

Most Western buyers, without assistance. Machine translation helps for browsing, but negotiating product specs and payment terms through Google Translate introduces real risk. One mistranslated sentence in a product specification — "max operating temperature 85°C" becoming "min operating temperature 85°C" — can cost an entire sample run.

The practical workaround:

Use 1688 for price benchmarking (translate the listing, compare the RMB price to what the same Alibaba listing charges in USD). Then contact the supplier through a sourcing agent who handles the Chinese-language communication and can receive RMB payments on your behalf.

A concrete example: a WiFi 6 module listed on Alibaba at $4.20 per unit (1,000-unit MOQ) often appears on 1688 from the same manufacturer at ¥22 (~$3.05). The 27% gap is not a better product — it's the same product at the price Chinese buyers pay. At 5,000 units, that gap is $5,750. At 20,000 units, it's $23,000.

Global Sources: trade show quality, online

Global Sources is less known than Alibaba among first-time buyers but operates at a different tier. The platform focuses on verified exporters — suppliers who participate in their trade shows (held twice yearly in Hong Kong) and meet higher verification requirements for listing.

The practical difference: the supplier mix on Global Sources skews toward manufacturers with established export operations and certifications, not traders who are new to exporting. For electronics specifically, Global Sources has historically been stronger than Alibaba in certain categories:

• Consumer electronics accessories (cables, chargers, cases)
• Audio equipment
• LED lighting
• Telecom equipment and industrial electronics

What Global Sources does well:

The trade show connection matters. Suppliers who invest in Global Sources trade show presence (booth fees run $5,000–$15,000 per show) are typically real manufacturers with some export track record. The buyer-supplier contact quality tends to be higher than random Alibaba inquiries.

Where Global Sources falls short:

Coverage is narrower than Alibaba. For niche electronics categories — specific IoT modules, specialized sensors, embedded boards — Alibaba or 1688 will have more options. Global Sources works best when you're looking for mainstream electronics categories from established exporters.

Price expectations:

Slightly higher than Alibaba in some categories because the supplier base is weighted toward established manufacturers rather than the lowest-cost producers. The tradeoff is typically better consistency and more reliable certification claims.

For consumer electronics sourcing — particularly when you need a supplier with existing CE and FCC certifications for similar products — Global Sources is worth including in your initial discovery search alongside Alibaba.

Made-in-China.com: industrial and components focus

Made-in-China.com (MIC) is a B2B platform with a different product mix than Alibaba. It skews toward industrial products and components rather than finished consumer electronics. Where Alibaba has the better coverage for "Bluetooth speaker manufacturer," MIC tends to have better coverage for categories like:

• Industrial sensors and meters
• Hydraulic components and pneumatic parts
• Electrical components (connectors, relays, switches)
• Machine parts and manufacturing equipment

For electronics buyers:

MIC is worth checking for component sourcing rather than finished product sourcing. If you need a specific connector type, a DIN rail power supply, or an industrial-grade sensor and you're not finding what you need on Alibaba, MIC is a reasonable second stop.

For industrial IoT hardware — rugged enclosures, DIN rail accessories, industrial-grade connectors — MIC's coverage is genuinely better than Alibaba's.

What MIC is not good for:

Consumer electronics. The platform does have consumer product listings, but the depth of coverage doesn't match Alibaba. If you're sourcing a consumer product, start with Alibaba and 1688, not MIC.

Verification quality:

MIC offers a "Verified Supplier" badge that involves third-party inspection of the supplier facility. The verification is more rigorous than Alibaba's Gold Supplier process, but MIC's smaller buyer base means suppliers face less reputational pressure to maintain standards. Treat it as a useful signal, not a guarantee.

DHgate and AliExpress: retail platforms, not B2B

This needs to be said plainly: DHgate and AliExpress are not B2B sourcing platforms. They are retail marketplaces designed for dropshippers, low-volume buyers, and consumer purchases. Using them for B2B electronics sourcing is a category error.

Why buyers get confused:

Both platforms look like Alibaba from the outside — Chinese suppliers, electronics listings, quantity pricing. But the supply chain behind them is different. DHgate and AliExpress sellers are typically not manufacturers; they're retail sellers buying from wholesalers or, in some cases, buying from Alibaba listings and marking up for the retail-convenience premium.

The pricing tells the story:

An item on AliExpress for $8.50 might be the same item available on Alibaba at $4.20 for 500 units and on 1688 at ¥22 (~$3.05) factory direct. You're paying a retail markup for the convenience of buying one unit with no negotiation. For dropshipping, that's an acceptable tradeoff. For production sourcing, it's not.

