Field note · August 2026

Why auto parts buyers keep getting burned by suppliers they found online

A buyer in Dubai or Nairobi or Lagos opens a B2B platform, types “auto parts supplier,” and gets back a thousand listings. Every one of them says quality guaranteed. Every one of them has five stars. And within three months, a third of those buyers are dealing with delayed shipments, wrong specifications, or parts that fail in the field.

The market doesn’t have a discovery problem. It has a verification problem. And no platform fixes that.

The listings are real. The suppliers exist. But existing and reliable are two different things, and the gap between them is where buyers get burned. A manufacturer who ships one good order and goes silent. A distributor who meets spec on samples but substitutes on bulk. A seller who quotes fast and pays nothing back when quality fails. The platform moves on. The buyer absorbs the cost.

What platforms can’t do is stand behind the introduction. They index; they don’t vet. They connect you to whoever paid for placement or gamed the review system — not whoever earned a reputation over time. The result is a market where trust has no infrastructure. Just hope, wire transfers, and disputed invoices.

The fix isn’t a better platform. It’s a person who has already done the verification work. Who knows which suppliers ship consistently, quote accurately, and handle disputes like a counterparty worth keeping. Who has walked both sides of the table enough times to know what a real match looks like before the paperwork starts. That’s the gap the introduction closes — not access, but accountability.

— Mahmoud Hassan routes between auto parts suppliers and the buyers who need them.