Are you afraid that AliExpress might not be safe?
Are you going to import from China and looking to source your products from AliExpress?
AliExpress is a popular online retail store that is owned by the Alibaba group. It is used by many businesses and consumers worldwide. It has many categories, millions of products with good quality, variety and prices.
But as a new buyer from AliExpress, you might have questions about its safety and reliability. You might have heard of scams and bad quality goods. If you don’t want to lose your profits and money, keep reading.
In this blog, we will cover all important features of AliExpress: how it works, the benefits of buying from AliExpress, its safety information, and some useful tips about buying from AliExpress. All your questions will be answered.
Table of Content
Chapter 1: Why do AliExpress is a Safe and Good Place for Wholesalers?
Chapter 2: Safety Features of AliExpress to use when buying
Chapter 3: How to find Good and Reliable sellers on AliExpress
Chapter 4: Things to Avoid when buying from AliExpress to have a safe experience
Chapter 5: Tips to buy safely from AliExpress
Chapter 6: Frequently Asked Questions About AliExpress
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Why do AliExpress is a Safe and Good Place for Wholesalers?
AliExpress acts as a daughter branch of Alibaba Group having different features than Alibaba.com. It constitutes various small businesses in China and other places.
It also facilitates those companies to sell to customers all around the world. In this way, they can introduce the newly launched product to the world easily.
1. AliExpress is a Branch of Alibaba Group
AliExpress is one of the biggest online retail stores in the world founded in 2010 by Alibaba Group. It has become the largest marketplace for selling inexpensive goods.
Alibaba Group is one of the most famous online business company, it offers customer with complete customer-made service. This is the main reason that you don’t need to worry about being scammed and cannot recover funds in full.
AliExpress is a B2C online-only website that sells the products of China to customers all around the world, which means that the producers and the entrepreneurs are only from China. They design the product by keeping the need of the customers in mind.
2. You can find many categories of products in AliExpress
AliExpress provides many categories for customers to buy from wholesale websites. The major categories include health and beauty products, clothing accessories, electronics, food, home and garden products, jewelry accessories, clothing, and many more.
This website contains all the items of daily use under one roof. For most of the customers, through AliExpress, they can always find what they want.
3. You can find good-quality goods from thousands of sellers in AliExpress
AliExpress provides the goods at factory rates which are very low and are good in quality. To know about the good quality, one can check the feedback of the product, if the reviews are positive, then this will encourage buyers to know about the quality of the product.
One can also compare the prices with other services for better selection, the same product with different prices may vary in their quality. In this way, you can check for the product’s genuineness considering the cheap cost and good quality.
4. AliExpress offers a shipment tracking option for peace of mind
AliExpress online website provides a shipment tracking option. You can select, purchase and ship the product within no time in few clicks without visiting China or negotiating with different people of different departments for proceeding with each method.
Many sellers on AliExpress offer free shipping of the products. AliExpress Standard shipping takes 15 to 45 working days and the AliExpress Premium Shipping takes about 7 to 15 working days.
If you want your product to ship faster, you can also pay a little more for the tracking code which will help you know about the place and time of its delivery. Otherwise, you can wait for the natural shipment method.
Chapter 2: Safety Features of AliExpress to use when buying
AliExpress is providing the opportunity to small businesses to reach international forums. Let’s see what safety features this big online e-commerce platform is providing to the world.
1. Seller feedback on AliExpress
On this platform, the buyers rely completely on the photos of the product and the product description.
The detailed description is totally from sellers, so even you consider that the pictures look nice, there may happen that some poor-minded sellers scam the customers by sending items that are of bad quality and even do not resembles the advertised ones.
The best solution for this is to go through the reviews of the products first and see the feedback, this will help you to make a decision.
2. Refund policy on AliExpress
The scammers are hiding everywhere on the online platform. In case of meeting the scam or delayed delivery, AliExpress offers the refund policy to the customer which is of two types;
- When the product does not reach the customer at the estimated delivery time and exceeds the time limit. The customer can apply for the refund and the AliExpress is bound to return the full refund.
