Founder and President of Robosource.net, Kevin Boenisch, started the company in 2015 as a fundraising initiative to support a community robotics team in his hometown of Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. A student himself, Kevin found that many of his peers did not have access to robotics products or programs at their schools and he wanted to create an online platform to serve this need. In a short amount of time, Kevin realized the positive impact Robosource.net was having on students and the company quickly grew from there. Currently, he offers parts, tools, suppliers for educational robotics programs and the greater industry.

As Kevin’s market grew, so did his need for top suppliers – and Alibaba.com is his go-to platform to source new suppliers. Robosource.net sells customized products to its buyers and needs to work with suppliers that are willing to work alongside Kevin to meet his specific product requirements. He usually begins the search by entering the product in the search bar on Alibaba.com’s homepage, from there he vets the suppliers, reviews their qualifications and enters his specifications. It’s so easy and within minutes, Kevin has dozens of suppliers that he can potentially partner with. The next step is beginning discussions with the suppliers by leveraging Alibaba.com’s in-platform chat feature.

“When I communicate with suppliers, I typically use Alibaba.com’s messaging feature. This feature helps us keep our communications organized. It always sorts our messages by supplier, even if we're contacting multiple representatives at the same company, it's all neat and tidy in one spot. I don't have to go searching through my emails to find the last communication,” said Kevin. “It also allows us to communicate very quickly. We can just shoot messages back and forth and resolve any questions or issues we have in a matter of minutes or hours.”

Trade Assurance Delivers Extra Assurance

A top feature that Kevin uses is Trade Assurance. Alibaba.com’s Trade Assurance feature ensures that in the unlikely event a product is incorrect or delivered poorly, the buyer is protected. The feature is free of charge, included with every purchase – regardless of manufacturer or supplier – ensuring that buyers are always top of mind for Alibaba.com. Not only does Trade Assurance give buyers the protection and claim support, if needed, it also offers a streamlined and easy purchasing process.

“Another advantage of Alibaba.com’s Trade Assurance is the speed at which we can pay suppliers,” said Kevin. “When we have an urgent order that we want to get shipped out quickly, we can use the credit card payment and it goes through in a matter of minutes or hours. That allows us to place an order and have the product ship out within the same day so we do not have to wait for payments to clear through typical banking methods. We are in a quick, fast-paced environment, so this is pivotal to our company’s success.”

Kevin plans to continue working closely with international buyers sourced through Alibaba.com to further grow his business. For Kevin, his commitment and loyalty to Alibaba.com lies in the simple fact that the platform is easy-to-use and simple to operate, even as an SMB organization. Said Kevin: “Overall, I would say that using Alibaba.com for sourcing really simplifies the process for us. Having that ability to work directly with the suppliers and reach out directly to their salespeople or directly to their engineers, just makes it so much easier for us to quickly and easily specify what we need to resolve any shipment issues. From there, we get the production rolling instead of having to work through other players.”