For the past seven years, TickCheck has been dedicated to providing laboratory-quality tick testing for Americans and their pets within 24-to-48 hours. The East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania-based company can detect the presence of 22 pathogens that cause diseases such as Lyme disease, anaplasmosis, southern tick-associated rash illness, Rocky Mountain spotted fever and the deer tick virus.

In 2017, founder & CEO, Jonathan Weber, saw the need for and opportunity to extend his brand and make associated products such as tick remover tools and tick removing kits. “We sourced our supplier for the company’s first product, as well as all of our other future TickCheck-branded products on Alibaba.com,” said Jonathan. “Later, we’re expanding to dozens of different brands, and almost all of those have been sourced through Alibaba.com.”

One Platform, Multiple Suppliers, Diverse Products

TickCheck is one of many brands Jonathan has created under his overarching brand called Marathon Studios, a technology firm specializing in product development, and launching high-traffic websites and apps. Working with multiple suppliers on Alibaba.com empowers Jonathan to serve a large customer base for home goods, houseware, craft kits, social distancing stickers and more.

“I am impressed with the breadth of suppliers that are on Alibaba.com. The variety that's available in terms of vendors is pretty unique,” said Jonathan. “Alibaba.com does have more than enough variety to be able to find someone who has exactly what you need, like specific certifications and specific capabilities.” He and his team are able to leverage both Alibaba.com’s RFQ Platform and live chat service to start real-time conversations with respective suppliers that can fulfil their product needs.

Jonathan gravitates towards Verified Suppliers who are “likely to be more trustworthy.” Alibaba.com provides access to detailed background information for each supplier, including how many years they’ve used Alibaba.com, how been transactions they’ve processed, product offerings, company/industry type, and audience base.

Remote Supplier Networking Through the Pandemic

Marathon Studios particularly relied on Alibaba.com during the pandemic to continue connecting with suitable and dependable vendors remotely. With major fairs, events and expos being cancelled in 2020, there was opportunity to interact with suppliers and build connections with new manufacturers live. “We definitely had issues with the first shutdown in China and with shipping overseas,” said Jonathan. “We lost that in-person connection to go and find sources so we started relying on Alibaba.com more as it is the only avenue to find new suppliers, that's available during the pandemic and remotely.”

Along with being an established and easy-to-use forum, Alibaba.com’s Help Center is advantageous for Jonathan. In the unlikely situations when Jonathan may face payment issues or technical bugs in the platform, the Alibaba.com customer service team is able to resolve it.

Moving Beyond B2C

Jonathan is taking major steps to continue developing more products originally sourced on Alibaba.com, all of which are currently totaling close to a million dollars in revenue annually.

Not only did Jonathan sustain his various brands during the pandemic, he is now moving into retail which wouldn’t have been possible without Alibaba.com. “The availability of suppliers on Alibaba.com with certain certifications and qualifications that we need to be able to make our products retail-ready is absolutely enabling us to be able to move our product lines to retail,” said Jonathan. “I do think that's a very key benefit, because without the access to be able to find those specific suppliers, we would not be able to do it.”