- The other way of refunding is when the product arrived at home and is not the one which the customer expected, then the partial refund can be given if he wants to keep the one. For the situation that the customer wants to return the undesired product, he/she can be given the full refund.
3. Secure payment methods
To ensure the security of the customer’s payment, AliExpress accepts the payment through debit cards and credit cards, and also it warns the customers to not send the payment directly to the seller’s account.
In this way, they may meet the fraud or scam and the seller may not send the product as described.
To avoid any such situation, the payment method offered by AliExpress are vulnerable for every customer.
4. Shipment tracking
Mostly the product purchased by the customer is shipped from China. And the shipping depends on two things:
- the location of the destination
- the speed of delivery
If the person selects the faster shipping option, then the cost will be high and the shipping speed will be of two weeks. In case of a slower shipping method, the customer has to wait for at least two months.
5. Good customer support
In case of any query, the customer can contact the seller. However, if the seller remains silent on the matter, then, the buyer can report the AliExpress service through the website for help.
The service may provide the additional opportunity to the customer to resolve the problem, or else AliExpress is responsible to give a full refund.
If the problem is with the delivered product, then the customer is supposed to contact the seller within 15 days of delivery. If he does not reply, the report is transferred to the AliExpress website.
6. Product listing details
AliExpress provides a special feature of product listing details, every product shows up the following listed details:
- Complete and comprehend product name
- Star rating
- Number of reviews
- Number of orders
- Price
- Any coupon available
- Size of the product
- Display pictures
- Quantity of the item
- Estimated delivery time
- Shipping: free or paid
- Shipment method available
- Year guarantee of the product
- Option saying ‘Buy Now’ or ‘Add to cart’
- Seller details and brand logo
AliExpress provides products of all kinds which are required in everyday life like home decor, garden products, bathroom equipment, kitchen gadgets, electronics, clothing, office supplies, and many more.
7. Order a sample to confirm the quality
You look up to the product and go through a deep search to find the quality of the product. For more authenticity, you can contact the seller and ask for a sample before ordering the product. This will help you to analyze the product sample and confirm its quality.
Before ordering the sample, you should make a list of the top 5 sellers according to the rating and reviews. This will help you to know about many things, like the delivery time which takes the less, the appearance and the quality of the product, and the delivered box.
Don’t order the same samples from the different sellers, instead go for the variations, like in color, size, etc. Some sellers put the pictures of the products after they are received by the shopper. This can also enable you to narrow down your list.
Chapter 3: How to find Good and Reliable sellers on AliExpress
AliExpress is the most trusted option for online buying and selling, because it is part of the Alibaba Group. To find the most reliable sellers on the AliExpress, you should go through the following steps:
1. Check Top Brand badge for sellers
Let’s say, you want to buy the clothing stuff like the ladies’ coats, then you will start finding coats through Search Box or go to the category part to filter. After you are in that page of all kinds of ladies’ coats, just sort the products according to “orders”.
This alignment assists you to learn about who is the Top badged seller. The “top badge” sign will be present along with the seller’s name. And these are the most trustworthy sellers of AliExpress.
The one who does not have any top badge, you can check the seller’s official profile by clicking on the name of the seller or store. After that, you can check the feedback by overall rating, communication rating, product description, and shipping time.
2. Check detailed seller’s rating on seller’s profile
For better knowledge and trust in the supplier, you can also check the seller rating profile. This will help the buyer to learn about the reliability, communication, and speed of the delivery.
The communication rating shows that if the seller is active in responding to the buyers or not. If the rating is high, then it shows that the seller is very active. Likewise, the shipping time rating also shows that the delivery time of this seller is appreciable.
Moreover, the customer can seek profit through the option of free shipping or paid one with cheaper rates. Faster shipping is possible when the buyer pays some extra price. Hence the only difference between the paid and free shipping is the speed of delivery time.
3. Check feedback score
When you see through the supplier rating chart, if he has a positive score of more than 99%, then it is a very good option for online shopping. Because he is an authorized one. Always go for the supplier with a rating between 89% to 99%.
For a more detailed understanding, you can check the feedback chart of the previous month to one year. If the rating is from 4-5 stars then it is equal to 1 point, for 3 stars it is 0 point and from 1-2 it is equal to -1.
