Alibaba, or as the site is now known, AliExpress, is the largest e-commerce store in Asia and has been steadily taking on the shopping giant Amazon. The number of active shoppers using the site in 2017 was a whopping 470 million. Up from 198 million in 2013, this staggering growth is a testament to how popular AliExpress has become.
And, while the lion’s share of users is in China, India rates in the top three when it comes to the number of users with 6% overall. So, clearly, AliExpress has been making waves in India as well. Can the site take on the big guns? Amazon is a good option for those living in the United Kingdom or the United States for the most part. Those living outside these countries have a very significant disadvantage when it comes to Amazon, though – shipping costs are high.
Sometimes, the shipping costs vastly exceed the cost of the item itself. It is in situations like this that AliExpress usually has a significant advantage. With a lot of the sellers on the site being based in China, and having their shipping costs subsidized, shipping is very reasonable, if charged at all.
The average price of items tends to work out a lot better than on Amazon as well, as the sellers offer very competitive pricing. And they do offer a range of AliExpress coupons and deals. So, you get a massive range of products and some excellent savings at the same time. It is a great deal, but is there a catch?
There is one slight snag with this site. When you are paying a fraction of the cost of shipping or being offered free shipping, you cannot really expect your items to arrive in record time. Depending on where you are based globally, there might be substantial delays. So, you do have to factor that into the equation when considering what purchases you are making. Despite the potential for delays, the site is still very attractive for online shoppers.
The site is well designed and extremely user-friendly. You can tailor your search by category, by price, by how new the listing is, whether or not free shipping is offered, etc. This makes it extremely easy to find exactly what you are looking for.
Found an item and want to make sure that you get the very best price? Simply take a screenshot of the photo, and run an image search – the site will be able to search through and bring up any other similar products. From there you can filter the options to find the best price, if any sellers offer free shipping, etc. And I do recommend checking this out – sellers can offer goods at very different pricing. Some charge less for the item but add on a shipping charge, so do watch that carefully as well. Overall, though, if you want a good deal online, and you want to save on shipping, check out the site. Just be warned, you are going to see a lot of things that you will want.
