Amazon is a consumer retail marketplace, and for an import business it is most useful in two ways: as a place to source small quantities of a finished, already-compliant product (useful for testing an idea or filling a gap quickly), and as a channel to sell finished imported goods on to customers once you have your own supply chain running. Amazon Business, a separate storefront aimed at business buyers, offers bulk pricing on some listings and invoicing suited to companies, and is worth exploring once your order sizes grow beyond what a normal Amazon account handles well.
Because Amazon vets and polices sellers more tightly than an open B2B marketplace, and because products sold there generally already meet the safety and labelling standards of the country Amazon is operating in, buying finished goods through Amazon carries comparatively low fraud risk. The trade-off is price: you are paying a retail markup, not a factory price, so Amazon rarely makes sense as your primary source once you are importing at meaningful volume.
Beyond the five platforms named by the course sponsor, several other legitimate marketplaces are worth knowing. DHgate and Made-in-China.com are Chinese B2B marketplaces similar in spirit to Alibaba, useful for comparing prices and finding alternative suppliers. Global Sources is a long-established sourcing platform with a strong trade-show presence, popular for electronics and hardware. For sourcing outside China, IndiaMART and TradeIndia are the leading Indian B2B marketplaces; the Turkish Exporters Assembly and platforms such as Tradekey list many Turkish manufacturers, strong in textiles and machinery; ThomasNet is a well-established directory for United States manufacturers; and Faire connects independent brands, largely from North America and Europe, with retail buyers at wholesale prices. Etsy Wholesale-style relationships (contacting individual sellers directly) can work for smaller, handmade or design-led goods from Europe or the Americas. Diversifying beyond a single sourcing country also reduces your exposure to shipping delays, tariff changes or supply shocks concentrated in any one place.