Is It Safe To Buy From AliExpress?

Everybody loves to shop, especially when one is sitting in the comfort of their homes. Since the advent of E-commerce, the shopping experience of the individual has been revolutionised, from pin to a plane, everything is available online. You can be sitting in any corner of the world and may want to buy a product, just click on the product and it will be delivered to your doorstep. The E-Commerce giants have influenced the lives of the people over the years and will continue to do so. They have become an inseparable part of an individual’s life. The E-Commerce companies have brought the entire shopping mall on your computers and mobile phones.

One of these E-Commerce giants is a China based multibillion dollar company, AliExpress, which is a subsidiary of Alibaba group and provides online retail services to the International Markets. It was launched in 2010 and has grown by leaps and bounds since then. It has been giving tough competition to other well established E-Commerce giants such as ebay and Amazon.

Buying a product from an international seller has always been seen with doubt. Potential online buyers generally have a lot of skepticism in form of questions, such as; will it be safe to buy from a seller who is not situated in my country? Will the product reach me? What if the product turns out to be a counterfeit? Similarly, people planning to buy from AliExpress have always had a fair share of these questions especially since it is a Chinese company and internet is filled stories of counterfeiting happening on a huge scale in China.

There are certain things that make AliExpress different from the flock of other E-Commerce Companies selling products globally.

1. Buyer Protection Policy- AliExpress is only one of few sites that provide buyer protection policy to its users. In factbuyer protection policy is one of the USPs of the AliExpress Website. According to the official website of the Company, it has been has been offering two types of guarantees to its buyers

1. Refund- If the buyer has not received the ordered item or if the product received is different from what’s mentioned in the description, the product gets liable to be refunded.

2. On Time Delivery- AliExpress also guarantees the on time delivery of the product by a pre set date at the time of placing order.

Besides above two guarantees, AliExpress, in certain countries is offering extra warranty up to a year on a mobile phone as it is having tie ups with local warranty service providers.

2. Customer Support- AliExpress provides a dedicated customer support team on 24 X 7 basis. Its customer support executives speak English, Russian and Spanish and are available on timely basis to resolve the queries of its customers. Moreover, AliExpress is available in multiple language sites, so that buyers from different countries have a hassel free experience.

3. Quality of products– There is a general stereotype of low quality of Chinese products due to their cheap price tag. This is completely untrue. AliExpress ensures that the products available on their website are of a certain quality and meet the desired standards.

4. Seller Ratings- AliExpress has been known to review the sellers on monthly basis and keep on rating them on the basis of number of factors such as years of service the seller has been active on the website, number of products sold by the seller and feedback provided by the customers. Based on these factors, AliExpress, rates the seller and generally the sellers with impeccable records on above three factors are titled “Top Rated”.

5. Secure payment gateway- AliExpress  uses trusted and secure payment gateway system which ensures that the customer’s credentials are safe and secure.

6. Economically priced products- Since manufacturers are directly selling the products on the website; therefore, it reduces the cost by huge margins which is a huge benefit for the buyer.

7. Shipping Charges– Majority of E-Commerce companies have been charging huge amounts for shipping orders internationally but AliExpress has relative economical pricing as far as shipping is concerned.

8. Customer Feedback– Plenty of reviews of the customers from Ali Express are available online and they offer a mixed bag of opinions, some are extremely positive while others are not. But majority of the customers seems to have been satisfied, although, the author has not been able to individually verify them.

Based on the above facts, it surely seems like AliExpress is a one stop solution to all your customer need, but buyers must take necessary due diligence while buying from E-Commerce websites which are not located in their countries.

1. There have been instances where the customers have directly paid to the seller’s account on the request of seller and the seller has turned out to be fraud. So, it is advisable to refrain from such payments. Moreover, as payment will be done outside the ambit of E-commerce website, it will not be covered under buyer protection.

2. It is better to confirm the delivery after receiving the products and checking them thoroughly to ensure that the product matches its description.

3. Always buy from a seller who has been selling from quite some time and has positive feedback from customers as well as from the website.

4. Always be aware if the item is available for an unbelievable low price, it likely to be a fraud.

5. As the products sold, come from a different country, one should be aware of the custom duties that may be imposed on the product. Duty rates vary sharply depending from country to country, so do consider the final price after adding custom duties before ordering a product.

6. It is also advisable to avoid free shipping for items which are expensive and fragile. You may save a few bucks of shipping costs but may find your item broken.

I have made a plenty of purchases from AliExpress and haven’t regretted it even once. If one takes care of the above points and exercises caution, it is very unlikely that you will get cheated and will definitely have a seamless shopping experience.