Best AliExpress Stores

AliExpress (part of Alibaba Group) is a Chinese online marketplace with more than 200 thousand sellers offering low prices and a great variety of products. China is known as "The World's Factory," but beware of counterfeit items. Buying from AliExpress is generally safe unless you buy from sellers with low feedback. It is possible to save even more money while shopping on AliExpress by using coupons, flash deals, and joining shopping sales. Despite negative perceptions of made in China products, some Chinese brands like Xiaomi, Huawei, and Lenovo are getting global recognition for their high quality and affordability.

The best AliExpress shops are listed below:

Women's Clothing on AliExpress

Men's Clothing on AliExpress

Bags, Shoes & Accessories

Children's clothes, shoes, babywear, and toys

Smartphones, tablets, laptops and other electronic devices

Lenovo smartphones and laptops, Samsung smartphones, iPhones, and a small selection of iPads are also available at AliExpress stores.

Home & Kitchen Products

Health & Beauty Products on AliExpress

Jewelry for Women

Sporting Goods, Fishing & Outdoor Gear

Miscellaneous Goods on AliExpress

What is AliExpress?

Chances are, you’ve heard of AliExpress. The shopping platform is a massive success, generating almost 40 billion dollars of revenue in 2018 by July. In many regions, like Russia and Latin America, AliExpress dominates over US-based Amazon. According to MakeUseOf.com, AliExpress overtook Wal-Mart in April 2016 to become the largest retailer in the world. But what exactly is AliExpress, and how can you harness this incredible tool for yourself while avoiding common pitfalls like losing money or buying fake products? Read on to discover your guide to buying from AliExpress.

AliExpress is the retail side of China’s wholesale giant, Alibaba. It is a digital platform that features a wide range of goods from women’s clothing to pet toys, men’s sunglasses to genuine leather bags. People are able to buy goods in small or large quantities, but there is an emphasis on single-sale goods.

However, it’s important to understand that when you purchase from AliExpress, you’re not buying a good from AliExpress itself. Instead, AliExpress is a dense network comprised of thousands of different sellers, each of whom has different rules, shipping policies, and quality control checks. Some people compare the site’s structure to eBay.

This knowledge is important for a couple reasons. First, it means that although AliExpress offers some buyer protection, AliExpress does not always have full say over refund policies.

Second, the sellers you’re purchasing from don’t always manufacture the item they’re selling. Despite the low prices, you might be getting the item second- or even third-hand.

How to shop on AliExpress

As people catch on to the great deals offered by AliExpress, many of them are turning to drop-shipping to make a profit. Drop-shipping refers to the practice of sellers not handling, touching, stocking, or interacting with inventory. Instead, a customer places an order through the drop-shipper’s website. The drop-shipper then places the order for the item through AliExpress, netting the cash difference. The formula is simple, effective, and mutually beneficial - drop-shippers make a profit while having low overhead and avoiding physical inventories, while the AliExpress sellers essentially get free advertising for their product.

However, with so many sellers competing with one another, AliExpress can be difficult for the average buyer or drop-shipper to navigate safely, particularly if your first language is English. Much of the written text on seller listings can be difficult to understand.

So, what should you look for when deciding whether or not to purchase an item, or when choosing a specific store as your drop-shipping pipeline?

After you narrow your search down to items you’re interested in, or after you have selected a niche, there are a few key things to watch out for to ensure you’ll get the best service possible.

Top Brand

If you’re a beginner shopper on AliExpress, it might be helpful to look for a small golden medal icon, or the words “Top Brand.” AliExpress instituted the top brand program to identify highly-rated stores and sellers who sell items they have manufactured. According to AliExpress, “when you’re shopping at [a top brand store], you’re either buying from the brand itself, or from an authorized reseller.” The website goes on to explain that top brands have better warranties and higher ratings – and provide you with a window into China’s hottest new official products, which might be quick to catch on elsewhere. Buying from a top brand also means that you’re getting the product from its source, or close to it, meaning that returns (if necessary) might go more smoothly.

Review Count

Not to be alarmist, but most ecommerce specialists, drop-shippers, and online sellers know that reviews can be faked. However, faking reviews often costs sellers money, either by paying people to write fake reviews, or giving away their product for free.

If a product has hundreds or thousands of reviews, it’s less likely that all of those reviews are fake. It’s important that you use review count to get a clearer idea of how often the product sells.

TIP: You can access the reviews by clicking the Feedback tab on an individual product listing.

Reviews with Pictures

It’s even harder to fake pictorial reviews. When you look under Feedback, there’s a small checkbox to select Reviews with Pictures. Products with plenty of pictorial reviews are very likely to be genuine.

It’s also important to look through several pictures to get an idea of how your consumers will see the product. How does it look around their wrist, in their home, or in their hand? You might want to adjust your own prices accordingly to account for quality – or go with a different product altogether.

TIP: Don’t be discouraged by one or two pictures of broken items if they’re surrounded by a sea of positive reviews. Shipping accidents happen to the best of sellers.

Star Rating

The star rating is where customers rate their experience with their sellers. 5 stars are the best; 1 star is the worst. Looking at all the star ratings can give you an overall feel for how customers experience this seller, which provides a solid model for how your experience with the seller will go.

Typically, you’ll want to work with sellers with a rating of 4.8 and above. There are bound to be bad reviews on any product if it sells enough, and a 5-star rating with thousands of reviews is almost unheard of. However, 4.7 – 5 stars is a fairly safe range to find reliable sellers.

Detailed Seller Feedback

As of 2018, you can find detailed seller feedback by scrolling down and hovering over “detailed seller feedback” on the left in a small box that says, “Sold by.” Here, AliExpress gives you an individual star-rating breakdown for “Item as Described,” “Communication,” and “Shipping Speed,” as well as a percentage of positive feedback. In this case, positive feedback that falls between 96% and 100% can be considered reliable to depend on.

You’ll also want to take a closer look at the star rating for each category under the details, as each star rating is given an “average,” “above average,” or “below average” rating as compared to other stores. For example, a store might have slow shipping times and great communication, or its items may not be as described but they ship quickly. It’s good to pay attention to these metrics to get an idea of what your experience might be like.

Other Tips

• Make sure AliExpress has your back in the case of an unsatisfactory product. Only pay via Escrow, Alipay, or Card (not bank transfer).
• Never mark your order as complete until you receive, inspect, or use the product, or your customer receives it.
• If there are any problems, open a dispute with the seller. Most sellers do not want AliExpress to get involved and will work with you to reach an agreement.

Conclusion

AliExpress is a great tool for burgeoning entrepreneurs to harness and create their own business. Using the tips outlined above, you should have a safe and effective shopping experience. Good luck!

This article is also available in other languages: Arabic, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazilian), French, German, Vietnamese, Japanese, Indonesian, Thai.

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