This is the feedback score chart available for the buyer, it will help a lot in checking the seller’s profile.
4. Check items as described
To check the reliable seller on AliExpress, it is important to analyze the products and product description provided by the seller.
The condition of the items will be shown by the item’s description, the quality and the authenticity of the product, and it will be proved by the rating and the feedback.
Check top feedback from real buyers, especially those long ones, you can learn a lot from that. Because the feedback usually shows some detailed information about the seller, such as how their customer service staff reply when there is some issues.
5. Check seller guarantees
If you do not receive the product within the guaranteed time of the seller, then it will be the responsibility of the seller to refund you back in full. The refunding time may be different for different sellers.
The estimated time is from 15- 60 days for many countries. For Russia, it is 90 days and for Brazil, it is 120 days.
This guarantee comes under the buyers and sellers protection program. The seller’s profile also has this protection chart which is self-speaking, through which you can select the most trusted option.
Chapter 4: Things to Avoid when buying from AliExpress to have a safe experience
The online platform has many hurdles on the way to completion. Like any other online buying and selling platform, AliExpress is also the one with so many complications, scams, and fraud. However, with the authentic approach, one can overcome this situation to earn the best out of it.
1. Buying very cheap products
AliExpress is a third-party service, which means that there are suppliers with different natures. Before placing an order scroll the whole page, having products from different sellers and stores.
You see the prices of items vary from one to another. The one offering a very cheap price for the product may be suspicious.
It may have a bad quality product, and the one offering a reasonable price may have a product with effective and considerable quality. So never go for the one with a very low-price.
2. Buying replica products of famous brands with their logos
Usually, people worry about buying branded items as it costs a huge amount. So instead, they go for the most vulnerable option of the replica.
The AliExpress also provides the replica of the products, but the only difference between the actual ones and the replicas is that their logos are slightly different.
You cannot find the replicas on the AliExpress dominantly, but if you go through the hidden link which can help you buy the replicas of shoes, watches, clothes, etc.
For example, if the seller wants to sell the Air Jordan shoes, he may list them under the USB cables and keyword similar to this. And when the buyers order that product, they will receive the Air Jordan shoes.
3. Buying from sellers with bad feedback
The key quality of the buyer is that he researches the product, then he will not face any difficulty in the future.
AliExpress is the platform that helps the buyers to know about every aspect and progress report of the supplier, so that he can make decisions which is helpful for him.
The feedback chart on the seller’s profile plays a very vital role in placing the order of the product.
When you are placing an order with bad customer reviews, you may face problems mainly in the product quality and the shipping time. So for a better result, it is a nicer option to go through the trusted seller on AliExpress.
4. Buying products with very long delivery times
There are two factors that the buyers consider before placing the order — the good quality product and the fast delivery speed.
This is only possible if the customer selects the seller with positive feedback and the Top badge holder because they are responsible for their guarantee.
Also, there are two methods for shipping the product, one is through the cheaper rates and the other one is the free shipping. The one offering the free shipping service will make you wait for about one to two months. So it is fine to pay some extra amount for faster shipping.
5. Sending money directly to seller’s personal account
AliExpress service offers a credit card payment method for its customers. And it is a wise decision to not send the money directly to the seller’s account.
Because he may scam you or send you a product that is not the described one. If you are scammed, you can contact the seller and also report the AliExpress for a refund.
Chapter 5: Tips to buy safely from AliExpress
Every job has some black sheep within them which may be dangerous for you. So it is good to change the path before hitting them. At AliExpress, the options provided are trustworthy and approachable for the customers to reach out to.
1. Don’t order branded goods
Many sellers provide counterfeit products which seem like the original ones, because they have logos similar to them and also appear as legit.
But these products are usually fake and are of bad quality being sold illegally. If you buy the branded products from AliExpress, once they are inspected on the way, then the product will be seized.
Similarly, if you bought many branded products which seem like you want to sell, then it won’t be reached at your door. Sometimes these can cause the health of the customers at risk as the suppliers use substandard material.
Like in cosmetics, the chemicals which they use can cause allergies or damage the skin properly.
