Aliexpress.com is just like another eBay, while it differs from the latter mainly in business types. Aliexpress focus on wholesale business and their customers are Chinese suppliers and resellers who shop there for their business. At the same time, some end consumers also choose to purchase things for their personal use as the required MOQ is as low as one piece only for a single order. Anyway, small and medium-sized businesses are the very back bone of Aliexpress.com and retail business is just an add-on there. You know, eBay.com is a retail trading platform and buyers are mostly consumers. Actually, many resellers at eBay.com source products from Aliexpress.com for their inventories. Here is how Aliexpress stacks up against eBay:
As compared to eBay.com, Aliexpress.com has the following advantages:
Much lower wholesale prices. The sellers doing business at Aliexpress.com are mainly manufacturers or wholesalers. Shopping directly with them means you can cut the middle-men as much as possible to enjoy the best prices. Many wholesale distributors there accept retail orders or orders in small wholesale quantities so that you can shop more flexibly. Even as a reseller you don’t have to put a big investment into your business for the stocking up part. You can try different products in small quantities to see which sell well and then source more for the better selling ones. However, most of the sellers at ebay.com serve end consumers and do retail business instead of wholesale business. Their products are sourced from wholesalers and they have to put a higher price tag in order to ensure the profit margin.
Wider selection of products. Aliexpress.com is much more impressive than eBay.com in terms of product range and total quantity of each category. As one of the biggest online wholesale shopping marketplaces, Aliexpress.com carries products for almost all fields related to our life. Each category or sub-category has thousands of even tens of thousands products or styles to choose from. What buyers only need is patience. As long as you spend enough time searching their catalogs, you will exactly what you want there.
Aliexpress product directory
More extensive access. Aliexpress.com is accessible to any country or region around the world, but Ebay is blocked by some countries or regions. For instance, Russian buyers are not allowed to shop with Ebay.com but they can use Aliexpress.com freely. In recent years, buyers from Russia rise sharply in quantity among Chinese shopping sites and Aliexpress’ Russian buyers have become one of their major customer sources.
However, the weak points of Aliexpress.com seem even more than those of eBay.com:
Weaker credibility. As a Chinese brand belonging to Alibaba Group, Aliexpress.com is still quite young – the site went live officially in 2010. At the same time, Chinese shopping sites have not build a strong name yet on the global market. On the contrary, eBay.com is very popular among global shoppers and it is an extensively trusted name in the arena of e-commerce. They are very strict when it comes to verifying sellers and products. For this reason, the quality standards of their sellers are better guaranteed and you have much less possibility to encounter scammers or fakes there.
More disputes. Being a new site into the business for just a few years, Aliexpress (read the detailed review) still has much to improve on their services. The policies or regulations of the site are not good enough to effectively minimize disputes. Likewise, when disputes happen, they are not able to solve them so efficiently. As a consequence, they are complained either by sellers or by buyers after they rule a case. You know, they have to support one side in order to solve the problem. Unlike Aliexpress.com, eBay.com is doing much better in inspection on seller qualifications and certifications as well as product management. Their dispute rate is much less.
Longer shipping time. Most of the Aliexpress sellers ship orders from the mainland China. It takes longer for them to deliver the goods to destinations around the globe. Differently, the majority of eBay sellers are based in Hong Kong, Europe or America and they can have their orders delivered much faster to their European or American customers.
I have shopped on both websites for many years, and experience is the same. On Aliexpress am currently an A3 member and on eBay I am almost a 1000 points feedback score member. however I had to switch completely to Aliexpress because eBay blocked access from the region I relocated to (Lagos Nigeria). now happily buy from Aliexpress.
HI
In my life first time i order from china from aliexpress a electric part. Because they have cheap electronic parts. But i wait for 60 to 70 day for my order. But i don’t get order after that seller refund me but there is lot of waiting.
after 4 month again i order from china but from ebay.com and happily got the product in 15 to 20 days . And happy
I am not saying aliexpress is bad and ebay is good just i am sharing experience..
Rating:-
ebay *****
Aliexpress ****
I have had some experience on Ebay, both buying and selling, only ran into one issue (so far) where i was charged more on shipping than i was reimbursed for ( as the seller, charged $11.25 to ship an item, from paypal, reimbursed for $5.20). other than that, no real issues, at least not from Ebay itself (been scammed by the USPS more than once though!)
AliExpress, havent bought anything from them yet, have shopped there, but ended up found the same item Cheaper on Ebay, in a few cases, even from a US Reseller. So far, haven’t found anything that was a better deal on AliExpress.
Also, OP, I think you may have somewhat confused AliExpress with its older sibling, Alibaba.
Alibaba is the site mainly geared towards resellers, while AliExpress is closer to the consumer end. However, unless you are a business (and have a Tax ID to prove it! ), and can buy in bulk (all items have a minimum order), you are better off with aliexpress.
Express I found isnt usually as big a bargain as the main site, but its good for “sample Purchases” , due to the ability to buy just one of something.
Ebay- you get scammed and have to return counterfeit item to seller, IF The seller accept return via “Return policy” in his “Listing” , PAY FOR THE SHIPPING, And eventually get the the refund when he wants you to get it.
Aliexpress- You get scammed and get 3 TIMES REFUND (REFUND X 3) for the counterfeit item, and can keep it to yourself.
IN BOTH CASES, JOSHUA YEOH, YOU SHOULD PROVE YOUR CASE TO GET SERIOUS TREATMENT.
I tried to buy thing from Aliexpress. I found I was cheated and bought the thing that I did not even want at all!
Order No: 68959131951647
Dispute Case: 4012012214
Months has passed! Seller promised to refund money from day 1 until now, I still could not receive my money yet!
I put it into escalate Dispute. Again, after more than 1 month, my problem still could not be solved!
Bad Experience!
We are more familiar with EBAY, but found I could buy the same item, from the same dealer, directly in China, for a little less. Luckily, I found a jewelry Co. that I have confidence in and answers my questions. One thing, if they are going to SELL WORLDWIDE, THEN DO SO WITH THE SAME STANDARDS. An AAAA gem in China, does not have the same meaning as the rest of the world, as I ordered an AAAA and it was very pale color. In the USA AAAA would be a much darker stone. Tanzanite is very popular in China, but Not the Rest of the World. I do have one Tanzanite, advertised as AAAA but it is very pale and not what I had expected. so I may switch to a sapphire instead. Yes, I have been scammed, luckily not for an expensive item, sometimes I get a return money, and sometimes I just chalk it up to stupidity and never go near that dealer again.
Aliexpress:
Many scammers sellers.
Ebay:
Good sellers, greater confidence.