U.S. entrepreneur Chris Walworth says that when he solicited bids from potential manufacturers on Alibaba.com, he received more than 1,000 responses. That may sound like a good thing, but Walworth says there were far too many leads to manage, which wasted his time. “Pretty much everybody in China decided they would bid,” he says. “That cost me time and effort.”

Alibaba.com has developed a free service designed to help buyers like Walworth more efficiently locate the right overseas suppliers for the products they need. Called Customized Sourcing, the service does what it sounds like it does: it introduces human assistants√¢‚Ǩ”Alibaba.com industry specialists√¢‚Ǩ”into the online buying process to help narrow down searches to the most relevant, trustworthy and affordable suppliers based on individual buyer’s needs.

If your problem isn’t too many responses, but too few√¢‚Ǩ”if you’ve solicited bids on Alibaba.com but aren’t getting bites because your product specs are unusual√¢‚Ǩ”Alibaba.com specialists can help locate up to 10 pre-screened suppliers based on manufacturing capability, production capacity, service quality and price. Buyers can then make direct contract with the suppliers they favor to strike a deal.

Those interested in trying the service, which incidentally can be a handy way to avoid fraudulent suppliers operating on Alibaba.com, can learn more by clicking here. Be advised that it can be a little hard to find the Customized Sourcing button on the website. Clicking on this link will take you to Alibaba.com’s “post a buying request” page.√ÇThen, under the “Service Option” header, select “I want to receive quotations from suppliers who match my RFQ.” (Request For Quotation). This gets you into the queue to receive Customized Sourcing help.

There is no charge for the service, which is available to all Alibaba.com International members.