Legitimate uses for DHgate and AliExpress:

• Evaluating a product category before you commit to sourcing at volume
• Ordering one or two units to test a product concept before the full RFQ process
• Personal purchases

That's it. If you're planning to source 500+ units for production, neither platform is the right tool.

Direct factory websites: found last, not first

A common search strategy is to go to Google, search for "electronics manufacturer China" plus your product category, and contact factories that have their own websites. This sounds logical. In practice, it doesn't work well as a starting point.

The problem with direct website outreach:

Factories that rank well in Google for English-language searches are typically the ones investing in English marketing — which often means they're focused on export and are priced accordingly. The best-priced factories for most electronics categories don't have English websites, don't rank in Google, and sometimes don't have any web presence at all.

Cold outreach to factories via their website also lands in an inbox that's separate from their trade platform inquiries. Response rates are typically lower, follow-up is slower, and there's no platform mechanism to verify who you're talking to.

When direct factory websites become useful:

After you've found a factory through another channel and want to verify they're real and understand their full product range, their website (if they have one) is useful supporting information. Cross-referencing a factory's Alibaba listing with their company website and their SAMR business registration gives you three independent confirmation points.

Finding factories that don't have an Alibaba presence:

For this, the effective approach is:

1. Cross-reference Alibaba suppliers against 1688 (find the factory behind the trader)
2. Check FCC and CE certification databases — these list the actual manufacturer, not the exporter
3. Review trade show exhibitor lists from Canton Fair, Global Sources, and Hong Kong Electronics Fair
4. Ask component distributors who their biggest customers are for your key components

None of these involve Google. The supply chain knowledge is in the industry databases, not in search rankings.

How to use these platforms in sequence

Most successful sourcing projects don't use just one platform. Here's how they typically combine:

Stage 1 — Discovery (weeks 1–2):
Start on Alibaba for your product category. Collect 20–30 supplier names. Run the same search on Global Sources if you're in a mainstream electronics category.

Stage 2 — Price benchmarking and manufacturer filtering (weeks 2–3):
For each Alibaba supplier, search their company name on 1688. This tells you whether they're a manufacturer or trader (real factories almost always have a 1688 presence), and what the factory-gate price looks like. Use MIC as a supplementary check for industrial or component-focused needs.

Stage 3 — Shortlisting (weeks 3–4):
Cut 20–30 down to 6–10 based on manufacturer status, product range match, and pricing. Send a structured RFQ to this shortlist — the same document to everyone, so you're comparing responses on an equal basis.

Stage 4 — Verification:
Before placing a production order with any factory, verify: business registration through 企查查 or 天眼查, certifications for comparable products, and — for orders above $15,000 — a factory audit by someone on the ground.

Stage 5 — Direct relationship:
Once you've placed one order and established a payment track record, the relationship moves off-platform. Production orders go direct, T/T payment terms are negotiated based on history, and the platform is no longer the intermediary.

This is the standard trajectory. Buyers who skip stages 2–4 and jump from Alibaba discovery to production order are the ones who end up with quality problems on their first batch.

One mistake that spans every platform

Every platform listed here has listings that show certifications — FCC, CE, RoHS, UL — that the supplier doesn't actually hold for the specific product you're buying.

This is not always fraud. Sometimes it's genuine confusion: the factory holds the certification for an older product version and assumes it applies to the current one. Sometimes the certification is for the OEM module inside the product, not the finished assembly. Sometimes it's copied from a competitor listing.

The correct behavior: ask for the actual test report, not the certificate. A test report shows the specific product model tested, the lab that ran the test, the test dates, and the pass/fail data for each standard. A certificate is a summary document that can be photoshopped in ten minutes.

If a supplier refuses to provide test reports, or provides reports where the tested product doesn't match what you're buying, that's a disqualifying issue regardless of which platform you found them on.

For the broader process of evaluating suppliers, running factory audits, and managing quality through production, the complete electronics sourcing guide covers each stage in detail.

Which platform to start with

For most hardware buyers and startups sourcing electronics from China: start on Alibaba for discovery, benchmark against 1688 (with Chinese-language help if needed), and use Global Sources as a supplement for mainstream consumer electronics categories. Ignore DHgate and AliExpress for anything above retail purchases. Don't start with factory website cold outreach.

The platforms are tools. The skill is knowing when to use each one — and when to move off them entirely once you have a verified supplier and an established relationship.

If navigating 1688 and managing Chinese-language supplier communication is a bottleneck, our sourcing service handles the discovery and cross-platform benchmarking process, returning verified manufacturer options with pricing across channels. Most clients find 3–5 audited factory options within two weeks.