Aliexpress was founded in 2010 by the Alibaba Group to enable Chinese companies and individuals to sell internationally.
The most similar site to Aliexpress is certainly eBay, both in terms of product range and product origin (it is estimated that around 70% of goods on eBay originate from China, Hong Kong or Taiwan).
The most significant difference for the customer is that you cannot pay with Paypal on Aliexpress (except in some exceptional cases).
In the meantime, it has become one of the most popular e-commerce sites in the world.
Aliexpress is the brainchild of Jack Ma, a former English teacher who founded Alibaba Group.
Headquartered in Hangzhou, Alibaba Group, which owns Aliexpress, is a huge Chinese e-commerce company that was already a leader in its domestic B2C market with platform Taobao.
Aliexpress as a B2C e-commerce website is facing the rest of the planet and provides an opportunity for Chinese individuals and companies to sell their products directly to foreign consumers.
Buyers and sellers on Aliexpress
If you are interested in cheap buying of piece goods, you are in the right place.
Many consumers from different countries visit the site. Brazil and Russia have the largest share of the number of visits to this site, and Russia is probably the country with the largest number of customers on a monthly basis.
Even poor countries and regions like Africa also visit this site to buy goods. Why, because it's cheap, very cheap.
Sellers on Aliexpress are either companies or individuals who sell goods to international customers.
Although Aliexpress is a Chinese site, it is interesting that Chinese citizens cannot buy products directly from it.
Instead, domestic Chinese citizens must shop on a completely separate marketplace (Taobao).
Also, Aliexpress does not allow non-Chinese individuals or companies to open stores on the site.
All Aliexpress sellers are located in China and each has a unique Aliexpress store number.
Unlike Alibaba.com, there is very little information available about the stores and how they are verified.
Aliexpress, however, has implemented a store rating system.
That's why when you buy from Aliexpress, pay attention to the seller's rating.
Aliexpress urges its customers to make payments to sellers only through their platform in order to offer a higher level of customer protection.
If you are not satisfied with the product, service, etc. although you can request a refund, the process can be complicated.
In terms of sales, Aliexpress is highly ranked.
Revenues are in the millions of dollars.
The day of the year that is particularly popular on the site is 11.11. It's China's version of Black Friday.
Of course, the Black Friday that is expected every year on other e-commerce sites, such as eBay, Amazon and others, also brings a lot of revenue to Aliexpress, because Chinese sellers also use this day to offer their goods at a discount - sometimes with huge discounts.
Today, the use of the Internet is increasing every day, and more and more consumers are shopping online thanks to Aliexpress at very favorable prices.
With China's role as the "factory of the world" firmly established, Aliexpress focuses on helping consumers buy directly from the source at very affordable prices.
Aliexpress certainly benefits from the ever-growing Chinese manufacturers being able to market their products directly worldwide.
Statistics
According to data from 2018, Aliexpress has 150 million registered users, the site has over 200 million monthly visits from 230 different regions and countries.
Most from Russia, 15.9 million users and 12 million from Brazil (data from 2014)
60,000 is the number of packages that Aliexpress sent to Russia in 2013 on a daily basis!
Average price per package sent for Russia is 25$.
Currently the site is available in 18 different languages.
All this is thanks to the well organized system support provided by AliExpress.
Who is the target audience
While Alibaba is for wholesale, on Aliexpress you can buy individual small quantities as an individual.
As a result, on Aliexpress you can buy products "as is" from sellers in China and make purchases directly from them platform.
So everything is bought and sold exactly as shown on the product page and the product cannot be customized to your needs or requirements.
Before any online purchase, we advise you to familiarize yourself with protection systems on Aliexpress .
Although prices on Aliexpress are low compared to the rest of the world, they will almost always be higher than if you were to buy a larger quantity from a supplier located on Alibaba.
In addition, you cannot ask for a free sample on Aliexpress if you want to test the quality of the product before purchasing.
It is essential to recognize that nearly all products purchased on AliExpress are shipped from China. This means that delivery can take days, weeks, or even months, depending on your location.
