Ok I’m a guy that buys on alibaba and know a guy that has a fairly large manufacturing presence in China. But bear in mind these are but personal experiences and anecdotes.
As for alibaba, it’s hit or miss. I’ll often order samples from a few sellers and then check quality and go from there. Once you find a good seller it’s just keeping on them and checking quality. Hard part for you is you’ll be using distribution centres so quality checks will be more difficult. I believe you can outsource qc in China so somebody can review before shipping to distribution, but I haven’t done it.
If this is a serious business and you’re looking long term you should really plan the relationship more. Heading to China to meet is massive for ensuring quality remains high.
On Amazon the tough part is getting your products to rank. There is a whole sub genre of seo for Amazon. Also warehousing and distribution is expensive.
With all this said, still a ton of opportunity to do this type of business, and the most successful are the tiny niches you’re thinking of.
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