Alibaba Group, Global Sources, and other leading B2B, B2C, and C2C e-commerce companies that facilitate trade from Greater China to the world are reporting record sales. Last year in November, Alibaba made history when it sold over $25 billion worth of goods within 24 hours during Alibaba’s Singles’ Day Shopping Festival, up from $17.8 billion the year before that.

But despite the growing popularity of sourcing products in China, there are still numerous pitfalls inexperienced and experienced buyers alike may fall into.

Counterfeit Goods Are Widespread

China has stepped up its fight against counterfeit goods, but the fact remains that the country is still the primary source economy for counterfeit and pirated goods seized, accounting for 52 percent of the estimated MSRP value of all IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) seizures, according to the United States Customs and Border Protection Agency.

In 2017, Alibaba Group sued two sellers of fake Swarovski watches on its Taobao platform, claiming approximately $200,000 in damages. The company also uses anti-counterfeit software capable of scanning 10 million product listings a day. During just one year of use, the software helped Alibaba Group close down 180,000 third-party stores for trafficking in fake items and report additional 675 counterfeit goods manufacturing operations to law enforcement agencies.

While Alibaba Group is at the forefront of the fight against counterfeit goods in China, there’s still much that needs to be done before the problem is solved.

Lacking Merchant Verification

Because most e-commerce companies that facilitate trade from China to the world make money by charging manufacturers to sign up for premium membership or promotion, the sales representatives working for these companies are incentivized to convince as many manufacturers as possible to join in, with no regard for their quality and trustworthiness.

The Alibaba Group Platform Governance Annual Report 2016 calls for a tighten merchant verification process to ensure the authenticity and traceability of businesses operating on the platforms owned by Alibaba Group. While the report lists a number of solutions that have either already been adopted or will be adopted by Alibaba Group, the reality remains that not all merchants on Alibaba, Global Sources, and other B2B, B2C, and C2C e-commerce websites are to be trusted.

The vast geographical and language barrier separating Chinese suppliers and manufacturers and Western buyers make it very difficult even for those with a considerable amount of experience with sourcing products from China to distinguish legitimate offers from illegitimate ones.

Real Factories Are Hard to Find

There are thousands of supplier listings on websites like Alibaba, but only a fraction of them lead directly to manufacturers. According to some estimations, 70 percent of the manufacturers listed on Alibaba are trading companies, agents, or wholesalers—not actual factories.

These intermediaries are often necessary because many large manufacturers wouldn’t be able to deal with all the inquiries they receive on their own. But the cost is everything for small and medium-sized businesses that are trying to bring a new product to market, and intermediaries can increase it considerably.

In some cases, intermediaries can even make the total cost of bringing a product to market prohibitively high. That’s why it’s always recommended to connect with manufacturers directly to avoid any unnecessary expenses.

Sourcing Is Time-Consuming

Perhaps the biggest obstacle to buying products in China is how time-consuming it is to find a reputable China wholesale supplier.

To start with, most suppliers don’t speak good English, and most buyers don’t speak any Chinese at all, which creates a massive language barrier that causes all information exchange to slow down to a crawl. Negotiations that would take two speakers of the same language hours or days often take weeks—if they don’t fail altogether. Of course, it’s always possible to hire a translator, but that adds to the cost and introduces problems with confidentiality.

What’s perhaps even more important than the language barrier between Chinese suppliers and Western buyers is the unique nature of the Chinese market. The lack of familiarity is a common source of confusion, and it can be very daunting to make a large order not knowing exactly what the next steps are going to be.