So, AliExpress itself can’t check the millions of sellers on its station, it is the responsibility of customers to avoid such low-quality products for the sake of the name.
2. Always inspect sample from new sellers
If you want to do heavy online shopping, then it is a reasonable option to first check out the samples from different sellers. This inspection may help you know about the quality and the shipping time taken by the specific seller.
Don’t ask for samples randomly, first make the list of top-ranked sellers on the chart. The list needs to be made by considering the feedback and the rating on their profile, thus ask for samples with variations.
So at the time of delivery, you will know that the product you received is having your desirable quality or not.
3. Avoid buying from newer sellers and buy from old reputable sellers
AliExpress is the online market for millions of sellers to sell their small businesses. So many entrepreneurs join this service every day for the sake of good income.
You should not ask for the product from the new sellers, because they are not available for a long time, and inexperienced seller may cause you to suffer. You should go for the seller who is working on AliExpress for a long time.
4. Pay through AliExpress official payment options
AliExpress offers the official payment method for its customers. It also provides security to their amount to not be scammed.
The best acceptable option is through Visa debit/credit cards, MasterCard credit cards, Maestro, and American Express debit cards. Prepaid and virtual cards can also be used as they are secured.
5. Don’t confirm delivery before receiving the order
Once your order is being shipped, you should wait for it to be delivered to you. After receiving the product check the quality of the item, and also ensure whether this is your described one or not.
After that, you should confirm that the shipping has been received. This is the proper channel. You can ask for a refund or report to the seller that you haven’t collected the item at the estimated time.
6. Always check seller’s feedback and reviews
Before placing an order to any of the stores or the sellers, it is satisfactory to check the profile. The feedback response and the rating stars will alleviate you select the best seller. If the rating score is above 89% then it will be a considerable option.
Chapter 6: Frequently Asked Questions About AliExpress
1. Can I get scammed on AliExpress?
When buying from AliExpress, there is a possibility to get scammed by some of the sellers. AliExpress has provided great safety features for its users to avoid scams and fraud.
For this, you have to keep in mind some tips and tricks and make detailed research before buying.
Look for the feedback, reviewers, and rating of the product. Also, ask for the sample product before buying the original product for quality inspection.
2. Why is AliExpress so cheap?
AliExpress is the wholesale market for the people of China to sell their products from their hometown to other countries. This facilitates them to spread their business worldwide.
Also, this is the entrepreneur’s idea to provide cheap products to the customers, so that they can get quality products at lower rates than the other companies like Amazon, eBay, etc.
The products that are having a low price rate on the chart, because the manufacturers are selling the products directly, hence the rates are reasonable for the buyers.
Some companies have products that are received from a third party which included the tax, thereby increasing the price of the product.
3. Is AliExpress safe to use credit card?
The best payment method of AliExpress is through credit cards, because it is safe and there is no risk of loss of money at any station through online transactions.
The bank service or the online method can stick the money any time and decrease the speed of the transaction. So the debit card is a suitable and safe option for online purchasing through the AliExpress company.
4. Are AliExpress reviews fake?
The reviews on AliExpress may be real and also fake, but there is no legit way to prove them fake. Some sellers do so to increase the rating of their profile. On the other hand, the customers also provide honest reviews for the other buyers.
5. Does AliExpress refund money?
AliExpress is the online marketplace where the money can be refunded. It can be refunded in case of no delivery when the protection shipping time limit exceeds, and the product is not received by the customer.
You can apply for the refund request, and the refund can also be given when the product delivered does not match with the advertised one, it can be sent back to the seller. A partial refund can be given if the customer wants to keep that product.
6. Is AliExpress legit?
Yes, it is safe and legit. The payment method is very secure, it provides reliable sellers to sell products to customers, versatile and good quality products are available, along with that it provides a protection program to the buyer in case of any fraud or scam.
Conclusion
The online marketplace has now become the main trading center. AliExpress, the part of the Alibaba Group now became the important wholesale marketplace for many sellers mainly in China and generally all over the world.
The safe and approachable options attract buyers to reach this site. AliExpress provides the methods and techniques on how to avoid scams and frauds. Hence, AliExpress is the valid option for online buying and selling due to its impressive sources.
