What Is AliExpress

If you are trying to start your own business online and buy a large quantity of goods, AliExpress is a good choice.

AliExpress is one of the biggest ecommerce platforms in the world.

In this article, we will give an overview about AliExpress and discuss some frequently asked questions. It will be useful if you have an online business.

What is AliExpress and how does it work?

What Is AliExpress?

AliExpress is a widely-used ecommerce platform based in China and is owned by the Alibaba Group, a massive Chinese multinational company focusing on e-commerce and computing, and is one of the world's largest internet companies.

AliExpress is focusing on helping small businesses in China sell products directly to international customers.

The categories vary, from clothing to electronics, from accessories to sporting goods and much more.

Comparing AliExpress to Amazon, the difference between them is that AliExpress is a platform for 3rd party sellers whereas Amazon creates their own products and allows other sellers on their platform.

The prices on AliExpress are also much lower than on Amazon and other similar services.

For clients all around the world who have been looking for a variety of different products, AliExpress is extremely successful outside of China.

It has been growing in Brazil, the United States, Spain and other European countries according to statistics on SimilarWeb.

So the platform has been translated into several major languages in the world including English, Spanish, Russian, French and Italian.

How Does AliExpress Work?

AliExpress works the same as other platforms that deal with online product sales.

In AliExpress, all articles are divided into different categories in order to help customers to navigate in the platform.

You can search for the products you like easily, either to sell them to other customers later on, or for yourself.

Each product is equipped with a detailed card, explaining the features and the prices.

If you're fond of some products on AliExpress, all you need to do is to add them to your cart and make payment.

All kinds of electronic payments such as credit cards and Paypal are supported in AliExpress. But Alipay is the preferred one for it is owned by Alibaba too.

Who Uses It?

AliExpress was originally aimed at entrepreneurial audience when it was first launched.

Seeing the potential in opening to a larger audience, it has changed its target and is now open to all who are looking for specific products with specific features at affordable and accessible prices.

Who Are the Suppliers?

The sellers on AliExpress can be manufacturers, retailers and big companies. You can purchase products from any of them when browsing the site.

There can be differences depending on who you're buying from. Buying things from manufacturer can of course be cheaper than buying from a retailer or a reseller.

The big companies can be considered more reliable while retailers tend to be more focused on some particular products.

Why It is Cheap in AliExpress?

If you're browsing the products on AliExpress, you'll probably find out that many of the prices are relatively low. There are few reasons why it happens.

The first reason could be that you're buying directly from manufacturers.

The manufacturing market in China being huge, costs for production are much lower than in other countries.

Some factories sell their products directly to customers through AliExpress, and it is an opportunity for these factories to gain exposure.

Another way to see this, is to consider AliExpress as the middleman between those factories and the buyers.

Those factories may produce a big variety of products, or just started to produce a new specific one, then try to make their products known via AliExpress.

On some level, it is also possible to find counterfeit or fraudulent products.

AliExpress is working hard to clean the platform and make sure that all the products sold are legal, but in the same way that you may find fakes on Amazon or eBay, all you have to do is be careful and make sure to look for safe businesses enrolled in buyer protection.

Is AliExpress Reliable?

Because of the cheap prices and the mainstream idea of the low quality of the products made in China, you are probably wondering how reliable AliExpress can be. It is a problem worth discussing.

As a matter of fact, the manufacturer mentioned above not only creates products at a low price but also produces expensive things like digital products or luxury ones.

Buying things from manufacturers doesn't mean you are buying poor-quality products.

Instead, all AliExpress does is to cut the intermediate process and directly transports the product from the manufacturer to you. The quality of your products can be just good as expensive ones.

Since AliExpress mainly serves as a showcase for factories and manufacturers, you can find reliable suppliers on it.

However, the risk exists. It is not rare to receive products that are entirely different from what is posted on the site.

If electronics and digital products are selling at a very cheap price, they're most likely to be fake.

Does it mean it is unsafe to buy on AliExpress? Absolutely not. AliExpress has a buyer protection program that protects the rights of the customers.

It provides customers with complete refund on products that are damaged, late, or not as stated in the listing.

Indeed, buying from AliExpress is safer than buying from other ecommerce platforms for its protection program. As long as you place your order directly through AliExpress, you are protected no matter what you buy on the website.

AliExpress and Dropshipping

Being a general website where you can find all kinds of products, AliExpress is often used by dropshippers to refill their stores' inventory and ship the goods to their final customers.

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To save up time and energy, various applications have been developed. Apps like DSers can help dropshippers find quality products and reliable suppliers from AliExpress to sell.

As AliExpress official partner, it can also help dropshippers place their orders efficiently.

Conclusion

As a platform that does online business, AliExpress is surely a powerful enterprise in the ecommerce world.

Though there are many competitors, it is still growing rapidly. People from all around the world are using it to run their businesses.

Most of the products in AliExpress are cheap as you're directly buying from the manufacturers.

Small advice: pay attention to the detail page and read reviews or post pictures about the products.

This will help you in avoiding potential issues and make sure of the quality of the product.

The biggest concern for most people is: is it reliable to use? This article gives the answer. AliExpress is safe to use and is a strong tool for people who are doing online businesses.

The AliExpress buyer protection program does everything possible to keep the website safe from scammers.

Other than doing retailing and wholesaling businesses, people are using it to do dropshipping business. It is now one of the biggest platforms where dropshippers import their products from.

We hope that this article will help you better understand the AliExpress platform and how you can potentially benefit from using it!