Alibaba’s Source Now Tool Makes Sourcing Super Simple

Alibaba Chrome Browser How it Works

By Rieva Lesonsky

Trying to beat the big guys has always been a huge hurdle for small business owners. Your larger competitors have huge travel budgets, teams of buyers and global connections. But, Source Now, a new sourcing tool from Alibaba.com can put your small business on a level playing field with the big boys.

Source Now, Alibaba.com’s new Google Chrome browser extension, makes sourcing products for your business as simple as snapping a photo. Here’s how it works:

• Download and install the Source Now extension. It’s free to install and use, and works on any desktop or laptop that uses the Google Chrome browser.
• Scroll through e-commerce websites, social media, online videos—any site that has product images.
• See a product you like? Use Source Now to capture the image—and instantly find hundreds of similar products on com.
• Choose the suppliers you’re interested in, compare them, contact them and start sourcing.

I don’t need to tell you that business today moves at warp speed. Any tool you can find that makes your business more efficient and productive can help make you more profitable, too. It’s hard to imagine a faster sourcing method than Source Now—see it, save it and source it—it’s really that simple.

However, speed and efficiency aren’t the only benefits of Source Now for a small business. Here are some other ways the “see it, source it” tool can give your company an edge:

• Source Now makes your business more competitive. Big e-commerce retailers have huge product inventories—but with Source Now, you can see this season’s stylish shoe on Macy’s.com for example, capture the image, and immediately find similar styles you can sell on your own website. Suddenly, you’re on equal footing with Macy’s when it comes to offering current fashion.
• Source Now helps you stay on top of trends. As any entrepreneur selling consumer products knows, consumers are fickle, and what’s hot one day is not so hot the next. Using Source Now, your company can quickly find sources for the hottest products of the moment and start selling them yourself before the fads fizzle out. Want to sell the sunglasses Rihanna is wearing in her latest selfie or the handbag Beyoncé’s toting? Just capture the image, start sourcing and soon you’ll carry products that look just like the stars’.
• Source Now eliminates the struggle to describe something. How often have you searched online for a product you’ve seen but can’t quite describe? You can picture it, but can’t put words to it. As you struggle to find search terms that return the results you want, you get more and more frustrated. Now, you don’t need to describe the product to find it: Just capture the image and you’re good to go.
• Source Now suits the way we shop now. From YouTube videos to Instagram images, busy consumers prefer to get their information from visuals rather than wading through tons of text. When you use Source Now, sourcing new products can be as easy as scrolling through your Instagram feed.

Of course, Source Now isn’t limited to consumer products. You can use it to source everything from restaurant equipment to construction tools and more.

Source Now is currently only available for the Chrome browser, but expansion to more browsers is planned for the future.