Alibaba & ThomasNet vs Direct Outreach (2026)
Alibaba, ThomasNet and Europages charge $2K to $30K a year and route you to price-shoppers. Here is what that buys, and what it does not.
April 2026 10 min read
Alibaba, ThomasNet and Europages charge $2K to $30K a year and route you to price-shoppers. Here is what that buys, and what it does not.
73% of B2B buyers avoid suppliers that send irrelevant outreach. Here is what procurement managers actually want to see in a cold email in 2026.
B2B buyers shortlist suppliers before ever calling. If your manufacturing site is thin or outdated, you lose RFQs you will never know existed.
Gartner predicts 90% of B2B buying will run through AI agents by 2028. Here is how procurement teams use AI today and what manufacturers must do to stay on the shortlist.
B2B cold calling success rates have collapsed to 2.3% in 2025, and 80% of buyers now ignore unknown numbers. Here is what works instead for manufacturers.
Total landed cost, ESG data, 24-hour response speed, and machine-readable supplier files. What procurement managers actually prioritize in 2026, with survey data.
67% of B2B buyers prefer rep-free purchasing, and procurement still opens roughly 30% of cold emails. The myth that procurement ignores outreach is wrong.