What Marketplaces Are Good For
Platforms like Alibaba are genuinely useful for discovery and initial comparison shopping across many suppliers at once, especially for buyers who don’t yet know which factories serve their category well.
What Changes Going Direct
Direct factory relationships typically remove a reseller markup, provide direct access to the production floor for QC visibility, and allow more customization flexibility than a marketplace storefront’s listed configurations — worth pursuing once you’ve identified a credible factory.