Having ordered about $30,000 worth of goods from ali baba this year, my experience has been an interesting one.<p>First off, I started selling electronic cigarettes with custom cartridges. When I found a demand I went to ali baba to get the e-cig kits for cheap. It was easy to find a supplier, but for sure the lady I am dealing with isn't the factory, but she has been good. Few qualms though.<p>For one, she didn't want to use the ali baba payment setup. So the first payment was a leap of faith. On my second order (for about the same amount of $) she sent me different kits than the first time because one e-cig was longer than the other. I didnt know I was getting a modified kit until I received about 500 of them.<p>My overall experience with this random company I met through ali baba has been a good one. Each time they have lowered my price and even dealt with the dead units I receive (Over 100 dead chargers thus far... I have been taking them apart and resoldering them myself, but they replace each one). Would be nice to talk to the factory directly, but the people on ali baba really helped me launch a company through an IM window.
This seems like the beginning of an interesting idea. But while they're addressing the important issue of inspecting the goods, it seems they're missing a more important concern when sourcing manufacturing in China. Namely, knowing if someone is actually a manufacturer, or just a middleman.<p>It doesn't take much searching on Alibaba to find several companies offering the exact same item. Often with the exact same photo, with the only difference being the watermarks they slather over the shot.<p>Another more important service might be to offer on-site quality control. Of course, that might increase the cost over just taking photos, as you'd need people who were fluent in both Chinese (perhaps several dialects) and English; and who had domain expertise for the goods being manufactured.
This is an industry that has plenty of room to grow, so I appreciate their work.<p>Their software doesn't really look like a "competitor" to Alibaba though. It looks more like something you'd use in tandem with the Alibaba marketplace to better keep an eye on your supplier.
Dear HD Trade Services: Your javascript email submit handler told me my email was invalid. I hacked the source to accept my email anyway and it went through fine. Please fix that.
The site appears to handle logistics only. The comparison to AliBaba implies that you can also find sellers/exporters. Can users source goods (i.e. find exporters) on HD, or is it only for managing logistics once you've found a supplier somewhere else?
Awesome concept and idea! I hope you succeed so the bad suppliers lose business and the small business owners win.<p>We are working on solving the same problem with Tradesparency.com, but we are taking a different approach.<p>Good luck!
Sorry for the sidenote, but I have to say, seeing a (YC) next to a company name that's not 2 words mashed together caught me by surprise :).<p>That said, if you can guys can pull this off, it looks like it should be incredibly useful.
I'm glad to see start ups taking on problems in the logistics industry. How does your offering for warehouses and 3PLs compare with WMSs currently on the market? Edit: Looks like you operate all in the cloud, is this correct?